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Oticon Intent 1 Price UK

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Edited

Been quoted nearly £4000 for a pair of Oticon Intent 1 with a 5 year warranty, wax removal services and a rechargeable battery replacement. Is that quite a fair price?

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I absolutely do not pretend to be an expert on the business side of hearing aids, but it doesn’t seem too bad given the warranty length and services available. That price is probably what I’ll spend over 5 years for the purchase price plus services paid separately (in dollars) for Oticon 1s that I have. That said, if memory serves me this model came out very roughly about 2 years ago, and the refresh cycle can be perhaps 3 to 4 years.

It’s hard to say when the next update will come along, but worst case you’d be with the Intent 1 technology for some years into the next update cycle. Presuming you need it now and they work well for your situation, sounds pretty good as long as you will stick with that technology a while.

Edited

Update: @tenkan mentions that battery replacement should be part of a standard warranty. So the rest of this post is moot…

The “rechargable battery replacement” sounds like a perk to me. I’m considering Intent 1, and I hadn’t thought to ask about this. I just assumed that the buyer would have to deal with this when the batteries fail. I’m wearing More 2 right now (4+ years old), and I’m on second battery in left ear and third in right, but these are easy to replace. Open the door, and you’ve got access. The Intent 1 is sealed. If the price includes replacement, it could save you some cash down the line and extend the life of the hearing aids. Keep in mind that you may need to send your hearing aids away to be refurbished, so consider asking about loaners while you don’t have them. What I can’t say is whether the perk is worth the price. :slightly_frowning_face:

@Baltazard said:

4000 seems a steep price, have you checked online?

Absolutely, but even better is check out your local Costco.

@eliotb said:

That price is probably what I’ll spend over 5 years for the purchase price plus services paid separately

Like what services do you mean?

@eliotb said:

That said, if memory serves me this model came out very roughly about 2 years ago

Yes good point, new models are supposed to be out soon

@bpeckham said:

The “rechargable battery replacement” sounds like a perk to me.

Why so, the are covered by the manufacturers warranty, which includes the battery, it’s not a perk but a standard part of any warranty.

@user490 said:

Has anyone pulled the case on Intent to see the battery situation?

Pretty sure from memory, use the search button from right here on hearingtracker to see what you can find.

5 years warranty seems a bit long to keep, technology is racing away and they’ll be obsolete within that time frame, your certainly having to pay for this “bundle” price.

Greetings from California — Go to Costco and get the Philips HearLink 9050 hearing aids. They are the same thing and are wonderful, at a fraction of the price you have been quoted for the Oticon aids. I’ve had mine for a month and could not be happier. I’ll gladly discuss this with you at your convenience. No problem in either emailing or calling you in the UK. Cheers, John

In reply to @Baltazard

With that services bundle. No, that’s a tidy deal.

We’re back at the something for nothing situation here: the Wholesale for these is around £2K before you even consider the cost of running the clinic, kit and people, wax removals plus paying U.K. tax etc.

Big box places might do it cheaper, but you won’t have anything like that level of service or a desk to bang if you’re not happy.

Costco isn’t as universal here as it is in the US.

@P_L said:

Oticon Intent 1

Hop in the train to Lille or Paris in France and buy them at Unisson (or another discounter) for about 2,000 BP/pair, including fitting and 4 y warranty. They advertise their prices online.
Living in Switzerland, I also bought my just across the border in that country.

I paid £3500 for my pair. For that price, I get unlimited visits, which is not really necessary as I have found him to be really good. I only get two years warranty though and I have to pay for any wax removal services.

I consider it a good deal because you have to factor in - cost of hearing aids to them, the costs of running an office - leases, staff etc.

The most important criteria when choosing to buy hearing aids is not their price, but how good the audiologist is. I would say that the vast majority of audiologists are rubbish and are hearing aid dispensers not audiologists. So hearing aids are commonly underfit and the user experience is not satisfactory. If your aim is to hear properly, choose a good audiologist, not who has the best price. Hearing aids are not like buying phone where you can get the same quality for wildly different prices - how good your audio is makes far more of a difference than what hearing aids you get and how much you pay for them.

I think I paid a very good price for my aids considering that I am very happy with my audiologist. I will concede that I think a 2 year warranty is a bit short, but my previous hearing aids lasted 7 years without issue, so I am not massively worried.

For the extra services that you are getting, I think that is a good price - especially if the audiologist is very good at their job.

@Roberto said:

I would say that the vast majority of audiologists are rubbish and are hearing aid dispensers not audiologists. So hearing aids are commonly underfit and the user experience is not satisfactory.

You’ve got to love a completely unsubstantiated negative claim on a Friday.

In reply to @tenkan

@tenkan said:

Why so, the HAs are covered by the manufacturers warranty, which includes the battery, it’s not a perk but a standard part of any warranty.

It wasn’t clear to me that this would be a standard part of the warranty, but thinking back on it, all but my most recent battery replacement were covered, so it makes sense now that this would be covered.

The fact that the battery is sealed just makes it less convenient.

In reply to @Um_bongo

I don’t want to derail this thread about a completely unrelated topic. But I will back up my statement as it does not come out of nowhere.

I can’t recall exactly what article I read, but a quick google search suggests that between 20%-40% of hearing aids sit in a drawer because their users say that they don’t hear any better with the aids than without. I am sure somebody on this forum pointed to an article stating that. That is a massive percentage of hearing aids that are not being fit properly. My mother is an example of this - her hearing aids sit in a drawer and she only uses them for tv, nothing else because she says she doesn’t notice any difference wearing them in general. I am going to get her to go to the audio that I have found that offers , WSR etc. She used the same high street chain that I used to go to which made me realise that the problem was them, not with my hearing being really complicated.

Almost everyone on this forum has said that their audiologist does not provide REM despite the fact that REM is the only way you can actually verify the fit. Without REM, it doesn’t matter how good the audiologist is, without REM you are operating in a black box and frankly guessing. REM is not perfect, but it is a necessary part of the toolkit. It would seem that less than 20% of audiologists provide REM as part of the service. I am sorry if it sounds harsh, but I agree with many others, if you are not offering REM, you are not doing your job properly. Thus 80% of audios are no good as they don’t offer REM.

Like many others, I initially used a high street chain - which is where most people start. I have since learnt that they are, to be polite, hearing aid dispensers, not audiologists. My current audio is considerably better than the high street chain that I used for my last hearing aids. While I am very happy with him, as he is a lot better, I have realised his limitations because he does not offer REM.

Last but not least, hearing aid manufacturers themselves do not help when they configure the hearing aids for comfort (with too much emphasis on comfort) at the expense of speech clarity. For example, I cannot understand what my mother is saying in the car if she is sitting behind me in the car when using VAC+ profile, whilst I can understand about 80-90% of what she is saying in the car when using . What is the point of comfort if you still can’t hear properly!

Hope that sufficiently backs up my earlier comments.

However, I do want to avoid derailing the topic and keep it focused on the question that the OP raised - which is a good question. How much should one pay for Oticon hearing aids. Thank you.

Ok, without wanting to further derail the topic.

So, what’s the ‘vast majority’ ? 90%?

You’re basing an argument on the pricing of the whole industry on an anecdote. The plural of anecdote isn’t data.

For the record. £4k sits about right in terms of the U.K. industry for a set of these properly fitted at a decent independent, with that back-up and wax removal package.

That’s a properly insured, U.K. taxed and calibrated outfit, not some big box discounter or someone who claims to trade in a tax haven like Guernsey (Speccies), while pulling in government contracts.

I don’t think there are really hard numbers on this, but the general idea that user satisfaction depends more on how well their HAs are fitted than on the particular model seems plausible to me- just reading comments in this forum, hyperbole aside.
Not convinced that are key here however. For Phonaks this is simply part of what goes into the initial software (Target) parameters, probably rarely skipped.
There may be a star role for in the fitting process in the near future. In my own experience, the initial fitting (using Target’s default process) was a disaster.

In reply to @Um_bongo

I have no issues with the pricing. I have already said that I found the price to be very fair. My concerns is about lack of , hearing aid sound profiles fit for comfort not speech clarity etc which has resulted in a situation (judging by many different users on this forum), that hearing aids are frequently underfit and are not hearing optimally. Price is not relevant here.

I don’t have specific numbers to give as I cannot remember where I read that article etc, but you have been on this forum more than enough to know that the same complaints seem to keep coming up on the forum - audiologists that don’t support REM and issues with underfit frequencies etc that result in people not hearing as well as they should in various environments. These issues keep coming up all the time. My own experience with dealing with audiologists over decades has lead me to believe that most are not setting up aids optimally.

All I meant was that the OP should focus primarily on choosing a good Audio - Price should not be the prime consideration here - in my opinion.

In reply to @RobHooft

@RobHooft said:

I don’t think there are really hard numbers on this, but the general idea that HA user satisfaction depends more on how well their HAs are fitted than on the particular model seems plausible to me- just reading comments in this forum, hyperbole aside.

Yes and no. From reading the forum, it is frequently stated that a cheap hearing aid setup well will always be better than a very expensive hearing aid setup badly! However, my own experience of using say Resound, Widex etc versus Oticon is that I cannot hear what people are saying in noisy environments with Widex (because all I can hear is the racket around me), whereas with Oticon - no issues hearing in noisy environments.

Hearing aids manufacturers do make a difference as well, but yes (in general) - how well fit the aid is, is more relevant as everyone (and myself agree) keeps saying.

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