Oticon Alta Pro DEMO, good thing or Dud?

Hearing Aids
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#1

I’m curious about a hearing aid with “DEMO” printed on the case. Occasionally these come up for sale on EBay.

Does anyone know what this means? I can guess that perhaps it was used at an Oticon promotional booth? Though, I wonder if maybe it was defective and then used only for DEMO’ing the overall size and weight.

Does anyone know how these DEMO aids are used? Are they used only to show the size and feel. Or do they actually reprogram them for hearing DEMOs for various people? I doubt that they would be reprogrammed for various hearing DEMOs? Heck, that might not even be legal?

Sorry, the picture got lost.

Phonak Marvel Trial Aids
#2

My audiologist has demo hearing aids to let people feel, try out on their ears to see how they look etc and I think you can have them set to your hearing loss and try them out but only if you can have domes. I wonder if the audiologists have to pay for them or do they get them from the manufacture as a seller of their hearing aids?

#3

They are just that DEMO HA’s and aren’t supposed to be sold or resold. Audiologist or HIS can have Demo HA’s to set up to a patients hearing loss so the patient can see how they sound or even try them out before the actual HA’s are ordered.

#4

Why do they sell them on eBay?

#5

Because they can. :slight_smile:
Oh, and thanks for your replies.

#6

These are fully functional hearing aids with no programing restrictions, but they’re not intended for resale. They can be purchased by your hearing professional at reduced cost, between $600 and $1000 each.

#7

I used a pair like that from my current Audi for about a month before we ordered my current aids. (It would have been less time, but she was out of town for the first 2 weeks of that month.) They were fully functional aids. They clearly had been through more than one customer.

My guess is either an audi decided to sell them, or a customer “lost” them and upon finding them decided to sell them.

–Beth