My husband wore a single hearing aid for a long time and it was very expensive. He lost it one day on our property and refused to get another because of the cost. I went on EBay and found an audiologist in India, and they had the same hearing aid that was used at a very good price. They were very professional, asked to see his audiogram, and were prepared to program the new aid for me. I felt comfortable buying from them and they had a refund policy. It varies quite a lot–some people sell used aids they know nothing about, or belonged to a relative–so you need to do some research. And in my case, my husband refused to go to a regular dispenser, so this was all I could think to do at the time. However, this audiologist in India looked at my husband’s audiogram and asked why he was only wearing one aid and why that ear? He said if he was only going to wear a single aid, it should be the other ear for various reasons. I was really surprised, and found out that my husband had independently picked what he felt was his “worst” ear, and that his approach to his hearing loss was uniquely his own…other than the test he never really spoke to anyone about what he was doing. I ultimately did not buy from this company, because I insisted that my husband buy two aids and he chose a different manufacturer which was locally supported. SO, this company actually helped a lot. They were not trying to make me buy something that would not have worked well. And I am going to look at buying a backup set of aids for my husband and will go on EBay to do this.
I am also going to learn the programming software for our aids since we don’t have good local resources. To be honest, I bet you can learn how to do that yourself. I was intimidated by the idea and assumed that only sound engineers or industry pros could possibly master it. Then I watched some tutorials and thought, huh. I can probably do that. I would not want to try to earn a living doing so, but I am confident I can at least learn how to manage our individual needs.
