I feel the same way. Good audiologists and HIS rock!
“Based on my experience at Sam’s I think the hearing aid business may want to change it’s business model. I am totally convinced the audi makes the difference. Those audi’s that want to help people instead of 'selling used cars” will migrate over to the Sams and Costcos. "
Rough…I’m very happy that you found a good audi at Sam’s and have a hearing aid
solution that fits your loss and life style; I also hope that over a three or four year
period of time this choice proves to be a good one; those of us who pay more thru
private offices in large measure are also paying for a good audi AND future services,
warranty/loss/damage protections, batteries, and audi availability for 3 to 4 years AND
are hoping also that we made the right choice…I hope we both win!!
Hey English: I don’t believe in a conspiracy. What we consumers see is a device that is vastly overpriced and narrowly dispensed.
Normal competition is not possible either at manufacturing nor retailing because of the Medical ethos and government restrictions of the hearing aid business.
No, I don’t believe it’s possible for this industry to provide a truly open competative environment as long as aids are thought of by consumers, dispensers, and the larger country governments as medical devices.
What I do believe is that for the vast majority of deaf, an aid is simply a small audio amplifier sound conditioner not a medical prothesis. And that the retail structure is a hangover from the early days of dispensing. Aids, from the ground up, are designed to be fitted by a trained specialist. With today’s technology they don’t have to be that way.
You do know that prior to 1977 in the USA, for example, aids were freely sold on the open market. ( the abuses were rife, howerver for reasons not due to the nature of the product, but due to the lack of consumer sophistication and absence of goverment consumer remedial services at that time.)
Ed
“What we consumers see is a device that is vastly overpriced and narrowly dispensed.”
Really I’m not taking sides here on this issue as hearing loss and/or potential neurological issues can be related…one can make a compelling case for continued
medical regulations that keep prices high and access low as you state but you would have to agree there are scores of examples(mostly medically related) where the consumer
is not benefiting from increased competition; Lipitor being one great example before
patent protection was removed; uninsured people needing Lipitor were/are looking at
$$$ for the med per year; not unlike hearing aids that few have insurance for; IMHO,
I just don’t believe technology has so evolved that for the masses we can self-serve in
an unregulated environment…this may change overtime but if the big companies
lose the ability to recoup R&D costs there will be no improvement in hearing
instruments in the future…this I know…
Scuba: Turn Sony,Panasonic, Samsung, and the other Asian Tigers loose from customary practices and goverment regs and you would have aids wholesaling for under $200. I bought some aids from a small Asian factory for about $125 US. They were middling…not too bad. Suitable for mild losses.
Aids are almost all made in Europe by highly skilled workers paid European wages with many benefits in clean factories. I know I’ve been there. You would be surprised at how they manipulate the tiny parts one by one. I have also been to Asian electronics factories where high speed assembly takes place…no comparison.
In the past few years I know one large Asian company tried unsuccessfully to crack the American hearing aid market. By law they could only sell to licensed professional dispensers…who almost 100% turned them down. The product was good yet the pro’s wouldn’t touch them. Don’t blame them…they instinctly knew that they represented the foot in the door toward mass marketing. Just my opinion, Ed
I see that you have much more experience than myself who is two weeks into this endeavor. I feel the my audi at Sams will probably still be at Sams in the future…I didn’t get the same impresssion from the private practice audi. One thing I do like about Sams is we travel a lot, and I can go to any Sams to get things taken care of if I have a problem.
Sams offers loss/damage protection as well as a three year extended warranty. I found I could get a rider on my home owners insurance for about half of the Sams price with $0 deductable. I will wait until my year is almost up before I do the extended warranty. What has your experience been with the extended warranty?
The audi at Sams will take care of any future adjustments as well as cleaning and replacing the plastic tips on my aids. I have found the battery supplier on this site has good prices on batteries. I just replaced my first batteries…they went 11 days. I hope this is typical.
Thanks for your comments. As long as a person can walk away from a deal not feeling he was scammed, both the seller and customer can have a win-win.
If you happen to are going to go to the Audibel incident, go in with know-how on their HA line and their costs accrued from the internet. Just google Audibel hearing aid expenses and I’m sure you will come up with someone posting the prices. You can also go to Costco if you happen to are near one; they offer a 90 day proceedings and get back insurance policy coverage. lastly, if you happen to are taking pictures guns i’m hoping you are using hearing aegis.
Ed, the $200 wholesale price for instruments has already been documented in these forums, this is what Englands socialized medicine pays for some instruments. Yes, to get the absolute lowest cost everything would be done overseas. In the case of a hearing instrument, I would be surprised if the total labor time to assemble and test is 15 minutes. So if your burden rate is $100/hour (US/EU) vs $20 (China), it is still a small impact. I’m sure you’re aware that we have auto place machines in the US?? 
Panasonic - Matsushita Corp. are already in the market.
I really don’t know where you saw this, but it doesn’t apply to the majority of BTE/RIC production or the face-plate sub assembly of ITE. A couple of manufacturers may still do some work on this basis.