Went to a different Costco to try again. New hearing test and was given 2 different hearing aids choices to try in the store. One was great and when he fitted me with the other they were almost to the point of horrible. I bought the Phillips 9050 and got them fitted and out the door the same day. So far they work great. What a difference in the 2 Costco stores I have dealt with in the last year. One excelled in rudeness and the other excelled in customer satisfaction. It is obvious they do not all receive the same training.
I have at least 4 Costco within driving distance (closest being about 45 minutes so not around the corner).
I’ve used two of the stores so far - one for my first pair in 2015 and a different location for the second pair in 2023.
prior to choosing the most recent location I had called another store and attempted to schedule an appointment over the phone (I hate the phone for obvious reasons) and the person I spoke to was not very nice over the phone and I basically said I’m not comfortable and will be hanging up now.
maybe that person was having a bad day because those centers are always busy (another reason why I prefer email).
I had mentioned that experience at the next Costco and the fitter knew who I was talking about and mentioned that individual also had hearing challenges. You would think there’d be some understanding when a customer is calling and struggling to hear you on the phone (my were broken at that point).
I’m glad you like your Philips 9050s. I love mine and have had them about a year now. Like you I went to a different Costco too. There are three I can get to pretty easy. The 9050s replaced the Resound Presa which I didn’t have much luck with.
My pair that I got a full refund on were Sennheiser Sonite R. The other Costco did not tell me the brand when I tried them in the store. He first were great and the second ones when I walked about 50 feet in the store, turned around and told the guy “these are Sennheiser” and he was floored that I knew which brand was which.
My experience with the new dept. manager at one of the 3 costco’s in my area was horrible as well.
The 1st HA fitter, I initially got the Jabra from this store. I thought with all the tech advances on Jabra, they should be amazing. I was very disappointed with the tinny unnatural sound and made an appointment with the new HA dept. manager, to hopefully try the other 3 brands and see which sounded better with my hearing loss.
On meeting him, he was definately annoyed in what I wanted him to do for me.
He spent the majority of our appointment time lecturing me, telling me with my hearing loss, it really doesn’t matter which brand I get, the sound will be the same. He didn’t want to let me return Jabra.
He got the Phillips out and set them to the same settings as the Jabra, then the Rexton and didn’t allow me to do a store walk around, just in the booth, I had to make a decision on hearing his speaking voice. He put power domes on both sets of aids.
The Philips sounded less tinny, but I wasn’t sure. There was another couple waiting to be helped and he told them he’d just be a few more minuits.
In order to refund the Jabra, and purchase the phillips, he walked me over to customer service, all the while I could feel how annoyed he was with me.
When I left, I could hear the a swish swish sound of my hair rubbing on the aid, my footsteps were very loud, my head felt plugged up, when I spoke to someone, the sound of my own voice was booming in my head.
I called another Costco, discribed what occured, asked if I could be seen there for the problem I had with the sound of the Phillips.
Night and day. The staff was kind, said he’d used clinical rather than what I think she said was the recommended manufacture setting, plus she allowed me to trial the Rextons for 2 weeks so I could compare the 2 different brands. Rexton had a different style of power dome, which didn’t make my voice s
It still doesn’t sound right if I change it to party setting, which hopefully she can adjust if I keep the Rextons. When I was waiting for an appointment, I tried that setting so I could hear the person I was speaking to, over the sound of 2 others in close proximity. The speach in noise setting seemed similar to what I experience with the Phillips power domes, so I switched back to general.
Best of all she said I could also trial the Seinhauser next time to see if their sound was better for me.
She said if I wanted to return the Phillips to make an appointment at the other Costco HA dept to return them, because their dept. would get dinged for the return. With the rude service I got from the other store HA manager, I definately wanted to return them to this store.
So yes, different Costco’s will definately give you different service.
It sounds like Costco needs some way to better gather patient and other feedback on each store’s hearing aid staff. I’m sure some issues are just staff having a bad day but part of the Costco process is not to be made to feel uncomfortable or pressured to select or keep aids. Worst case it takes more time and one needs to book an additional appointment. Instead members have to gamble on another store location which is not always possible for those who do not live near multiple Costco locations.
PA