Is there anyway that we can figure out if the hearing aids that she sells to us is new/used/refurbished? maybe by serial number? and how to check it by myself? in this case the brand is Starkey.
It would be unfair and unethical if the provider sells me a used/refurbished hearing aids and charged me for full price of new one.
Dispensers almost always fit new aids, as supplied by the manufacturer.
Have you any reason whatsoever to believe that your supplier supplies used aids?
http://www.hearingaidforums.com/showthread.php?t=12179
leave the poor lady alone… are you now actually thinking she would commit fraud and who know what else by selling you used aids as new?
No reputable dispenser would sell you used or refurbs. But for your curosity the mfg date is coded in the serial # on Starkey.
The serial number usually starts with the two digit year of manufacture, followed by two more digits that indicate the week of manufacture, the rest uniquely identifies it.
However, a new aid could have been in stock for some time so don’t be alarmed if the mfg date is a few months before you actually got them.
When I got my aids they were manufactured 20 weeks apart.
Please don’t be insulted but you should just give these hearing aids back to this woman and find another location.
While it seems she should have been more up-front with pricing and had some kind of written agreement with you from day one, she has gone above and beyond as far as service, all without collecting a penny from you.
The fact that you have tried 5 different sets of hearing aids all apparently without paying a dime is amazing. No hearing aid leaves my office without being paid for. I’m surprised she is allowed to do that.
I think your audi is probably as discouraged with dealing with you as you are with her. She sounds like she has bent over backwards to try and help you out, I know other audi’s that would have told you to look elsewhere after the 3rd set of HA.
Thanks for your thoughts, to make things clear, I tried 5 different aids as per her suggestion, and when we found out it didn’t work out, it was returned within trial period (30 days per CA law?) and even less than that. I want to buy hearing aid that works, and trying different aids would not be necessary if she is competent and knowledgeable on the products that she sells, and could advise which hearing aid that works since the beginning and be upfront about price and written agreement.
I appreciate your thoughts.
Honestly, when I have a patient who, after the 2nd and definitely 3rd, hearing aid has the same complaints, the same issues…the problems generally don’t lie with the hearing aid the problem lies with the patient. Basically the pro isn’t adequately counseling them or managing expectations. Too many pros want to try to adjust all the problems a patient has with software when, sometimes, it’s not an issue the software can do anything about.
It always sucks when you have a patient with a problem and you have to tell them that they will have to get used to it because it’s something their brain has to adapt/adjust to. Some people just don’t like those kinds of answers.
Thanks for your thoughts, yes I think so, and I am just simply being honest and just followed her instruction since day one, she just said try this first and tell me if it works and you can hear better, and I did…I was suffering as I could not hear better and it didn’t work, so I told her and she told me to try another one.
Yes the brain need to adjust, that’s why I always tried the HA at least 2 weeks, first week when I couldn’t hear better with it I told her and she tried to made adjustment ,sometimes she tried to make a quick adjustment and sometimes she wanted to turn noise reduction on/off etc. and that’s when I knew that she is not knowledgeable enough because she looked confused on her face and finally said “this is new, I need to call the factory’s customer service and asked them how to program it”…why does she sell something that she is not familiar with ? or received a training on…that just frustrates me as a patient…
But as I appreciate her time and effort (even it’s not competent enough and made things draggy)…I would still want to buy HA that at least work from her as long as she is willing to negotiate and do things in honest way by being upfront, not by suddenly sent bill during my trial period.
I really appreciate your help and thoughts.
Hello, in addition to above, any thoughts if what is my next step beside returning the aids IF she is not willing to negotiate? should I also negotiate on compensating her time spent?
The time to negotiate the price was prior to the trial, you don’t negotiate price after you have taken possession of the car and driven it for a few weeks. I think you need to return the aids and start over with a new audi.
I think what this AD should do is file a police report for stolen HAs. Also, file a report with your insurance company (which you failed to mention) that you are trying to pull a quick one. Return the HAs tomorrow and move on.
I only wish I could direct her to your post on this forum.
Mick, if you cannot contribute or helping, it’s better not to post on my thread, you yourself didn’t stick yo your word that you were saying previous message was your last post and you are not posting anymore. Better not to post than posting an abusive or attacking comment, I don’t appreciate you are abusing and attacking me all the time while you didn’t read what I was sharing carefully and biased against me.
Thank you for your comment until now.
not really interested in contributing to your continued abuse and slander of an AD who has went way out of her way to cut you some slack…
put me on your ignore list… you do the research on how how to do it.
I sure would like to hear her side of this story… as the OP certainly isn’t clear and likes to leave out details until they slip in another of his post.
ZCT, suppose this dispenser is just naturally generous and has a local clientele which is totally trustworthy and is well off financially ?
Then you don’t need paperwork - you just aim to sort out the client and then bill them.
(A rough verbal price indication at the start of the process can be just as valid as rigorous paperwork)
Now suppose such a dispenser meets a client who seems to need a lot more hand-holding than usual - and who seems to have a much more challenging budget than is usual for the local area. What then?
Several years of professional but very relaxed approach suddenly end up with this sort of mess.
having worked in hospitals for well over 20 years… I can’t believe the insurance would randomly pay a claim without some proof of a sale. not to mention his insurance information, numbers, secret codes, etc. it’s hard enough to get them to pay when everything is done perfectly.
Dear Sushi,
You’ve received hours of a professional’s time without paying a dime. Now you want to start negotiating???
I don’t know why the HAs are not satisfactory, but, like the other pros who have commented, I would never have gone to 5 HAs hoping to satisfy you.
I had a patient years ago who came to me and told me his tale of woe. Like you, he had gone to 5 different offices, tried HAs at each place and had returned them all.
He wanted to try whatever was new at that time and wanted to be sure he could get all of his money back if he didn’t like them.
At that point he and I had a talk. I told him he had a relatively common, easy loss to fit. I added that I knew each and every one of the previous audiologists who had fitted him. They all were competent, honest professionals.
Incidentally, he criticized all of them as being incompetent. Just as you have done.
I then told him he needed aids and I would be happy to fit him. Whether or not he chose to be happy with them was up to him.
I told him I would verify the fitting ( using REM ) and if the aids didn’t help his hearing as per REM he could return them. But I wasn’t going to allow him to return the aids just because he didn’t like them.
For whatever reason he got the aids from me, came in for adj 6-8 times in the first month alone. Then he came in with his son and said he wanted his money back.
I showed him ( and his son ) the form I had drawn up and signed by him waiving his right to return the aids. I explained to the son what had transpired and said " Your dad knew he was being fitted without a return right, he waived it "
At that point they left the office.
After that, he actually became a pretty successful HA user. He always complained about his aids,but he never was without them.