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I just ordered Costco's Sennheiser Sonite Rise. mixed feelings about the experience so far

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Edited

so after 7 years with my Phonak Marvel M-90-13T aids

I’ve finally pulled the trigger for an upgrade

I’ve got some mixed feelings about the Costco experience so far…..mostly negative but I’m going with it for now.

I’d gone in a year ago and had the hearing test, so I’m an established client but delayed purchase

Made my decision and called in mid-June to set an appointment. I’d even asked when I called if they could go ahead and order the aids so we can cut to the chase. I know what I want, they have a baseline test on file…they should be able to order based on that but do the final program based on a new hearing test….nope, they can’t. Ughg, OK fine….

SO early July was the first appointment that I could make work (July 6)…and I’m retired…can go in almost anytime….just a trip or conflict now and then….

well sadly I had a minor external ear infection just prior. I knew this would be a problem so I jumped on it ASAP and went for antibiotics while out of town. No problem, it cleared up in time for the appointment.

Initial questions at the appointment….”have you had any pain or discharge recently?”

well yeah, I just told him 1 minute prior that I’d had this infection and it’s cleared up.

So I get “how do you know it’s cleared, are you a doctor?”

So appointment ended. They required me to get medical clearance. Ugh, ok fine. Now I have to go FIND an , get an appointment, wait, etc….

can you go ahead and order the aids so we can cut to the chase? Nope. It’s policy.

so to give time for that the very next Costco appointment I can get isn’t till July 28. Luckily I was able to find and get in with an ENT

So I scheduled with an ENT at a hearing clinic, and went ahead and agreed to their hearing test and sales pitch. I’m really tempted to go for the I-70 Sphere or the I-90 sphere…but it’s just too hard to justify the price difference

so my costco appointment finally comes

Yes, I want to order, please. What about my molds? His answer, “Oh, I can’t do that today, that’s a separate appointment.”

umm, you knew that I had molds…..

So I’ll be out of town when their next available fitting appointment came up, so that pushes it out yet another week…. so now I have to wait till Aug 17 to get the aids with DOMES

Thnik is, the Audiologist at the ENT’s office said she disagrees with my current aids, that I don’t need molds for my loss. Yeah, I probably don’t . Explained to her why I have them…. I was starting to run out of headroom + I had read on the forum here that sometimes molds can end the itching from the domes…so I asked for them…and it did pretty much end the itching.
I don’t love the slimtips exactly, but I love not itching all the time!!!

Audi is confident that the new style domes will be better.

fast forward back to costco… the fitter there says the same thing. He disagrees with the molds. Again I explained, again he’s confident….

So I agree to try them but I was pretty much ready to pay for the molds anyway. I’ll still try the domes but let’s get the molds coming. nope

And now I’l be two months in since I was ready to give them money, before I get to even start the trial. I’m retired so it should be pretty easy for me to get appointments for the minor adjustements and reprogramming that surely will be needed to dial these in, but the track record so far is that it’s hard to get in. I’m usually a patient guy, but this is trying me!

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Now I’m thinking that Costco’s business model isn’t very customer-centric

I’m thinking that they sell, what?…four different models of aids

I know there are different colors for each, but even with that, it’s not really that many…especially if they were to cull it down to the most common ones. Four total colors for the Sennheiser.

So…to be as busy as they seem to be, I’m guessing that they move product….so why in the world don’t they keep at least one or two of each type in stock?!?

Also, I get that they may not want to order for someone that has never worn before…but a customer that has experience…and has an established file…knows what they want, and they aren’t wanting something that is out in left field and may not work for them….why not order and cut to the chase?

I was ready to pay in mid-June!!!

The one good thing so far (I guess it’s good), the hearing test that was done yesterday (and also last year) seemed to be very thorough. Just a ballpark guess, but I’d say that he spent nearly twice as long as the Audiologist did just the other day, and a little longer than my previous audiologist did if my memory serves…Costco does a few variations of tests that I don’t remember having done at either audiologist… the “uncomfortably loud threshold” is one example.

and compared to my Audiologist tests, the results align pretty closely… and WR scores anyway….

Check your state law. In my state, a person over 18 must have medical clearance and hearing test within the last 12 months of purchase, but in practice, sellers require a test within the last 6 months.

Yes before getting aids one must have a clean bill of health from an in the state of Ohio. IMO you need molds.

Yeah maybe a technicality there that I know nothing about, and the test on file was >1 year out

but I would have argued that the sale may have started but the new hearing est would have of course be done before the fitting and completion of the sale!

Regardless, I can let that go even if it’s not legal and only just store policy. Hey, it is what it is…and if that the worst of it we’l be doing ok.

but stacked up with all these other ‘issues’ I’ve got to say that it’s not looking good for Costco. Well except for the price…

I’ve had good luck with Costco audiologists. They’re busy because of their prices, I guess. I had Kirkland 9’s for 5 years before one went bad. I got Jabra Pro 30’s but didn’t like them at all, so I traded them for Sennheiser Sonite’s and like them.

Did you try chatting with the hearing manager to see how you might get more accomplished with each appointment?

Many if not all Costco staff need better training about molds as they seem to discourage it, likely due to lack of knowledge and experience. Aids cost $1,600+ and some do not work well for some customers. Yet trying molds for an additional $80 would be an unbearable waste?

Price is now just under $50. My Costco has recommended molds for more than 4 years for me. S0me Costco staff members are more competent than others.

In reply to @user490

@user490 said:

Many if not all Costco staff need better training about molds as they seem to discourage it, likely due to lack of knowledge and experience.

I had that sense too…but I will say that in the Costco technician’s defence, my audiologist when I asked for the molds that I have in my ears right now said she didn’t think I needed it…. as did the audiologist at the doc’s office just a couple of weeks ago.

so, I’m willing to give the new domes a try I suppose. I’m just not overly happy about all the delays. I knew what I wanted and was ready to give them money in mid-June! I’ll get them next week, past mid-August, and I will no doubt need another appointment or two to get them dialed in…and even more appointments in the likley event that I’ll reject the domes. I’m doubtful that the new domes will itch all that much less than my old domes did, but since they’ll be , I suppose maybe they’ll support enough headroom in the program.
Also, I wanted to try Ti slimtips this time around but that’s one of the trade-offs of going discount, I suppose

I picked up my Sonite Rise aids today.
My first experience with Real Ear Measurement. I’m sure that it speeds up the process of getting a good setup, but I’m not convinced that it’s the must-do thing that it’s made out to be.

The way it was run was a recording of a female voice reading a paragraph (in what sounded like German?). It was repeated in each ear, low volume, medium, and high…so 3x in each ear, and that was repeated after some adjustments were made.

Is that the standard/typical method?

I was trying to learn, and noticed that the actual graph didn’t fully align to the same shape and amplitude as the target for each volume… but the fitter just said don’t worry about that. I guess there’s a wide tolerance band. Anyway, when it was finished the plotted curves did fairly closely match the target.

I asked him if he was going to look at the settings in my old aids to get a feel for preferences and so that he could at least get a feel for what I’m used to. He said he can’t, but I noticed that he was using Phonak software.

he just did the set-up, walked through the Bluetooth pairing and getting the Sonite app on my phone, then pretty much sent me packing with an appointment for a follow-up call in a couple of weeks. I asked if he was going to make remote adjustments at that time, if needed. Nope, just a call. I insisted that he make an appointment for me because I’m confident that there will be some need for adjustment…so that’s set for 2-weeks after the call. Boy, they really do drag this process out at Costco!!

So before I walked away, I did a little test stream, calling up a youtube video. Noticed immediately that there was no apparent decrease in the microphone setting. I’d even mentioned that to him when I asked about his looking at my old settings. Ugh. Then I made a test call. I was told that it sounds pretty good but that the background noise seems to be higher than usual with my old aids. That matches what I’m hearing on the call and streaming…

so I asked him about it. He immediately wanted to go to the app. He had no idea about it. I had to tell him that it’s a setting in his Phonak software. He was a little grumpy about it, but we finally found the setting and decreased the mics by 2dB when streaming… just a number pulled from the air, it seems, as a guess. It seems ok, maybe….

30 minutes in and the domes started a very low-level ache in my ears. No itching…yet at least. I’m trying to give them a shot but ugh.

Two different occurrences of feedback chirps in my left side while in the appointment. Told him both times and he didn’t do anything about it. Chirped again as I was getting into my car. I have a feeling that it’s a little to close to the threshold….

Streaming is tinny; domes are slightly uncomfortable, and a little too much hair-rubbing noise. Otherwise, so far the aids seem ok, but I haven’t yet noticed anything really better than what I was getting with my Marvels.

Edited

That looks like part of to me. When I’ve gone through it, the audi (its’ been audis even though it’s at Costco) went through multiple iterations at each level. That is, the process was REM, adjust, REM again to see how close the match was, and maybe REM again to make sure the match couldn’t be closer, and REM again after each adjustment. (If your Costco person gets to know you, adjustments go faster, but there’s a lot of turnover.)

Two weeks follow-up has been standard for me, but it has always been an appointment and an adjustment.

Painful domes - I would call and demand a follow-up immediately. That’s pretty close to an emergency, and fitting the next smaller domes doesn’t take 5 minutes.

thanks, yeah that was pretty much what he did one or two iterations after adjustments…it was just one voice recording repeated at three volumes…..

Good point about the domes. Painful is probably too strong of a word…but it is a little like when you get a hotspot on your foot before getting a blister….I’ll probably call later this afternoon. I’m going to pull of the tails and see if that changes anything.

Edited

and I’m toying with putting on the Slimtips from my phonaks, to see how well it works. I know that’ll be a different program set-up but it might be interesting to try anyway.

or

maybe I’ll just switch back to my Marvels after a bit, just to see if that’s a relief. If that’s like the euphoric feeling of pulling of a stiff pair off boots after a long day, then I’ll call and get the ball rolling for molds

Honestly though, at this point I’m not loving the Costco experience, so I might ask for the staff audiologist/manager for the molds…..OR I might instead try to find a 3rd party audiologist that can order some titanium Slimtips for me.

@bradw said:

so I might ask for the staff audiologist/manager for the molds

My bother and his wife went to Costco (Florida) for molds, and they complain that they keep falling out, he showed me the molds and they were 4 mm shorter than mine and did not seem to go beyond the bend as mine do, and mine do not fall out, in fact I sometime forget they are even there. I’m in Quebec Canada., my Audi has never made my molds this short. My 2c’s worth

Tomorrow will be 2-weeks in on my trial (almost 4 weeks in on my return window), and I have my follow-up phone call scheduled. Yey!...but I'm not sure what good this'll do.... (I asked if he would be using the remote adjust tool, and I was told no) It smells like a waste of time to me and makes me wonder if it's not a plan to just eat up the return window

Luckily I foresaw this and knowing that I would certainly need some fitting adjustments, I forced the hand and already have an appointment on the books...but that'll be another 2-weeks out! His first available...if I'd waited for the call like they wanted to do, I wonder how far out that would have been!

Anyway, I've been back in twice now for non-appointment visits trying to get different domes. They won't give me a proper sample pack of the different types and sizes, so I'm still not confident that I have the very best fit/coupling, but I'm probably close.

I really only have a few situations where they need to be adjusted. All very similar

in the car, in a noisy restaurant environment, and in my echoic church, they all have too much turned down for comfort. I need to turn up the highs for better speech understanding. Other than that they've been ok.

I plan to wear them as they are to church again today, but this time I'll bring my phone so that I can see which autosense mode they go into and play with the equalizer settings a bit

After that, I plan to take the slimtip molds off of my marvels and try to fit them to these. I know the program is set up for power domes so it won't be optimal, but it might be interesting to see what happens...and also a chance to re-visit the comfort of the molds since I've been wearing domes for a couple of weeks.

Then I suppose I'll have all the ammunition I need for my follow-up visit in two weeks

The one area where I can say that these excel over my old Marvels is in wind. Zero wind noise so far with these

Otherwise at this point I'm not really seeing a whole lot of benefit with the three-generation leap that I've made. (marvel to paradise to lumity to infineo). I guess I was hoping for more.

I like the tap control, but honestly that's a little more than a gimmick. I like the better wind noise cancelling...but this rechargeable battery life is stupid compared to the 8-days per battery swap that my Marvels give me. So far i'm not feeling like it's a step up...or even a step forward....

maybe not so much....

These are basically one step down from "top of the line" aids (= Phonak I-90R)....would have been what, maybe US$5,000 to US$6,000 or so from a traditional audiologist..but the price is approx US$1,600!

Top of the line sphere aids would be what, US$6k or US$7k? One could have a primary set of these and three spares of these for that money!!

and out of the gate with no follow-up program adjustments, these things are usable as they are. Not perfect maybe, but useable

so

for a person who needs either their first set or needs a replacement because theirs is out of warranty and broken, I'd call this a pretty good buy!

But the thing is.... and the jury is still out on this for me anyway.... so far it doesn't seem like a big enough technological leap, especially given the enormous downgrade in battery, to warrant replacing my Marvels...that still work ok. Maybe it's the sphere version that would give me enough advance to justify the spend, but I know that those don't shine for everyone, so going to that big of a spend is a little risky.

Looking at your I understand why all your fitters want to put domes on you.

With that ski slope hearing loss the Sennheiser aids are a good choice for you. Most modern hearing aids should do well for you. A good fitter is needed.

When a fitter is not making you happy it's time to ask for a different fitter. Your Costco probably has more than one. Try putting a list together of the good, the bad and not so bad things about the aids. Try to include the environment you are in at the time. The fitter should appreciate your efforts to help.

In reply to @bradw

i have a similar hearing loss and had a similar fitting experience at two different costcos. my 2nd pair of were otc jabra enhance select 200s that had to be fit remotely using a recent . those were great for helping me with conversations but after a couple of years, i wanted an upgrade and drove two hours to the closest costco and bought the jabra ep20s since i was familiar with the brand. they were indeed better but i always had issues with feedback and background noise.

i then moved to another state with a costco 10 minutes away and exchanged those for the newly released ep30s since i was still within the trial period. the hearing care specialist was in the booth with me and i could hear him breathing/moving as well as people shopping in the store. the rem tube poked my eardrum and gave me an earache for 2 weeks. after the initial fitting i had an ongoing feedback squeal that he didn't have time to fix because he needed to get to the next client. turning the volume all the way down helped but i was not impressed. i called back the next day, made an appointment with a different specialist and told her about the feedback issue and how metallic everything sounded. she was very sympathetic and tried to fix things but failed. she then called resound and they recommended their own fitting algorithm, audiogram+, and that made a massive difference in reducing feedback and getting things to sound more natural.

a follow up tweaking helped a bit more but i still felt like they could sound better and that's when a took the diy plunge and that has made the biggest difference by far. all this to say that if you're game, this path can drastically reduce your frustration and reliance on costco specialists. i told mine that this my plan and she wished me well.

some people have great experiences with costco out of the chute and others may struggle getting what they want, but you can't beat the price, support, and tech anywhere else.

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