#1

i am in the process of finding a set of hearing aids. i am looking for a reasonable set around $1500 to $2500. programmable if not sold locally. i have found none of the audis in my area will service aids purchased over the internet.
any ideas or assistance would be helpful.

#2

Is there a Costco in your area? They have top of the line Resound hearing aids under their store brand Kirkland, for just under $2000. It includes support/adjustments for life. They also have Phonak, Bernafon, and Rexton hearing aids.

#3

Hi, Gary. You probably will get better advise if you fill in your general location. As to getting programming. You might say they were inherited from a relative.

Right now there is a lot of change going on with aids. The industry is on an upgrade cycle featuring faster processors and better peripherals. You’ll want to review and compare more now than in less varied times.

#4

ken, don’t know if they would believe i inherited a new set of phonak v50. one audi in my area will “adopt” aids for $800 but will not adopt any aids bought over the internet. protecting their job and this guy claims to be a republican interested in the free market but not if it threatens his job. lmao i can buy the v50 for $2000 less than his price. i think $800 should be fair markup to the local guy but i guess not.

#5

screw the local guy his kids dont need to eat… buy on the internet and send them to one of the diy guys on here.

#6

Listen to Jakey. So what if your kids don’t eat? As long as his will, all is good.

#7

What would that have to do with being a Republican? Are you saying he shouldn’t decide what kind of business he will run and what services he will offer? Free market means he is free to do business the way he wants to, within limits of his license and other legal limits, and you are free to buy from him under those terms or buy from someone else. Another local person is also free to make different decisions about what products and services they will offer and they may decide to adopt your hearing aids.

#8

don, you are right. the correct thing for me to have said he is trying to protect his small town market so that he can charge astronomical prices by scaring locals into buying from him. since i am a republican business who practices ethical capitalism i forget about the capitalist who justify in their mind their right to create monopolies and force or scare people into buying from them. i believe in making a profit but i would never place people in a position they have no option. i would service the hearing aids charging for my time. it wouldn’t be cheap but it wouldn’t be aimed at trying to prevent others from buying somewhere else. what if your local car dealer refused to fix your car because you didn’t buy it from him?

#10

did OP really want help with aids or somewhere to cry about the man beating him down?

#11

He decided to not be a part of a transaction he didn’t believe in. You would have made a different decision and you apparently think you have the right to make that decision but he doesn’t.

Instead of it being only about the money, he may feel that buying in a local office where a professional actually looks in your ears is a healthier model for patients/consumers, and doesn’t want to support the Internet model.

Also, in my state and I think this is common, hearing aids have to be “dispensed” by a licensed professional so he may be uncomfortable working on hearing aids that were not dispensed according to state law, even if he personally would not be violating the law by working on them.

And finally, if you have ever worked with the public, people try everything possible and complain about everything possible so he may figure it is just not worth it to have people coming in with hearing aids where he doesn’t know the history of the aids. If it is a small town he is dependent on word of mouth and doesn’t need the inevitable “I took these hearing aids to him I got from China and they were fine and he broke them” stories.

#12

He decided to not be a part of a transaction he didn’t believe in. You would have made a different decision and you have the right to make that decision but so does he.

Instead of it being only about the money, he may feel that buying in a local office where a professional actually looks in your ears is a healthier model for patients/consumers, and doesn’t want to support the Internet model.

Also, in my state and I think this is common, hearing aids have to be “dispensed” by a licensed professional so he may be uncomfortable working on hearing aids that were not dispensed according to state law, even if he personally would not be violating the law by working on them. If he works on used ones that were inherited he knows (or can assume) they were dispensed.

And finally, if you have ever worked with the public, people try everything possible and complain about everything possible so he may figure it is just not worth it to have people coming in with hearing aids where he doesn’t know the history of the aids. If it is a small town he is dependent on word of mouth and doesn’t need the inevitable “I took these hearing aids to him I got from China and they were fine and he broke them” stories.

#13

@Don
You seem to be placing all responsibility and fault on the user. You base it on the medical licensing minutia. How about the ethical responsibility associated with the medical profession. State licensing is often protective. Do we need licensed barbers?

More people who could benefit from hearing assistance are not being served. The estimates a single or low double digit percentages. The business model contributes a great deal to people seeking an alternative solution.

If it is a medical profession then it should provide service to all in need. They are entitled to then charge a higher but still acceptable rate based on their overhead and an rate honoring their training.

There are some fantastic practitioners as we see here with the folks that share their knowledge with us. But there are many less altruistic people who imperative is self-interest.

The biggest market is for an aging populace with a waterfall profile. 3-thousand dollars in aids may offend or deny them the improvement that a decent PSAP can provide. Why don’t they address that market? Not only are they attracting clients they avoided but are establish a relationship for the future that may show a greater need with a better informed client.

Before my sudden loss, I got good service from PSAPs at a fraction of the alternative cost. No programming required. There are a lot of folks that could be served by professionals at a reasonable cost rather than forced do-it-yourself via Amazon or such.

#14

don, you must be a provider. first the audi of which i speak will service aids provided by any audi with a brick and mortar building, his words exactly, but he refuses to service ANY aids purchased from an internet provider whether licensed or not.
second, he does not honor or participate in a discount plan like thousands of other providers and from what i can tell does not believe in them either.
third, he will not service any product sold by costco or sams whether he has the ability to do it or not.
fourth, his price for two phonak v70s is $6500. the highest price i have seen anywhere.
fifth, in virginia buying hearing aids over the internet is NOT illegal.
sixth, you might have missed it but i said he would service aids dispensed by another dispenser not online. if he actually believed in service as you said he would service the aids purchased by people on the internet because by doing this it would be helping people. this one fact PROVES it is all about the money and not service. lmao
seventh, i have worked with the public most of my life in various businesses i have owned in insurance, restaurants, software and real estate. i have never represented a product i wouldn’t buy or sell to my friends. i have practiced ethical capitalism where i charge a fair price and have always made a reasonable profit.

you are defending an abusive dispenser who pretends to care about being a service to people but thinks he is entitled to enormous profits and is attempting to do anything he can to stop progress.

currently, there is a movement by audiologists to stop the competition of the internet. i have seen the same thing in the insurance industry over the past forty years. its called creating fear and getting legislatures to pass laws to protect the consumer but it is really designed to stop competition that threatens the current way of doing business.

dispensers could change their business model but the don’t want to. they could service anyone with a hearing aid charging a reasonable fee such as $100-$200 for programming and they might find they are winning customers instead of alienating them so that they turn to providers on the internet. lol

#15

don, you said “And finally, if you have ever worked with the public, people try everything possible and complain about everything possible so he may figure it is just not worth it to have people coming in with hearing aids where he doesn’t know the history of the aids. If it is a small town he is dependent on word of mouth and doesn’t need the inevitable “I took these hearing aids to him I got from China and they were fine and he broke them” stories.”

i never said they should service cheap china knockoffs. they should service aids THEY SELL AND SERVICE in their local office. if they don’t sell the brand then they couldn’t service them. this is just a cheap excuse you are trying to use to defend the abusive provider.

#16

Gary,

If your serious about going online there are people selling on Ebay who will sell you your HA’s and program them to your loss, but any further adjustments will require sending the HA’s back for any needed adjustments.

If your not satisfied with the guy you have gone to find another one. From what you have said about him, he sounds like he would be a pain to work with and would be nickel and diming you to death once your warranty runs out or the contract expired.

#17

seb, i am considering online. i am also considering self programming. before i do anything, i am weighing all of the options.

#18

Hold on, Gary. I’m not in the industry, I’m in IT. I don’t know the person you are talking about and he may very well be a crook. But, the policies you described seemed reasonable to me and I explained some plausible reasons for those.

Unless it has changed, none of the big 6 manufacturers sell their hearing aids through Internet channels. I suspect one or two look the other way but their normal way of distributing their products is through licensed professionals. I think this will change, and it will probably mean more sales for them and cheaper prices for us (and possibly better or shorter R&D cycles), but it will probably be a rocky transition. In the meantime, big 6 hearing aids through Internet channels are somewhat gray-market.

#19

if you dont like this its simply take your business eslewhere or diy.

#20

actually there are several licensed dispensers who may or may not be an audi with brick and mortar buildings that also sell their big six products on the internet. the big six pretend to not know this but if the dispenser requires a audiogram before they will sell one of the big six products to the customer
and they program the aids to fit the customer, they are just increasing their customer base and offering service even though limited.

locals that are not doing this get mad because this outsider is taking their customer but the local could match the price with limited service but they won’t. they just want to cry and try to get the govt to protect them by stopping internet sales. several states have done this and more are on line to do it.

from what i can tell by comments on this site and others, there are a lot of incompetent LICENSED dispensers who offer mediocre service and expect to make the same as competent hardworking licensed dispensers. how does the customer distinguish one from another before spending thousands of dollars. unfortunately, we can’t tar and feather as we did a hundred years ago when unethical quacks tricked us and took our money. lmao

#21

Hey, Gary,

We could be neighbors. I too am unimpressed with the “professionals” in the central Virginia (Lynchburg) area.
Let us know if you find somebody decent.