I’m just looking over my elderly father’s shoulder a bit – He had a long conversation with a sales person from hear.com the other day.
I just want to make sure that hear.com is a reputable site with good return policy. That their sales people give good advice, their prices are competitive and there is no reason he shouldn’t do business with them.
Thanks
I do not have any experience with hear.com, but according to the Hearing Tracker industry map, they are owned by WS Audiology the maker of Widex, Signia and Rexton (at Costco) brand hearing aids. If you have a Costco available he can probably get the Premium Signia hearing aid under the Rexton name for about $1,600 for a pair of hearing aids.
This is my 2nd pair of HA’s with hear.com; they’ve done me well. I have hear.com Signia brand and have had no issues with the Audi or my payment plan with hear.com. They answered all my questions and checked up for a few months to see that I was getting used to the HA’s.
If you give the money straight to the service provider instead of somene else connecting you you get more service for the same amount of money
As mentioned, hear.com is an outlet for WS Audiology. Their Horizon Go IX hearing aids are simply Signia Pure Charge&Go IX hearing aids but relabeled. As also mentioned above, these are identical to Rexton Reach hearing aids, sold at Costco for $1600.
The obvious benefit of Costco is price. A good argument can be made for going to the private audiologist of your choosing, but you will pay a lot more. My impression of hear.com is that their prices are on the high side. They also offer a remote fitting option, which is not the best way to get hearing aids. If you use them, get fitted at the office. Ask if they use real ear measurement (REM). If they don’t, find someone who does.
As an outlet for WSA, they will likely promote their house brand, Horizon, or one of the other WSA products. They say that they sell hearing aids from all manufacturers, and I expect they do. An independent audiologist, who is unaffiliated with a manufacturer, is more likely to recommend the hearing aids which s/he believes will provide the greatest benefit to the patient. The Horizon Go IX hearing aids are a good product, but there should be a full discussion comparing the range of options and how they match with the patient’s needs.
Does your father have health insurance which covers hearing aids? Does hear.com take insurance? That’s important to find out.
Audiologists can provide a range of services. Ear wax removal is important to maximizing anyone’s ability to hear. Ask if the audiologist does this. It’s essential. Some refer out to an ENT.
I’d also ask what other services are provided and what they charge. Some audiologists charge outrageous prices. To maintain hearing aids, they should be vacuumed regularly. There is also a need to replace domes and wax filters regularly and patients need to be shown how to do this at home. Ask for charges for all of these.
Thanks everyone. Some good info here to digest 
Remote hearing test and fitting is also available. They send out a windows tablet with a noah link and a endoscope. It was done over zoom or similar. I sat in on one for a friend the other day. I missed the first 10 minutes. Seemed it went well.
Some of the questions were not answered accurately. For instance the fitter said no other aids have AI available. Kind of dismissed REM. Costco does do REM. You can read about REM here on the forum.
Bragged about lost insurance only $200 to get one. Said it would cost $2400 without insurance. Costco was free.
I felt the fitter was working on commission. Just my gut feeling. Costco doesn’t.
I gave her a link to this forum so she could see what other have to say. My recommendation
would be check out Costco. I have been happy with my KS9’s and their support for years.
Your mileage may very.
Stay away, at a minimum from their HA-by-mail option (at least the medical-grade ones). They are very aggressive and quite easy to get hold of as long as they need to get you to commit. If you decide not to proceed, all of a sudden your adviser can’t be found.
In my case, the price for the HAs was almost twice as much as originally claimed in marketing material, and when I sent the box back unopened save to remove the return label I used that was already in the box, they sent me a second return label and then continued to harass me for months that I didn’t return their goodies since, of course, I had nothing left to send back with the second label.
If they send you (threatening) letters via mail, it takes months (I received one letter exactly two months after the date stated on it), and it’s nearly impossible to get someone to talk to who can actually address a problem. They have email addresses on their communication, but no one ever responds.
For the price of these HAs, I’d go to a real audiologist. At least you have good service. If you’re on your own anyways, there are other options that are much less expensive for similar products. Probably because they don’t spend 50% of their revenue on marketing.