My understanding is that the price you get from an audiologist’s office reflects the follow up care for the hearing aid. In my experience when I had a Costco hearing aid, it was very hard to get consistent follow-up care at my local Costco. No one answered the phone, impossible to make an appointment, etc. So I’m willing to pay the higher price for the qualified audiologist and consistent follow up care when the hearing aid stops working. Some who buy at Costco say they’d had acceptable experience getting needed care from the Costco staff. Others have complained of rushed, impatient service. It seems to differ location to location. So if you’re going that route, be sure during your trial period that you feel you can rely on the care followup at your location, because you don’t want to get stuck with a nonworking hearing aid. Mileage varies.
My wife and I experience today at our local Costco was very different. We were both getting Jabra Pro 30’s fitted and as I posted in another thread the fitter was very knowledgeable, spent time with us and encouraged us to come back after the two week check up for follow adjustments as needed or call with questions. Getting them on the phone has been OK as well. Most of the time they pick up and a couple times when then didn’t we got call backs.
So yes it does seem to vary by location.
To be honest the fitter at Costco seemed better informed and easier to work with than the local audiologist who wanted to charge us $8000 for Oticon Intent 1’s
Time will tell but so far very happy with the local Costco and initial impressions of the Jabra pro 30’s are also good…