Thanks for your response. Yes, what you say makes sense. At this point I should be able to have any hearing aid specialist who deals with Phonak take care of the manufacturers warranty. The hospital has been doing it after reluctantly agreeing and it is an indication of problems in the industry. The Insurance is a subcontractor with Anthem Health Insurance and when I purchased the hearing aids through them, they said that any deater who takes that insurance would handle cleanings, repairs and sending the aids back to the manufacturer per their agreement with the insurance company. Interestingly, Beltone Hearing Centers have been very cooperative in cleaning my aids for free but since they don’t deal with Phonak they don’t send them to the manufacturer.