Is remote fitting now mainstream?

Hearing Aids
1

I have just found out that I can buy a Phonak Paradise and get it remote fitted via Facetime with an audiologist in France (I’m in Romania). This is insane to me. It should spell the end of bad audiologists and the rise of great audiologist that are willing to fit aids online vis Zoom/Facetime. Is this now a common practice? Does anyone know of a good audiologist anywhere willing to do this?

I honestly always felt my audi is never really milking all the things my aid is capable of. Burt what’s more is that here, most audi won’t fit your aid if it isn’t bought in store. That’s honestly perverse ( fittings cost, but you can’t even pay if the aid is not bought with them). It is obvious that they do this because they have a monopoly on certain brands and they know you can’t go anywhere else ( hence they can mark up prices too). But with this, everything could change.

Thanks!

2

I’m in Australia and that is exactly how I got my new Phonak P90R setup from the word go. No visits whatsoever with the Audie, just who I had visited 3 years ago with my previous set. I found no hassles and found your own environment was a plus in setting up how you hear.

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3

It is similar in my country.

In my country, hearing aids are not sold by audiologists, but by sales and repair companies, and these companies import these hearing aids. No one else sells them.
We have a company called Microton - it sells Phonak, Widex and Unitron

The company named Bontech sells -Oticon, Sonic and Starkey
A company named Elton sells Bernafon hearing aids, I’m not sure if it sells anything else
Polyclinic Pavlović - sells hearing aids named “AudioService”, I discovered that they are actually Signia hearing aids under the name of another brand.

There is more, I just did not remember, and it is about the fact that no one else in my country sells these hearing aids and then these companies are able to raise the price more, the price is raised under the guise of the service that comes with them.

I have noticed that they often do not introduce new hearing aids right away, with some it takes a year or even 2 years for new hearing aids to go on sale. I think this is a sale of an old stock of hearing aids that was current a year ago.

4

I would like the Costco store to appear in Croatia, so they would be a kind of competition to other companies. Costco often sells a variety of brands and I see it giving the lowest price.

Well I envy you in America that you can take advantage of those opportunities :slight_smile:

5

I tried a new set of Rexton hearing aids from Costco. My Hearing Aid Specialist was very excited by teleconnect, a service where after intial visits he could tweak my aids over my smart phone instead of my having to travel the 65 miles one way to have this done. He could not get this feature to operate properly so he blamed my new iPhone 12. It does sound like a useful service if operating properly.

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I have found that the prices here: https://onlinehoortoestel.nl/ to be best compared to my local prices. Also they offer remote fitting and they ship worlwide for 25euros
My research and the interaction with them convinced me of the fact that they are a serious seller. I haven’t yet ordered anything but I’m planning to do it soon.

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7

You also have Neuroth, which at least in 2015 had oticon, widex and maybe someone else.

Fun fact, Neuroth and Bontech have office in Vinogradska, distance between them is I think 50-100m?
Neuroth offered me one Oticon Alta Pro for I think around 7000 HRK, while Bontech for THE SAME AID wanted 15000 HRK (roughly 1000 EUR vs 2000 EUR).
Not to mention that lady at Bontech when I said that what I hear is useless, said that ‘she’s supposed to just click what manufacturer says and that ANY further adjustment she does is out of her good will’.
I was flabbergasted. Having widex from microton in my pocket on trial where technician there spend dozens of hours trying to tweak it for me. Yeah, no REM measurements nowhere, no speech audiogram, no speech verification and nothing.
I went with widex dream 330 for around 1000 eur from microton, mainly because that technician was willing to really work with me. However, he left to pursue completely different career :rofl:
I visited only once more but wasn’t that impressed by ability of the next person. Then I left the country.

But yeah, Bontech has shiny office, someone had to pay for that.
You know, some variety of pricing I can understand, but DOUBLE for 50m distance, that’s just insane.

Microton I think doesn’t push for old stock, I phoned them when I was trying to decide if I’ll just buy my marvels on ebay, and prices they offer were roughly 500eur or so lower than prices here in germany.
However, roger select/pen is I think the same, I forgot already.
Granted I didn’t call them to ask for paradise when they come up, but one person I think mentioned they asked for pricing for paradises.

So, 5 fitters in croatia, only one was really trying but without the equipment, and 2 here, and only one (here) has proper equipment and knowledge. Sad situation. :frowning:

Buy a plane ticket, go to costco, buy aids, get them REM fitted and then do DIY for tweaking.
You’ll probably still have some money saved in comparison to buying them in croatia.

Or buy them on ebay, buy ticket for berlin and come here. Ok, speak german :rofl:
Yes, ‘my guy’ even fits aids that he didn’t sell. Ok, only condition is that they had to be not stolen goods, because I think he said that if they’re flagged in SW he has to confiscate them and send them to the manufacturer. 150 eur/fitting, you need one basically, 2 way tickets can be found for similar amount, just saying, there are options, depending how frustrated you are with the current situation :rofl:

I know that I’ll travel to this guy if I move out of Berlin, and possibly even if I move to some other country if I won’t be able to find someone as good as he is.

Internet is evil, you find out what exists out there, and then you want it :rofl:

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