Recently, I decided to use my benefits (which are limited to only $2500 through insurance). However, I received a postcard announcing that Anthem BCBS had signed up with TruHearing.com5. After investigating, it seemed like a phenomenal deal. I could get the most advanced HA’s for only $2890. I have already reached my max out-of-pocket, so no deductibles or co-pays apply.
They booked the appointment with a local provider, and everything was going so well. Yet, I was told that I could not get the Phonak Sphere 90’s. I could, however, get the Infinio 90’s. I contacted the benefits manager at TruHearing and she verified I could either get the Sphere 70’s or the Infinio 90’s. While I was disappointed, I ordered the Infinio 90’s. On Thursday, April 10th at 7 AM, I received a call from the TruHearing benefits manager with great news. The Sphere 90’s were now available. I just needed to work with my Audi to process a return of the Infinio 90’s. No problem. We began the process of returning.
Then, on Thursday, the 17th, the Audi tried to place the order for the Sphere 90’s but couldn’t through the TruHearing system. We hopped on a conference call with TruHearing and were told the Sphere 90s were not available through TruHearing. Yet, I had it in writing from the benefits manager who was off through the holiday weekend.
At approximately 9:51 AM this morning, April 21st, I received an email from the benefits manager with an apology. She had been given bad information, and there was nothing they could or would do.
Not only is this poor communication, it’s extremely poor customer service. Sadly, I am now back to either accepting what they have to offer or pay an additional $2300 out of pocket (Audi is offering me a deal using my HA benefit through insurance). Yet, TruHearing offers no assistance or help, even though I have it in writing. Any suggestions other than BBB? I filed a grievance with my insurance company.
Na mate it certainly isn’t been “lied to” I’d be upset too, but at the end of the day it was a mistake, I wouldn’t feel so badly, dump the Phonak brand and go for something else, got a Costco nearby by any chance?
I bought new Phonak Infinio Sphere I90s off of eBay for $2800. The seller was AudioLogiska in Sweden. I sent them my from my local Audi and they pre fitted the according to the audiogram. They arrived on time about two weeks later. Their return policy is only 30 days but I requested 60 and they said “no problem”. They also offered to do follow ups for free. However I chose to take the HAs to my local Audi and pay them their overpriced fee of $500 for a Real Ear Mesurement. All follow-ups will cost me an office call each time. Thanks to this forum, I was able to get the Phonak Target software and am now in the process of learning how to get around in it. Hopefully I will not be making many follow up trips to the Audi. Maybe none. Of course, if I need warranty work done, I will have to get my Audi to process it. I checked out TrueHearing and decided not to use them because the local providers they used for my area were not the best. Plus when I didn’t follow through with them, they called me multiple times to try to get my business back. Reminded me of car salesmen. I am satisfied with the way this worked out for me. I am also trialing Costco’s Phillips 9050 bit haven’t got very far with them yet. Costco gives me 180 days to try them out so I have more time with them.
But then I lose my $2500 insurance benefit. Not worth it. TruHearing needs to step up and make this right by either offering the Sphere 90’s as promised or pay the difference for me to acquire them from my audi.
Anthem will let me file a grievance. That’s all I know at the current time.
I can pay $390 for Sphere 70 ($2890 though TruHearing - $2500 insurance benefit).
OR pay my audi $4800 - $2500 benefit which equals $2300. So basically $2000 more.
Well it still wasn’t exactly intentional, I think that’s the point at the moment, they didn’t set out to mislead you, they made a mistake in the process and rectified it, apologising as well, seems a bit harsh to then call it fraud?
It took about two weeks to arrive at my house from Sweden. Shipping and custom fees were included in the original price. They came with two sets of M receivers, a medium length and a longer length. After placing my order, the vendor reached out to me requesting, a photo of each ear with a ruler held beside it so they could determine the length of the receiver wire. They also highly recommended I submit a professional so they could pre fit the to my prescription. eBay provides a 30 day money back guarantee but as I reached out to the vendor with a request for an extension of an additional 30 days. They agreed it was no problem. All of my correspondence was through eBay’s message platform. I am now at the end of my trial period and have decided to keep the HAs because they seem to work well for me. I feel like they will have the depth of fine tuning options that I want as I move forward to learn how to tweak my own. The Target Software also appears to be “deep and wide” which I like even though it is a huge learning curve for me.
Thanks for the reply.
I did reach out to them via their website’s phone number in Stockholm.
Warranty is for 3 (3.5) years straight from phonak.
No , but free adjustment if your are in town or remote.
Good price though.
@PastorDale Is it possible that you don’t need the extra features in the Phonak Sphere 90’s and could be happy with the Sphere 70’s? The one difference is that the Sphere feature is “less robust” and it lacks “Speech Enhancer” in the 70’s. This question can only be answered in the context of your lifestyle and .
I found the Sphere 90’s very much worth it for my rather severe loss and the time I spend at loud bars and conferences. I don’t use the Sphere feature that often, but when I do, it’s very useful. However, a relative of mine wears a pair of 70’s instead and he’s quite happy with that model. He doesn’t spend any time in loud places like I do and his loss isn’t as severe. He didn’t feel a need for the extra feature. Having said all this, it would be nice if you could at the very least demo or trial the Sphere 90’s so you can make an informed decision.
I could get the most advanced HA’s for only $2890. I have already reached my max out-of-pocket, so no deductibles or co-pays apply.
I’m not sure I understand. Are you saying the 70s will cost you nothing out of pocket and the 90 Spheres will cost $2800?
Costco sells top of line for $1500-$1600. They may be offering ReSound’s newest within a couple of months at that price. That’s a good bit below the cost of Phonak’s 90 Sphere’s through TruHearing for something that is newer technology. In HA tech, newer is generally better - alas, it’s not always better, and it may not be better for you.
Sure, with Costco, you give up Anthem’s $2,500, but giving up that $2,500 may save you $1200-$1300. If the Jabra Pro 30 or even Pro 20 is as good as or better than the Phonaks for you, the decision is a no-breainer as far as I can see. You may end up grateful for Anthem’s miscommunication.
OTOH, if the 70s are better than the Jabras and no worse than the 90s, what have you lost, other than features that don’t help you?
Why not first figure out what the best solution is for you?
I recently got a pair of Phonak Infinio Sphere I90s from Fit Hearing, based in Nashville. They took my and programmed them for me. Delivery to Florida was less than a week. When I let them know that I had screwed up my order wrt wire length and color they sent out the correct products immediately, with free return shipping for the incorrect stuff. They have free remote programming sessions and provide 4 year warranty. Since I my HA programming I did not take advantage of any of the remote programming support. I am a very satisfied customer and will gladly do business with Fit Hearing again.
I forgot to mention that the Fit Hearing cost of a pair of Sphere I90s was $2753 during their March sale. They have since gone up to $2998. Like the original poster I have insurance through TruHearing - which in my case would not pay anything toward the Sphere I90s, so I paid it all out of pocket.
Hi. I checked out that Ebay store in Sweden that you mentioned- their Phonak Sphere 90s are priced $2450 (for the pair). Some US based Ebay stores are also selling the pair for the same price. I would have happily ordered from the Sweden store but with new tariffs here, I fear that I will get a bill of a couple hundred $.
How are you hearing aids holding up? DO you see a local audiologist too? I wonder how receptive they will be to see someone who has bought hearing aids elsewhere.
I decided to go with the Phonak’s for a few varied reasons. One… is I never really gave the Costco Phillips a good try because I trialed the Phonak’s first and liked them OK and never got around to trialing the Phillips. Two… is that I am not a huge fan of Costco. Three… is I read about Phillips’s cancer causing cpap machine coverup.
I like the Phonak’s OK. They are holding up well. They have really helped me for hearing speech, outdoor sounds and music (as a casual listener…not a musician). I did go to a professional audiologist in my home town to get a real ear test. They already had set prices for customers like me. Their price was $2000 for full service just like if I bought the from them or $500 if they only provided the real ear test. Then, if I only chose the $500 option, they would charge me an office visit each time I came in. I chose the $500 option. I felt like their price was exceptionally high for a one hour session. However I was also confident that I was dealing with a licensed hearing professional. The fact that they already had a price structure set up, told me that there were numerous people like me who are not paying the super high prices they charge.
In total, I interviewed three local companies that sold the Phonak Infinio Sphere I90s. Their prices were for their total package and all of them would not sell the HA without their full service package price. The prices were: $7495, $6995 and $6495. The company I hired to do my real ear test was the $6995 place. My total initial outlay was about $3300. Time will tell how much money I will have saved because follow up visits are on my dime. However, I am OK with that.
As far as your question about the attitude of my audiologist when I didn’t buy directly from them… here is my experience and take. First my experience. I felt like my audiologist was rather cool with me. I didn’t see any enthusiasm on her part for my $500 worth of business. She did however do a great job and I felt like she provided the same degree of expertise as she would have with a high dollar customer. I liked her and at least felt like I had someone on my team who was a true professional. Second my take. I figure her businessmen bosses have given her a quota for a certain amount of gross income each month. Her salary depends on that. However, I have to ask myself if one year down the road will she be glad to see me? I figure that yes she will because I will be paying that day for an office visit. If I had paid in advance, she would be losing one hour of her time for no income. I think they classify those customers as NIP (non income producing). To take this a step further, they are encouraged to recruit their NIPs back into being IPCs (income producing customer) by recommending a newer hearing aid with more features. So to sum it up, they want you to pay an exorbitant amount of money for access to unlimited trips to their office that most likely will not be too many. Then they use those office visits to also sell you a newer and better product. This is why so many people, myself included, are taking advantage of buying devices online and buying their service locally. I believe it is the new trend and hearing centers are undergoing a huge re-adjustment phase because their old sales model is slowly becoming obsolete. Their non-digital native customers (myself included) are dying off. I anticipate a new generation of hearing service centers will begin to crop up with this new sales model of providing service first and selling a device second. Just think about it.. the major manufacturers are now starting to sell their products to online sellers. They have already figured out that the market is changing. This change has been happening in all industries, not just the hearing aid business.
There is one main thing that the HAs don’t do that I wish they did. If someone has figured this out, I would be thrilled to know. I like to listen to podcasts or music while mowing or doing other loud sound projects. (wearing my ear muffs) Presently I can only “reduce” the microphone input setting and not turn it completely off. I wish I could turn the microphone input setting completely off and keep the Bluetooth setting on so as to hear my streaming music. Vacuuming and leaf blowing are the worst. Even on the lowest microphone settings, it is still too loud and I have to take my HAs out of my ears.
Another thing I have experienced when in a restaurant, is the automatic function cannot figure out which setting to use and skips back and forth. Thankfully, there are lots of posts on this forum about how to deal with that.
I hope these comments help. Contributors on this forum have helped me tremendously. Thanks for that guys and gals.
Arkansas
