Stopped by my local Costco tonight for a fitting adjustment and noticed they were now promoting four hearing aids in the front display case rather than three (along with new signage).
My Costco is one of the test sites for the Sennheiser Sonite R, and had previously removed the Rexton Reach option last November.
Now, the Rexton Reach is back along with the Sennheiser Sonite R, Jabra, and Phillips models. My Costco hearing specialist confirmed the change as recent and said the store would once again start selling the Rexton Reach (which I own and love).
Not sure what is going on and how this change will affect other Costco locations.
Perhaps this is true at the chain level, but the individual Costco stores chosen as test sites for the Sennheiser Sonite R models were forced to drop the Rexton Reach in November from both their inventory and displays.
I know because I wanted to buy the Rexton Reach at my local Costco store in December, but they were no longer allowed to demo, show, or sell that model.
They directed me to another Costco store in the region that was not a Sennheiser test site where I was able to purchase the Rexton Reach.
Interesting! Thanks for the information. If you get a chance to ask the Costco people I’d be curious how they feel about the Sennheisers. Thanks again!
I did ask about the Sennheiser model and the feedback was not positive.
The technicians said sales were very slow as was the overall customer adoption rate for that model.
Although I was pleased to see the Rexton Reach was once again available at the Costco Sennheiser test location, it was odd seeing a Costco store showing four models rather than three.
I was left to wonder if the Sennheiser Sonite R will eventually be removed as an offering at the end of the test period.
Thank you very much. If that feedback is widespread it seems unlikely that Sennheiser will be adopted. Speculation on Costco hearing aids is like reading tea leaves, but the restoration of the Rextons could be a hint that they will not continue with Sennheiser. PURELY speculative though.
Actually that Sennheiser model is a Lumity, my guess is they will stick with sonova products, I’m not surprised the units aren’t moving quickly, very limited trial in a short amount of time, now watch them fly out the door once they stamp “Phonak” on the casing!
Yeah I was surprised when I first heard about this “Trial” why Sennheiser is beyond me, and using old stock up against premium late models from the others in store is a bad marketing move, maybe they were just testing the brand name “Sennheiser” for future events?
I currently have the Sennheisers and like them. I wish that Costco would have just offered Phonaks but honestly these sound the same.
I may be wrong, but it seems like when I purchased my original Brios from Costco that they offered four different brands. Does anyone else remember this?
I have my Sennheiser Sonite R for a month now, had to drive 1 hour north to Coral Springs, Fl. Costco as this was the only store that had them in South Florida. So far I like them plenty, my previous HA’s KS 9.0 were acting up so I sent them in for warranty. While waiting for the KS 9.0 to come back I purchased the Philips 9050 but returned them after receiving my KS 9.0 back, the KS 9.0 work perfectly with my Samsung S22 Ultra android & after warranty work they were like brand new. When I read the Sonite R were a Phonak device just like the KS 9.0 I decided to purchase them and keep the KS 9.0 as a backup. So far so good.
Actually I thought hearingtracker had done a little comparison a while back, seems very close in those spec’s, I still don’t understand the reasoning behind using Sennheiser at Costco, they should keep Sennheiser for OTC only and use a known rebranding for Costco.
There’s always a notable amount of conjecture about what aid is similar to another aid. Everything I’ve heard suggests that the current aid is similar to Lumity (including discussions with Costco staff) No “proof” however.
Seems like all the major hearing aid manufacturers that have a Costco presence did not want their top line aids associated with Costco by name. Resound switched to Jabra (which also has an OTC line). Demant decided to use the Phillips brand. Widex/Sivantos has stuck with Rexton but that was never Sivantos top brand. Sonova choosing Sennheiser makes sense to keep the audiologists that sell Phonak somewhat appeased.
Like with everything at costco it depends on who offers them the best deal. Products disappear from their shelves all the time, sometimes to come back later when a deal is reached. Very frustrating for consumers.