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E.R. Hearing Aid Repair - Beware

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I own a Siemens hearing aid that was purchased through Sonus and after 5 years (almost to the day), the hearing aid mic gave out and no longer amplifies sounds. I tried contacting Sonus but repairs for hearing aids older than 5 years is close to $400. So I Googled hearing aid repairs and one of the first ones to come up was E.R. Hearing Aid Repair. Their website claims 4-7 business day turnaround and their prices are reasonable so I gave them a shot. We sent the hearing aid in 11/10/09 and to this day, we’re still waiting for it to be returned. We called two weeks ago and the owner (I assume it’s the guy in the picture on their website) said that things were really busy and they would get to it soon. Today (12/7/09), I called and the owner said almost exactly the same thing he said 2 weeks ago. He said that the hearing aid would ship out tomorrow and that he’ll change his website after the new year. Keeping my fingers crossed. :frowning:

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Sorry to hear about your problems, but you send your aids to a place that you happened to find on the computer? I don’t think so. Next time maybe you should buy insurance for the aids and this way your audiologist can ship them to someplace reputable. In the meantime, maybe your audiologist could have set you up with a loaner making the wait a little more bearable.

Visiting my audiologist was my first step but Sonus was charging almost 4x more than what I could find it online for. I already have a replacement hearing aid so I didn’t need a loaner but didn’t expect turnaround time at ER Hearing Repair to be so long.

My experience when I send my aids to the manufacturer turn around time is usually a week, but $400 seems like alot, of course i don’t know what needed to be done. Unfortunately when you are quoted a price that is substantially lower there’s usually a catch. Hopefully when you do get them back they are fixed properly. I assume you are getting some kind of a warrantee.

I have heard numerous stories similar to yours from our patients. They usually find one of these fly by night hearing aid repair websites that promise to fix any hearing aid within a week only to have to send it back and forth several times. The ending is always the same; the hearing aid never gets fixed, the patient has to do without it for several weeks, and it ends up costing more than it would of to just have it repaired by the manufacturer due to shipping and eval costs. Like Hask12 said, even though $400 is a steep price it is almost always worth it in the end. I hope this helps.

Hearing aid repairs should never cost $400, thats insane. The problem is most people wont repair that are older then 5 years, as a general rule they can be a nightmare to work, I would be suprised if they would warantee it even. I dont know though, short of driving there and making somebody resposible, you might be SOL. There is no way a repair should take this long, I wonder if they lost it…

Edited

… or if they can not figure out what is wrong with it. $400 is steep but it is better than having a company lose them, and then give you the run around when you want the ’s back. Try to find them on the Better Business Bureau website, if they are on there you can file a complaint and it will probably be resolved very quickly. If they are not, then I would utilize this resource in the future when choosing a company to work with. I hope you get them back soon!

I believe the manufacturers have put a five year limit to repairs to force the user into a new product, it has become acceptable amongst all the manufacturers to tell people it is obsolete, so they can sell more product.
Considering there are only a few components in a hearing aid(probably under $30 worth of parts at their volume levels) $400.00 is pretty pricey.
Considering most hearing aids now for the manufacturers is one chip they turn off and on features, it shouldn’t be that difficult to support hearing aids out past 7 years or more.

In reply to @aquaskisiac

@aquaskisiac said:

I believe the manufacturers have put a five year limit to repairs to force the user into a new product, it has become acceptable amongst all the manufacturers to tell people it is obsolete, so they can sell more product.
Considering there are only a few components in a hearing aid(probably under $30 worth of parts at their volume levels) $400.00 is pretty pricey.
Considering most hearing aids now for the manufacturers is one chip they turn off and on features, it shouldn’t be that difficult to support hearing aids out past 7 years or more.

Gee I can’t think of very many products that come with a 5 yr. warranty.

@Hask12 said:

Gee I can’t think of very many products that come with a 5 yr. warranty.

I haven’t seen any 5 year warranty’s, only commenting that any aids over 5 years old and out of production for 5 years or more are being told that they cannot be repaired. It started with the computer and Home Entertainment industry obsoleting repair of products after 2-3 years, forcing you to buy something new.

For the price that people pay for these products my personal feelings are it is not long enough for product support.

I agree with you. Many companies do this for the reason you state. I know this to be true because there are still manufacturers out there that repair aids well over 8 years old, even if they aren’t their aids.

For example, I have 1 manufacturer that i send ALL my repairs to (regardless of model) if the aids are more than 5 years old because they won’t send them back saying they are “unserviceable”. So it is possible, many companies just won’t do it…

dr. amy

I think back in the 60’s it was called planned obsolescence. Auto makers were accused of putting parts in cars that were made to fail within a certain number of years so you would have to buy a new car. At least with the hearing aid industry there’s a little wiggle room due to the rapid advances in technology.

In reply to @dr.amy

@dr.amy said:

I agree with you. Many companies do this for the reason you state. I know this to be true because there are still manufacturers out there that repair aids well over 8 years old, even if they aren’t their aids.

For example, I have 1 manufacturer that i send ALL my repairs to (regardless of model) if the aids are more than 5 years old because they won’t send them back saying they are “unserviceable”. So it is possible, many companies just won’t do it…

dr. amy

Dr Amy,
What company do you send your repairs to? Will they repair aids sent from individuals? I live in Rochester NY and cannot find a place to repair aids over 5 years old. (Mine are 7)
Ceiba

@ceiba said:

Dr Amy,
What company do you send your repairs to? Will they repair aids sent from individuals? I live in Rochester NY and cannot find a place to repair aids over 5 years old. (Mine are 7)
Ceiba

I send them to Starkey’s all-make repair department. I’m not sure what their policy is on individuals submitting repairs. I know that Starkey customers can submit repairs themselves…

dr. amy

I am 46 years old; been wearing hearing aids since I was 12 yrs old; I have a lot of experience with different audiologists and hearing aid repar people. I have used E.R. Hearing aid 3 times now… and let me tell you; the service is excellent. You wont be sorry. I highly reccommend them.
G.G. from Illinois.

In reply to @Hask12

You should try Earmax lab. My mom had a hearing aid that was 8 years old Starkey custom in the ear that went dead, and audiologist said it’s too old to be repaired. Not for these guys, they repaired it, and shipped back to us within the week!!! You can google them, and prices they have are very reasonable.

In reply to @Hask12

You should try Earmax lab. My mom had a hearing aid that was 8 years old Starkey custom in the ear that went dead, and audiologist said it’s too old to be repaired. Not for these guys, they repaired it, and shipped back to us within the week!!! You can google them, and prices they have are very reasonable.

i am new on here but i have been wearing a hearing aid8 since i was able to walk. i have gone through 2 hearing aids in 21 years. the reason that they last me is because i go through hearsource.com , they are reasonable and they claim to be able to fix almost any they come across. but again this is just my opinion.

@maxC said:

i am new on here but i have been wearing a hearing aid since i was able to walk. i have gone through 2 hearing aids in 21 years. the reason that they last me is because i go through hearsource.com , they are reasonable and they claim to be able to fix almost any HA they come across. but again this is just my opinion.

Ditto for HearSource. I had them repair a set of 4 year old Beltones. My Beltone dealer quoted me $500 each for her to send them in and have the factory go thru them. I went online and HearSource did them for $99 each. No problems. I eventually bought a set of their hearing aids2 due to my satisfaction with them.

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