Has anyone tried the Rexton Insite sold by COSTCO? What do you have to say about them?
I did and took them back for a full refund. I had a problem right from the start, during the initial fitting, of something that I can best describe as a feedback loop. At random times the aids would start ramping up the volume ostensibly to hear some speech about 20 feet away which I did not want to hear. The sound also became smeared and sounded just like an occlusion effect. The local dispenser was out of his element, I sensed this before I got the aids but thought I would give it a try against my best judgment. His response was to call tech support who asked him to setup another program (diverting one of the 5 I already had set up to this use). I thought that was dodging the problem.
I have other things going on in my life that do not allow me to give fully attention to getting my aids adjusted. That and the feeling that the dispenser did not know how to adjust these aids convinced me to minimize the fear, doubt and uncertainty and turn these in. One cause for concern early was that the dispenser did 0 testing of the aids in my ear other than to set the alert alarm levels and base volume during the initial fitting, the aids were set to the automatic configuration based on the audiogram with no exploration of how it sounded to me.
I will say I liked the Bluetooth function. The BLURCU unit however is a bit bulky (I would prefer the mini-Tek available now only on Siemens) and incovenient to carry around and there is a noticeabe lag in picking up phone calls. For listening to the TV it is great as long as it is something like a news program with just speech. A movie on surround sound equipment creates a problem of where to plug in the transmitter.
Finally unlike many here I don’t like the Costco approach to selling aids, the single resource (the dispenser) who has to handle sales, administration and fitting. If you were there to pick up an aid you will have to wait till this resource finishes whatever the dispenser is doing and that could be one hour because there is no one else to handle this. Also the dispenser, at least mine, acted very much the salaried employees they are and did not really seem to have your best interests at heart.
HearHear, Thanks for you r reply. Have you tried othe HA’s ans settled on one?
I am going to wait till I can find time to focus on getting new aids. Right now I can’t do that because I am taking care of a sick family member. Note I had the Insite + Power and I am not saying these are unsatisfactory only that the dispenser did not seem to be schooled on these aids and I did not want to be stuck with these later.
There are some others here (I have an earlier post asking about the problem I had) who were quite happy with these aids. If you have bought aids from this Costco before and are confident of the expertise of the fitter, I would go ahead and try them if you are interested in these (I hear that they are the same as the Siemens Pure models).
I think my next step is going to be to check out America Hears or Hear Source to get a pair of aids I can customize myself…
I tried one Insite CIC from Costco. I think they are high-end premium aids. In the end I decided to go with two aids from the same manufacturer ( I had Starkey in the left and Insite in the right) and I think the Insite CIC was not quite powerful enough for my loss. They are not the same as the Pure. The Cobalts are the same as the Pure. They might be the Motions?
Also, my Costco audiologist has been great. Going to pick up HAs would ordinarily mean some adjustments also and that would require an appointment at my Costco. My audiologist takes walkins on a first come basis after 4:00 PM most days.
I would give Costco and the Insites a thumbs up. Are those what your audiologist recommends?