Has anyone ever bought hearing aids from SMD International on eBay? Theres a few sellers from India i assume all from the same SMD International company. Selling all brands for like half the price, new. Supposedly with a 3 year warranty, they claim 2 year manufacturers warranty and a 1 year extended warranty from the seller for a total of 3 years. Im pretty certain most manufacturers warranties from my audi are 4 years generally here in the USA. Maybe its different country to country. Or business to consumer via internet? Just curious.
In general with such a large transaction I would not attempt an international transaction without escrow.
You have to think about if you have any problems what are you going to do?
You will have to send them back to India and that’s not cheap.
I concur with what @redrav585 said. Beside it not being cheap to send them back to India, it’s very risky as well. What if it gets lost in transit? What if the seller claims that they never receive it? How do you know if this seller will be around on eBay in 2 or 3 years when you need the warranty?
I’ve seen some forum members who have had experience with some eBay seller(s) in Germany and they gave these sellers high praises. So it’s good that you’re checking this forum for reference on SMD Int. But if you don’t hear back any good anecdotal report, then maybe you want to check out the recommended sellers from Germany instead because at least they got good referrals from forum members.
I’m not trying to dissuade you from buying from this Indian seller, because half price is very attractive. But if I decide to buy from an international seller, I wouldn’t count on whatever type of warranty they promise. I’d just take my risk assuming no warranty up front and factor that in to see whether that purchase price good enough for me for no warranty support at all or not. Then if I can indeed get warranty support when things go bad, then I’ll just count that as an extra blessing that wasn’t factored in and considered into the price in the first place.
By the way, I only got a 3 year warranty for my Oticon hearing aids from an authorized Oticon HCP in the USA. I’m a little surprised to hear that you think 4 year warranties are the norm in the US. I always thought that 3 year was the norm.
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Don’t rush to buy online. Take your time.
Not all online shop sells the type of HA’s you like or suitable to your hearing loss.
You must understand where your hearing loss audiogram or check with people in this forum. The group of people here are very helpful.
There are some good HA online seller in Holland, Germany & UK. Korea is not bad in eBay. India HA for profound hearing loss.
Important is the local Audi can provide you with a service to fine tuned your HA’s for a fees for HA 's that you did not buy from them. Check this out first with local Audi. Or you want to DIY.
Good luck!
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The trick to buying aids off eBay or other internet places is education. Do your homework and understand what you want before ever buying anything on the net.
Do the work I front.
Results will be much better.
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@raudrive’s advice here is spot on. You need to know exactly what you want to buy and why, and preferably are already proficient as a DIY hearing aid programmer as well so you can adjust things to your liking. This usually indicates that you’re also an experienced hearing aids user. Otherwise, if you’re a new hearing aids user who doesn’t know exactly what he wants and goes by the recommendation of the online seller, you’re only probably setting yourself up for failure.
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I bought Oticons several years ago off of eBay from an international seller. I ordered with TV streamer included in the package deal. I believe they included extra domes and wax guards.
The company was a dealer rather than a casual seller. Everything was absolutely new and in Oticon original packaging.
These were a second pair for me so I just copied the program over from my previous pair. Shipping was via Fedex which is more costly but worth the additional cost. If a seller ships by parcel post, it might take over a monrh to receive your goods. With Fedex, it is trackable and they handle customs clearance. Duty, if due is an added cost. I would buy from the same seller again but only through ebay. Never try to circumvent paying eBay their commission. The protection they offer is worth their fees.
As far as warranty goes, I would have only used warranty if the aids arrived defective. If there was a problem later, I would just pay a third party for repair.
Good luck.
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If it were simple receiver failure or microphone failure that can be replaced more easily, but I wonder how a third party would do a repair if the circuit board would require a replacement, since I don’t think they can source this type of stuff directly from the company.
Anybody has any insight into third party repair and the extent of repair that they can perform for you?
Along the same line of questions, I wonder if any HA company outsource the repair work to a third party repair shop and provide them with parts, or if all HA companies would do repair internally in-house.
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I’m gonna try it out. They are a global distributor. Just for back up.
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Sorry for the slow response. The aid I had repaired was an Oticon. The circuit board did have a problem. The repair company advised they could send the aid to Oticon for repair with the caveat that if the aid was an NHS or VA aid they would not repair or return it. I thought that was perfectly reasonable. Oticon replaced the board and my total cost was $100 plus $14 for the shipping. Keep in mind this was when the Oticon Agil Pro was still being dispensed. if Oticon had refused to repair the aid I would have only been out the shipping cost.