Getting Jabra adjustments at Costco

Hearing Aids
#1

A few years ago my spouse went to a local audiologist because she had noticeable hearing loss in her right ear. I don’t know what they fitted her with, but she said the hearing aid sounded like “static”. She tends to make rash decisions on things like this and she immediately gave up on the idea of having a hearing aid without even attempting to let them adjust it.

We now have a neighbor that has significant hearing loss and she told my spouse that she used to go to Costco and never could get them right, so she finally went to Beltone and she had better results. She had used Costco back when the hearing aid brand was Kirkland which of course were made by a different company than the ones they sell now. So my wife tried Beltone and she tried them for a few minutes at his office and she thought they sounded great but of course the price is outrageous. She said she wanted to think about it and then the high pressure sales with daily calls from the Beltone audiologist started. Also, in the last few years her right ear had gotten worse and her left ear had started to degrade as well.

I came across this forum with lots of great information and told her about the Jabra models at Costco that are much cheaper and from everything I have read on here and elsewhere are identical in every way to the top ReSound and Beltone models. I even notice the pictures in their promotional literature are the same. So she gets an appointment and gets the Jabra ones from Costco. The specialist at Costco quickly fitted her and made an appointment for 3 weeks later for further adjustments. My spouse says that she once again experiences a static sound, mainly in the right ear (the one with the most significant hearing loss) and she is now saying she is going to return them and not even give the person at Costco a chance to adjust them.

I am hopeful that I can talk her in to at least letting them adjust the Jabra one time before she gives up. If I can, I was just wondering if this “static” sound is common and is it an easy fix/adjustment? I plan to go with my spouse on her next appointment to help encourage the technician to get the adjustment right and not rush her out that door as my wife often won’t speak up in situations like that. I appreciate any suggestions as this might be the last time she considers getting a HA.

#2

Yep definitely try and get her to allow for the adjustments, as she didn’t notice this issue with the Beltone ( exactly the same as Jabra and ReSound) I’m sure this can be sorted, you don’t post her audiogram but if it’s anything like yours then could well be “floor noise” (circuit noise ) so some additional adjustments in “expansion” settings could help, it does take time for the brain to adjust to new sounds you haven’t heard for many years so take that into consideration as well.

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#3

Does she have the app. If she does then she can try the noise filter in each of them and see if it makes any difference. If so then she can tell the HS at Costco and they’ll have a good idea where to start making adjustments.

#4

Depends on her audiogram. If she has near normal low frequency hearing, I agree it could be floor noise. They should be able to make some modifications that might help. If she has severe to profound high frequency loss, it could be distortion from trying to apply gain to “dead” areas of her hearing.
Hopefully she’ll go back. Yes they are the same hearing aids as the Beltones for all practical purposes.

#6

Thanks for the comments.

BTW, the audiogram link on my account is for my wife, not me. At this time I do not have significant hearing loss.

That makes sense. Her hearing loss, at anything over 1000-1500 looks pretty significant to me. I was wondering if it could be distortion from being cranked up too high.

She does not have the app yet. I will get her to download it tonight.

#7

Explain to her that it takes several visits to get it right. That is whether you are new to hearing aids or an experienced user. If people walked away after one or two or three adjustment visits, there would not be many folks who actually get a benefit from hearing aids. Costco gives you six months to get it right before you are committed financially. Good luck!

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#8

My hearing loss is similar to your wife’s. When I first got hearing aids I heard faint static noise in the background and deduced that this was due to “floor noise” from all the complicated electronics in my hearing aids(HAs)
I asked my audiologist about this and she was surprised, and did not seem to know anything about it. Hence the audiologist at Costco may be ineffectual at removing the “static noise”.
My solution was just to ignore the static but I did find a way to stop it appearing in my HAs.

I have Widex Moment 330 HAs and they have a program called Puresound. Puresound turns off a large amount of the signal processing that the HAs do and when I used Puresound the static background noise in my HAs went away.

What this suggests to me is that different brands & models of hearing aids have different levels of “floor noise”, That would be why your wife says the Beltones are quiet but the Jabras have static.

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#9

She only has severe loss just in 6kHz, won’t have anything to do with “dead” spots, the fitting won’t be “cranked up” at all with that loss.

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#10

Those are exactly the same models, so this wouldn’t explain that situation of yours, but yes definitely there is a difference from different brands.

@lemmy999 one other thing to check is what type of receiver has been fitted when programming, possible to have had M&RIE in the Beltone and then a standard receiver on Jabra or vice versa.

#11

With that audiogram I’d guess “floor noise.”

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#12

I just see the Jabra Enhance Pro 20 (on the Costco website and the Jabra website) listed as “Micro RIE” so I assume it is not M&RIE. Is this an option that can be added on? I see it mentioned on ReSound’s, Beltone’s and Jabra’s website.

#13

Micro RIE? That sounds like a HA model, no I’m talking about the Receiver M&RIE, this is the speaker that fits in the ear canal, but yeah you gotta get her back in to Costco and see exactly what’s going on, it won’t be hard for the fitter to work out.

https://pro.resound.com/en-us/research/features-explained/microphone-and-receiver-in-ear

#14

Thanks. Please excuse my ignorance on this stuff. I have read quite a bit but there is still quite a bit that I’m not familiar with.

I’m just saying they call it a “Micro RIE”. Which I guess just means it is Receiver In Ear and not Microphone and Receiver in Ear. I assume that would mean it just has a standard receiver.

Is the hearing aid and the receiver purchased together or when you buy a hearing aid do you have a choice of a standard or an M&RIE receiver?

#15

Hey it’s no problem, ask as much as you like, everybody will try and help, so yes you can change the receiver at anytime, it’s up to the fitter at Costco which receiver to use based on ones audiogram, you can ask for M&RIE to try, of course any changes in the receiver type requires a new fit, see what your Costco fitter has to say and go from there.

#16

M&RIE are an option for Jabra Pro 20 and at no additional cost.

The audiogram shape will determine when someone is a good candidate wo causing issues. Some fitters do not want to use M&RIE.

M&RIE is mic and receiver in ear.

#17

Also look at both invoices and it should say what was included.