When doctor cliff does videos, he is often sponsored by sonova, demant, etc. But Costco never does. And let’s assume that Sonova pays him more money to make Sonova branded hearing aids look better than what Costco used to have. At the time, Sonova was making more money from its own brands than from hearing aids for Costco. This is just my hunch, I don’t have to be right. Dr. Cliff still makes money for his services no matter what the hearing aids are if they are not locked.
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I still follow him regularly because he has good reviews. He is the best YouTube audiologist I know. I prefer his hearing aid reviews but when it comes to vlogs I often skip the videos unless the topic is interesting.
I think it’s because the traditional sellers community feels its existence to be more extremely threatened by Costco than by OTC and he has become their attack dog - I mean “spokesperson.” LOL.
Is it possible that Dr Cliff has set himself up to fail?
He is certainly knowledgeable and advertises the fact. Does this mean that he tends to attract the more difficult to solve cases? Or where the user is not satisfied that their hearing is not “perfect” after a few visits.
Just a thought
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I think being self employed is difficult
I think trying to improve the standards of an industry is extremely difficult.
Dave
PS. He has looked in poor health for a while. To me anyway.
I had an enormous amount of respect for him as a teacher until he started attacking Costco and, by inference those of us who have chosen Costco Hearing Centers as our trusted supplier of quality service and hearing aid products.
As I recall, his first Costco video a few years ago was relatively favorable. Thereafter, out of nowhere he started a series of snide attack videos against Costco, suggesting that those of us who have relied on them were a bunch of naive dummies who failed to know the difference between good and bad results.
My hunch, or speculation, is that the earlier and favorable Costco video resulted in an avalanche of outrage directed towards him by numerous members of the high-priced, traditional private office dispensers, suggesting that Dr. Cliff was betraying his fellow colleagues and financial equals.
With the advent of the KS9s and KS10s being acknowledged as virtually identical to their Phonak counterparts, the heat intensified, against his former praise and perhaps even against Sonoma for being a provider to Costco, my guess being that these factors led to his present attack phase, as the self-appointed new leader of the cavalry.
Especially galling is his continued emphasis on the problems which developed for some KS10 rechargeables, without mentioning that the Phonak name brand version has also had some problems.
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Ding ding ding.
The part that gets me the most is how he always puts blame on Costco, even though it was 100% a Phonak problem.
Phonak were the ones to hide the problem from Costco in the first place.
Phoank were the ones to delay and deny from day one that there was an issue
Costco was the ones who pulled the aids when it was apparent that the issue was not being resolved on Phoanks end
Yet Dr. Cliff rants and rails against costco in Phonak sponsored videos…
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Dr. Cliff is an “Influencer” to use the current term for a “Shill”!
He gets paid for his reviews, and Costco isn’t about to pay him to review their offerings, are they?
So attack the enemy!
Also, it’s a known fact to be on his Referral List for “Best Practices” AuD’s he collects a stipend up-front.
Aside from his hyperactive delivery, and annoying voice, he does occasionaly say something intelligent, but I tuned him out long ago.
I much prefer Emma at Value Hearing on YouTube.
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Costco have the clout to negotiate price down. They may reduce feature too.
I don’t know whether they chose their charger
I have Paradise P90Rs. I’ve had charge issues several times with my Phonak charger.
DaveL
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Thanks for the tip - I will check Emma out.
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Yeah, Emma was great. She has moved on unfortunately.
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I find this latest video slightly ludicrous. I don’t know if it’s an indicator of American healthcare in general, but clearly, this is a dogfight. Costco is a killer deal, no doubt about it. I use them in the UK, but that’s only because they were selling a Sonovo product at a knockdown price. Now Sonovo is not there, I am looking elsewhere, as I’m unsure about the alternatives. But that’s another discussion point. The point here is that Dr Cliff and associates must be hit very hard by Costco and so they roll out this video which is essentially trying to say, come to us - we’re more professional and we’ve heard stories about unprofessional practices at Costco.
In one sense, it’s a free country (well - the U.S.A like the U.K) that generally allows competition, and I think he’s well within his rights to stand up for his business. However, I don’t know about competition law, but is one allowed to diss competitors like that? Surely he’s opened himself to a slander lawsuit? He seems to be sailing really close to the wind. I would have consulted lawyers before putting that out. In another sense, he’s doing everything he can to protect his business. The Costco model must be a real affront. Half price hearing aids which offer REM and a really good trial + unlimited follow up and service. It’s a killer deal.
I sympathise with the idea of paying for real expertise. But in the UK I just can’t afford it. I know that if I went down the road to Cambridge, I would be paying £5000 every 4 years, which as a family man I just can’t afford - with other expenses. I have used peripatetic dispensers, coming in cheaper, but that’s been penny wise pound foolish. The KS10 + REM at Costco has worked, but there were problems with the charger - but as somebody pointed out - that’s nothing to do with Costco. Ultimately I would love to pay for expertise, but mortgaged up to the hilt, it would be a stretch. I use the NHS as well and they use REM, but NHS tend to be 2 to 3 years behind - although they have good aids.
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Success in a business defamation action requires proving a false statement that actually caused damage to the plaintiff’s reputation. I’d think that would be tough to do for this video.
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Good point. It’s entirely possible that videos like this actually help Costco sales. What’s the saying?: Something like there’s no such thing as bad media?
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Yes. There’s no such thing as bad publicity!
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For some reason, the above link to the video does not include the Comments section, which I found very interesting. If you go to this link:
“https://www.youtube.com”
and type in the search box:
“Costco Hearing Aid Centers - Good or Bad Idea? | The Dr Cliff Show”
and then scroll way down to the bottom of the Youtube page, beyond the links to political and other unrelated videos, you will find there a heated and interesting reaction to the Cliff video, which seems to demonstrate that many are not buying the point of view Cliff is selling. I doubt that Costco Hearing Centers are at risk of losing any business over this, and that he has simply damaged his own credibility.
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That’s a really elaborate “hunch”, that suggests its own set of assumptions about the non-Costco audis and private providers.
And you know this…how?
Maybe Dr. Cliff has an opinion about Costco based on some experience that is different from others who have bought from Costco and found them to be reliable.
There are good and bad providers in the private field as well as at Costco. We tend to universalize our experiences and assume that they’re the same for everybody. They’re not.
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There are many ways in which a regular Youtube presenter can derive financial benefit, as well as prestige and recognition which leads to financial benefits. Such indirect financial benefits can often vastly exceed any potential direct payments.
I watched many of his videos when learning about Roger products and Phonak’s Autosense, and he put them over well.
I haven’t watched one in a couple of months now, as I get better, more specific, help, from here.
PeterH
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I can tell you this, I have had my first day with Costco’s Jabra 10 and I couldn’t be happier with the service, prices, and warranties. My hearing now is much better than I could have hoped for.
For me this has been a two year journey, the prices that I were seeing was just something I couldn’t ever see paying. After watching Cliff’s videos and how he goes after Costco I had to see why he was really giving Costco all of that attention. I went to Costco and was blown away with their warranties and service, nobody came close to theirs. Made an appointment for a hearing test and their audiogram duplicated the one I got from my EMT 6 months ago.
I pretty much knew from my research which HA I wanted and they were the same ones Costco recommended. I received them yesterday and have had them on all day today. The audiologist got a great tune on them and I’m enjoying great hearing today.
From my research it seems you are paying 5000+ for the same quality hearing aids at other places, by the same audiologist pool of people, what a profit margin. No wonder why Cliff and others are going after Costco.
My advice is before you put your money down somewhere, stop in at Costco and see what they have to offer.
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