Someone suggested that I consider buying used hearing aids from another country.
First of all, how to make sure the hearing aid is working and to avoid fraud.
Would it be easy to have them programmed in a company in my country? Or in the worst scenarios, if I need to have them fixed at some point?
What should I look out for? What should I not compromise about?
Do you have any recommendations regarding my hearing loss?
Edited: How can I educate myself on software with my old hearing aids?
Siemens CIC Lotus Pro (R) & Signia Nitro CT (L)
If you buy on eBay you’ll have the eBay guarantee program and if you pay with PayPal you’ll also their own respective protection, next you’ll want to check eBay seller ratings.
In most cases it’s not that easy, but you’ll need to find one that would be willing to do this for you before buying.
But if you want you could just DIY and be done with it! Your in Egypt which makes things a lot harder to get services and products shipped out to you.
I’d say DIY is probably your best bet.
As for what models, I’d ask what models are you using at the moment? but Phonak comes to mind, a SP (super power) or similar, these types can go pretty cheap nowadays.
The best way to protect yourself is to understand your hearing loss and understand the programming software so you can look for the correct hearing aids for you. This includes learning about hearing aid brands and which one to go with. This is so important.
Once you get a handle on these things you can be smart about what you buy. You can ask the right questions to the seller and hopefully get the correct answers. This will help you weed out bad purchases.
Then there is lots of help here on the forum once you get a little education about the software and programming.
Do you know where I should start or look up? If you know some websites/ resources where I can find useful/ trustworthy info, especially on programming software, please share them!
Yes definitely anyone can do it, but as @Raudrive has stated just get familiar with how the software works, the great thing about this is you can do HA fitting in a simulation mode, this is a very good way to see how and what changes can be made and when you should do it, read the user guides as well because it has everything you need to know for a first fit up, and of course you can ask questions from right here, as there’s plenty of us doing DIY projects to help you along.
Yes it’s something you need to consider but I wouldn’t worry too much about it, I’ve had a few repairs over the years from my local outfits, most of the time it’s an out of warranty repair, I’ve also had repairs under warranty, another thing if you get them cheap enough and you get a unserviceable one you can simply throw it away and just buy another ( I’ve done this myself on an older pair that wasn’t worth the cost or repair)
Buy in USA and you can check the serial numbers in target to confirm before buying, but if you get them super cheap like win an auction it wouldn’t matter too much.
Many of ebay sellers are hearing centers and offer programming. They sell new, open box or used. I have purchased my last three sets from ebay and saved tons of money. I first did a trial of the same model downloading the setting to my target program so I had a good start. Learning programming can be a challenge.
So the hearing aids could be programmed as well before shipping?
I was thinking of doing it myself but I’m not confident about that as I’m not a tech savvy.
I think I will go with buying hearing aids from Egypt, as there are a lot of issues I’m not certain about.
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.
Unfortunately, there is nothing cheap enough to throw it away and buy another one. At least, not in my case where I don’t have a job and a stable income. I have to think twice before making this decision.
Yes sure I understand, sorry your right in this case, it’s pretty hard with no access to work to help pay for things, I can only hope that your fortunes change in the near future.
I did come across a local website (which you may have already seen) but thought it’s worth mentioning.
You’ve come to the right place, honestly if you can use a PC and have used any windows software you’ll be able to program your own hearing aids, there’s lots of guides (including some video) plus plenty of us doing DIY projects to help you along.
Thank you!
Any turorials or videos will be helpful and will give me an idea what I can or can’t do.
It would also be great to have a guide through this process.
First you need to know what system programs your HA. I have Phonak so I use the target software. I watched programmers very carefully how they connect and then begin the process. I then downloaded step by step instructions from target, Audiologyonline.com offers courses on target programming I watch free, cost $ only if you want CEU credits and some YouTube videos are helpful
