I suspect that you’re right about the HCP being the place where a warranty replacement decision is made. If the HCP is easy and wants to please their customers for repeat business, they may be more prone to accommodate warranty requests more leniently than others.
The SmartCharger hasn’t really come out that long ago, so the fact that 1 had already been returned for replacement so far from just that one HCP is actually not a good sign, in my opinion. But overall, it’s just too new to have enough data points to form any conclusion out of it. Now if you hear about it from everyone and their brothers after about a year, like with the ZPower battery debacle, then it’d be a clinching conclusion to make.
@cvkempThank you, thank you, Chuck Kemp!! You’re 100% correct - if I disconnect the battery from my desk charger after the HAs have achieved a full charge, the HA LEDs blink once, and then the devices “go to sleep”.
This is a BOON for me - I never liked the notion that the hearing aids never got any real down time! You’re a smart cookie for a Tar, Chuck!
Well let me put it this way. I have been using the Desk Charger for yonks…perhaps 5-6 years whenever it the Oticon rechargeable hearing aids became available. Never had a problem with the Desk Charger.
When the Oticon More came out I bought a set and a Smart Charger.
But the first time I visited another city the Smart Charger went dead. I do not mean it just wouldn’t charge…but the power bank was completely dead as well. No charging…no powerbank backup. Just me with dead aids.
To survive the Christmas Season vacation, when I was away from home, my son was able to get a loan of a desk charger from a nice audiology clinic.
When I got back home I used my own old home Desk Charger until I was able to get a replacement Smart Charger under Warranty.
But some 10 months later (right this last two days), this replacement Smart Charger has just failed again and I have reverted to wearing some Oticon OPN hearing aid back-ups with disposable batteries to tide me over until I can take delivery of a new Desk Charger for my Oticon Mores.
Can I get another Warranty again on my now dead replacement Smart Charger? Who knows…but I am very much less than impressed with the reliability of the so called “Smart” Charger.
I could be just incredibly unlucky to suffer two failures from two Smart Chargers or there may be a significant design fault…only time will tell. The statistics indicate that there is a serious design fault with the Smart Charger or I am an incredibly unlucky person.
If you want reliability, I would advise to stay well away from the Smart Charger until such time Oticon can identify the fault and re-design the unit to make it reliable.
@member45: Good luck! Remember that Oticon is just an anagram for TiCoon - who run the jernt, but don’t seem to care about things like Value and Reliability.
Sorry to hear about your bad experience with the Smart Charger. I would think that you can get as many replacement for it as necessary during the warranty period. If not, then it’s a bad warranty. I would be insistent about it because that’s your right covered under the warranty.
Whether the replacement unit with which you were issued was, in fact, brand new, it was released by the manufacturer in “as new” functionality, and "fit for purpose". As such, it should carry with it any new product warranty usually associated with a brand-new item.
All companies and corporations have their warts. And now days they all seem to believe we as their customers are their beta testers. But I for one choose to use what best works for my needs. By the way I turned a Oticon VA rep’s face bright red when I said basically what I said above. Then we had an interesting and honest conversation.
I have talked the rep and several of the audiologist/developers. They all seem to understand the frustration of their users.
All corporations and companies are being pushed by investors to produce faster and faster. They are being pushed to produce cheaper and sale at higher cost. I remember when a number of companies I worked for were independent and didn’t rush to market, but as soon as they had investors they all rushed too fast to market. It is said but true that greed rules everything now days.
Sorry for the charger failure misery you are going through.
Kudos to the nice Audiology Clinic for the charger loaner while you were on vacation. A good Oticon dealer that cares, even though you are not a Client, and no sales.
This is an example of why we need to have & carry back up hearing aids, and back up chargers.
I always carried back ups even before wearing rechargeable hearing aids. I feel I need back ups for everything. I’m okay with that, considering the forward progression for better hearing and streaming, which equals better hearing for many of us.
When I received my replacement Mores, I asked if the warranty started over (I already knew the answer) - Nope!
The warranty is from the original date, so I would think the warranty on the replacement charger(s) works the same.
I understand that. Oticon has always been very responsive replacing / repairing and standing behind their warranty.
Get paperwork from your Audiologist / Provider that lists when the warranty expires on all your items.
@Mago: I Automatically assumed that the warranty period began on the original date of purchase, and ended three years thereafter. The anniversary date is never “evergreen”.
Yeah, it’s fully understandable that the warranty would not start over again. It would simply be from the original purchase date like @SpudGunner said above.
But @member45 has a valid concern on whether it’d be a “one-time-only” warranty replacement, or as many replacements as necessary DURING the warranty period only. So it’d be wise to ask up front an not assume, although you’d think that accessories warranty should be similar to HA warranty.
For example, I think the HAs are covered with a loss warranty. Sometimes it also includes accidental breakage as well, although just a loss warranty alone can be all encompassing without saying because people can still use the loss warranty to claim for accidentally broken devices by just claiming them as being lost. Anyway, the loss warranty is a one-time-only replacement warranty, and there’s usually a $300/HA fee to cover for a replacement as well. So it’d be wise to ask for clarification on the accessories warranty and not just assume, I guess.
I took delivery of the Smart Charger in July, 2022.
I had so many issues with the More’s that I started using the OPN S R’s, until a few weeks ago.
When I opened the lid to insert the Mores, all 3 LED’s came on, and did get 3 nights of charging, so that baby will hold a charge for at least 3 months, if not longer.
Thanks for sharing this, @flashb1024 ! Then I wonder why Oticon is telling people to fully charge the Smart Charger if it’s not used for more than 14 days??? OK, I understand that they don’t want people to put it in storage in a discharged or semi-discharged state, than pull it out for a quick use only to be mad that the thing is not “ready for use” with a full 3 charge cycles.
I guess they’d rather educate users to always keep the charger ready with a full 3 cycle charge in case they grab it and go on travel, assuming that it’ll ready for their 3 day trip, then to educate the user on how to extend battery longevity because that can give users the impression of having to deal with too much hassle.
Oticon’s instruction for fully charge before a +14 day story can only be a win-win (but just) for Oticon. The first Oticon win is that the user is happy they get a full 3 cycles of charge when they need it, and the second Oticon win is when the Smart Charger battery fails earlier, because they’ll get to sell the user another one. For the user, it’s a win/lose. A small win for having a SmartCharger always be on the ready for 3 full cycles of charge, vs a big lose for when they have to fork out money to buy another one sooner than they thought.
I disagree.
The moment you drop your HA’s in the charger, they shut down.
The green LED’s indicate the devices are charged, and ready for use.
They only turn on when removed from the charger.
Matter of fact, most AuD’s shut them down, and restart them using the charger when connecting to Genie2.
@jcisbell: Naw, that wouldn’t affect it. I may be mistaken about how my aids work. I need to consult my manual and read more carefully … I may be all wet about how the charger works … or not!
