georged,
Before you went to HearSource did you do a search about them on the HA Forum? I seem to remember last year several people had experiences very similar to yours. They couldn’t get the aids programmed right and when they returned the aids HearSource told them the HA’s basically had to be unused and then socked them with a large restocking fee. The only way they got their money back was to threaten them with legal action and then and only then did they got their money back. I would say they are probably a good company to stay away from.
The reason the ICube works with the Unitron HA’s is probably because they are part of Phonak; much as Bernafon is part of Oticon.
I can see why you would want to to self programming but with your hearing loss I think it would be a challenge to get them just right on your own without the help of somebody. Not knowing where you live I would call around to various hearing aid centers and see if you could get a deal similar to arupert. Another possibility besides Costco is if you were ever in the military, if you were contact the VA they would more than likely give you the HA’s you need. Good luck!