Has anyone here bought from a U.S. seller on eBay? I’m seeing Costco-like prices for brand new Oticon Real, Phonak Lumity, etc from US sellers with manufacturers’ warrantees. Legit?
If you are the first time wearing hearing aids, buy Costco is the best choice. 6 months trial period is a good offer. When you are familiar with HA’s then you move on to better & high tech HA’s. Thenhunt around eBay is good. You have to take risk. You must understand different technology and their warranties if available.
First of all, I wouldn’t buy from eBay until I’m a DIY person, Bill. You may be lucky if their initial programming works out for you, but 99% of the times, you’ll probably want to make further adjustments. It’s not anything different than with an HCP, except that now you’re going have to be your own HCP, unless they’re willing to do remote care with you. Even if you can get remote care sessions going on, you must realize and accept that REM is not going to be possible remotely. Not having REM is not the end of the world because as a DIY, you should be able to self adjust to your satisfaction, and in-situ audiometry can help, although it’s not a replacement for REM.
Secondly, I’d be leery about the full mfg warranty claim, just because it’s not something you can verify up front. Even if the warranty is legit and you have to send it back to them, who knows if they’re still going to be selling on eBay anymore a year or two or three from now.
I’ve seen a few threads on this forum whereby some posters swore by the eBay vendors that they found. It may be worthwhile to search for those threads and PM the posters and maybe get into contact with the vendors prior to the purchase to ask your questions.
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Communication with the seller is very important. You need to have a good feeling about the seller.
It’s also very important that you as a buyer are knowledgeable about what you are buying so you can ask the correct questions.
If these two things are done you should have good transactions on eBay or Amazon for example.
Many of us here on the forum have had great luck buying hearing aids off eBay. It’s not really luck but a skill that’s learned.
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Thank you for the advice, Volusiano. I would take the hearing aids to a local audiologist and pay for service out of pocket. I’m not really in the market for a new pair of HAs right now, but I’ve always thought that the best time to shop around is when you’re not in need. And I’m very impressed with some of the reports I’m reading about users’ results with the latest generation of technology. It has me curious.
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Thank you for your advice Raudrive. That’s exactly what I think I’ll do. If these are scams, I’d like to know. If they are legit, I’d like to know that too.
For sellers who claim that their aids do carry legit warranty, then I would ask them for the serial numbers of the aids they intend to send to me first so I can call the mfg myself to verify that these serial numbers are legit before I make the purchase, and only for the verified serial numbers only. Otherwise you may run into all kinds of non legit aids such as those reported stolen, for demos only, vet-issue only, or gray market serial numbers that have a different kind/span of warranty compared to the US warranty.
If you plan to bring the aids to a local HCP to program and service for you, make sure you find one ahead of time who is agreeable to do this before you’ve made your purchase already.
You can also ask the mfg how those aids would be accepted for warranty service, like only through your eBay merchant, or can be from any authorized HCP anywhere, or whether you can send them in directly yourself, etc.
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Great ideas! Thank you.
Unless you are going to do your own programming as many of us do, be aware that many audiologists can get pissy when asked to program aids purchased elsewhere. And they can charge whatever the traffic will bare.
I can honestly state that I have purchased all my hearing aids off Ebay and Craigslist very inexpensively, programed them myself, and after a bit of initial trial and error, am completely satisfied.
There will be an exception to this, because I have an appointment coming up later this month with the VA audiology center in San Francisco.
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Just for reference, two of the local NJ HCP’s which are associated with local hospital audiology groups charge about $800 for just a REM fitting plus 2 or 3 follow-up visits.
Yowzer!!
Another argument for OTC hearing aids.
Bill
I am sorry I didn’t see this sooner. I have a different experience. I went to a charlatan hearing guy who was on Dr. Cliff Olson’s site. Turns out he signed something to promise to do “Best Practices” but when it came to me, he said it wasn’t necessary. Then I went to an online seller who sends a practitioner to your home. The price for Oticon More 1s were like 1200 cheaper than the local audiologist.
I decided to take a chance with an eBay seller. I knew relatively nothing. I’ve known him for about a year and half, when he sent me my Mores. Since then, we have become very close friends. We both have babies and have a lot in common. He lives in Germany. We text to chat almost daily. Not only did he help me get the HAs, but he helped train me. I can update my own firmware and change out programs. He’s working on me to self-administer hearing tests but with a six month old, I have no brain left after work. LOL. Maybe I’ll get him to talk me through it on a WhatsApp call? LOL. At my suggestion (heavy pushing) he got certified by Oticon to do remote care. I told him it only made sense and that it would distance him from the other eBay sellers who are “one and done”. I do believe he does remote for other brands as well, if I recall. At this point we mostly talk about our children. LOL.
He’s reliable, knowledgable and great at communications. I happen to know the person who takes US returns, who sends the aids back to him. This guy has like two storefronts in Germany, and he’s good. He fixed a setting just for me because he’s had musicians before and he knows from experience that we don’t do feedback well. AT. ALL. This eBay guy set up the HAs for me better than the local Cliff Olson phony.
If you want his info, message me.
Best
Musician.
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I purchased a set of Siemens Pure 7 from Ebay from a gentleman that refurbishes them. He was from the UK and I’m in the USA. He adjusted them to match my most recent hearing test. They worked good enough to give me time to learn to program them myself and make some adjustments. I got them with the charger for 200 bucks. So as one person advised about buying your first set new, I didn’t see the point in buying new aids for about 2 or 3K when I could get a very nice set for a fraction of that. It depends on how much you want to do for yourself. If you are the type that likes it all done for you, then maybe it’s worth the extra cost. Also depends if you can get someone to cover the cost of the over-priced(in my opinion) new aids.
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I had a pair of reSound Omnia level 9 technology that were fir for me because my insurance was going to cover 80% of them. Then i got a bill for $5800 on top of the $1400 i had paid. I contacted insurance and they said they don’t cover hearing aids unless you’re under the age of 18. I contacted my audiologist and told him i was brining the hearing aids back.
I then went on Ebay and found a set of open box ReSound Omnia hearing aids with level 9 technology. I got them for $1800. I then found a pair of ReSound One demo hearing aids that i got a great deal on as a back up pair. I got a NoahLink witeless,the ReSound software from a gracious user in the Forum, input my audiogram and programmed them myself. I was actually able to make a copy of the settings on my original pair I returned but i liked what the ReSound program set up for me instead.
I think buying on Ebay is fine if you do your research and communicate. I was able to see that the receivers were 2’s lime i needed on the first pair bit the second paid i had to buy receiver’s because they had 3’s. I got the receivers on Ebay at a discount so i have the 3’s if needed in an emergency.
Good luck! You can find great deals on Ebay.
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Thank you, User 552!