Ebay Experiences

Hearing Aids
#21

I sure have not heard of this scam. There always seems to be a few that mess things up for the majority. This scam can go both ways but you are right about eBay/PayPal siding with the buyer usually. I personally have had eBay support a crooked buyer, I was thrown under the bus.

So……on important or expensive items it’s best to do a lot of communication with the seller before making a payment. Get a good feeling before extending yourself.

I bought around 10-12 sets of aids off eBay over the years. Not a one was a dud. All great transactions.

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#22

Mr Smith, I’d like to find out more about offerup, as you were talking about.
Do you think its safer than ebay? Could the same thing happen that you talked about at ebay?

What questions should be asked if a seller on offerup has a deal that sounds too good to be true?

I ask, because there is a seller there who has a terrific deal, but I can’t decide to pursue it.
She said her grandmother bought them, but decided she could not wear them, yet they are listed as new.
I think there is something too fishy about this. What do you think?

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#23

All of my purchases from offerup have been in person. I live in the coastal Los Angeles area and the sellers have always been within an hours drive from me so much less risk of issues.
I think the sellers may think of those aids as new because g-ma probably didn’t wear them much. I would email the seller and try to get some clarification along with some additional pictures and see what kind of reply you get and go from there as to how it feels to you. There is obvious risk although the sellers do have ratings that can give some insight into how other buyer purchases went. If shipping is involved I would maybe ask for the package to require a signature at delivery if that option works for you and you can be around to sign.
Go to the their site and in the terms, there is a Purchase Protection guarantee that they offer if payment is made directly through offerup.
The deals on aids are incredible since the sellers don’t seem to know the value of high end aids and seem glad to sell at such discounted prices while on ebay the sellers all seem to know the going price or let bidding set the price and lots of used aid buyers only think ebay.
Good luck and best wishes with your decision.

#24

I agree. I have purchased many items on ebay and never have been scammed. I have had a few disappointing purchases but never completely ripped off or scammed.
I bought my Noahlink, TV Streamer, and Phone Clip all on ebay and got all for super low prices and all work great, I save hundreds.
I still use ebay a few times a month and didn’t mean to imply that I was negative on ebay.

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#25

My story is that I got a recommendation from Dr Cliffs site on a local Audi. He wanted 5k for the more1. It turns out that he didn’t do IEM. So I bolted. I did try the more 1s and liked them though. I got them cheaper from yes hearing but the tech didn’t fit it well for me so I bolted again. They wanted 3950.

I struck up a friendship with this eBay sales person in Germany. He took 2.4k. His fitting was far superior. No contest. Not only did he hit targets, but he made the sound come out in such a way that I could really like it. I’ma discriminating musician. He knew how to fit musicians from his experience. He and I have become friends and I trust him completely. I saved 3k and got a better fitting and a friend. Win win.

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#26

It’s actually “win win win” (3 wins, not just 2 wins)! Glad to hear success stories like this. And thank you for sharing your experience with us!

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#27

How did he remotely hit targets?

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#28

Good question. I had accurate Audiograms sent to him. The one that Yes Hearing took.

#29

Most new aids offer remote programming so one can sit at home and receive almost every adjustment remotely.

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#30

They do. The omission being verification.

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#31

Yes, the More 1s do. Yes.

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#32

Yet most are still in-person only for firmware upgrades, it seems to me.

WH

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#33

Im curious of what verification you are referring to? REM? Everyone I know that wears aids never seems content with only the REM adjustments. The only real verification in my opinion is how they preform for the actual user. Sure REM is helpful but hardly the end all to having need further adjustments.

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#34

I have a NoahLink Wireless. And in the Oticon windows software is a setting that checks for firmware upgrades. I can upgrade the HAs myself therefore. So, when 1.4.0 comes out? I’m on it.

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#35

It’s always true that unless you get face to face service with the HCP, REM is not going to be possible. A DIY person can’t afford to buy REM equipment just for personal use anyay. But if someone is a stickler for REM, one can always find a local HCP who would agree to do REM on a not-locally-bought HAs for a fee.

REM does give you a good starting point to know if the HAs’ performance is up to the target performance or not. But it’s not the end of the world if REM is not done. For starter, if REM verifies that the HAs perform close enough to target and little adjustment is needed, then IN THIS CASE, if you didn’t have REM, it’s not sorely missed IN HIND SIGHT since little adjustment is needed.

But if the HAs don’t perform close enough to target, without REM, it’s true that you don’t know right off hand. But that’s just an initial reference point to start out with (to be on the right foot). Even if you don’t have REM to tell you that your HAs don’t perform to target right up front, you still have your ears to tell you that, because you most likely sooner or later are not going to be happy with the performance of the HAs. So you’re going to work with your remote HCP, or in the case of a DIY person, you’re going to start tinkering with the Fine Tuning section, to make adjustments to get to a point where you’re happy with the result.

So no REM is not the end of the world. If the remote HCP is competent enough, they can overcome the lack of REM (not by choice but only because they subscribe to the remote sale model) and compensate for it in their adjustments for you. Same with a competent DIY person. Yeah, the journey to get there may be harder and longer without REM, but it’s not impossible. And in my personal opinion, it’s still a good compromise to forgo REM and compensate for it later so that you can save a lot of money by buying remotely.

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#36

With that you are set up equivalent to what most people have to see their HCP to receive. Whether they use that software remotely to make tweaks or in person. Most don’t have that. Thus, “In person.”

WH

#37

I can only relate my own experience.

P90s from a UK chain that doesn’t have REM kit but does use the in-situ feature in Target (which doesn’t work remotely (yet)). Made some subsequent changes to match the estimated curve to the prescribed curve.

Fair result but not a massive leap forwards.

I have now paid a private provider for a new test, program and verify. He used live speech mapping and was extremely careful to set up and use the REM kit properly. So he sees how calibrated speech goes in via the aid mics and arrives close to the eardrum.

There were large differences in the real measured output vs the prescribed output. Areas over amped and areas under. Turns out I need moulds to hit the target too unless overdriven vs the feedback limit. As I suspected.

Pending the moulds, the biggest difference immediately to me is clarity of TV dialogue and speed and effort of understanding in cafes etc.

The difference is at least as much as the P90 as set by the chain vs my old aids.

I suppose trial and error might have arrived at the same place. I have no idea. Worth the £150 to me anyway.

Too many providers relying on ‘pick a dome from this selection pack’ too IMO.

Will be interesting to see the acrylic mould impact too when they arrive and are fitted and verified.

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#38

This takes me close to not needing the Roger On I was contemplating. Certainly I need it in less of the situations I’m commonly in.

Yes the verification is to NAL-NL2 which in itself is a ‘formula’ that isn’t based on my random head meat. You have to start somewhere and for me it seems to be a better somewhere than a random one.

I can see just how easy it would be to cock up the verification process in many way too……

#39

Sorry to post off the actual question, but eBay removed your negative post?!?! How naive I must be.

#40

I can tell you from personal experience how sensitive my eBay seller is to feedback. His feedback is perfect. However, he told me how upset he got when he got a negative feedback. The reason he got it was because of pandemic shipping times elongated the time it took for the customer to get their accessory. The customer never contacted him never communicated with him just left a negative comment. So, what happened was the buyer agreed to remove it and was also given a full refund. So sometimes, buyers will leverage negative comments to take advantage of sellers. That really stinks. I can tell you, for my part? The seller that I do business with is amazing and pristine in his dealings.

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