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Selling Old Hearing Aids!

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Hi All,
I was wondering if it’s legal to sell hearing aids? (on Ebay for example)
My brother got a bunch of them, since he was kid he keep changing equipment’s, and now he is planning to get the Agil pro ( or not sure), so to finance the extortionist price tag of the new once, I thought he can sell the old one on Ebay! Any idea or help?
Thank you

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Extortionist price tag? You must be able to hear okay. :rolleyes: You can sell practically anything on e bay, but why ask here, ask e bay.

Hask12
Here in the UK it’s forbidden to go and buy Hearing Aids like you buy a biscuit, that’s why I asked this question.
“Extortionist price tag”, well a hearing aid that cost at least £1900 for one unit, that’s for me it’s EXTORTIONIST, meaning £3800 for both Ear + £££ for the connect streamer and TV box, you will end up paying almost £4000.
the people with hearing difficulties are already struggling to make their daily bread, add on top of that this ridiculous price to pay for a decent hearing aid, sorry but I’m fuming at company who make such gain using vulnerable people.
I hope you understand.

When you think of what a hearing aid is capable of doing, what an improvement it can make in a person’s life and considering that no two loses are a like I would say that aids are unfortunately expensive but i would never say extortion. When I think how expensive life saving surgery is, well then…
Like I said, you’re not the one who is almost deaf. Hopefully you are not letting your brother be aware of your attitude and making him feel guilty about his loss. Oh and companies making profits over peoples vulnerabilities pretty much pertains to all companies. I run into that every time I buy gas.

Hask12
I don’t know, but it seems either you misunderstood me or deliberately firing at me.
The purpose of this thread is to find out if selling Hearing Aids is legal or not, since buying them from an Audiologist require a bunch of procedure and they’ve told me it’s illegal for them to sell them without following the procedure.
I don’t deny the utility of the hearing aids and grateful to whoever helped or is helping on developing them for good purpose.
Now, for the case of my brother, I’m sure most of the people with hearing difficulties (it happened I’m one of them too, but I don’t use ) have at least one old HA they don’t use, and for me it constitutes a dormant investment, it happened that my brother have got a bunch of them, and thought that selling them will help toward the cost of the new once he is planning to buy, therefore my thread here.
For the extortionist price tag, you are talking without having all the facts and without knowing someone else’s situation; maybe for you you’ve got Healthcare Aids or your bank account is bigger than Bill Gates, I will just remind you that there are people who cannot join the two end of the month, and it happened that my Little brother have had to work 3 hard sweating years so he can afford one decent hearing aid + Streamer, and I bet for you it takes just as easy as buying a carrot cake.
“Making him guilty about his loss” this is a complete gibberish; the fact is, everyone is given a lots of gifts and they can be taken away in a blink of an eye, and for that I’m unreservedly thankful to God for his ocean of gifts He gave and is giving me and my family, also I’m thankful to Him for the help and guidance He provided and is providing. We all have been given a lot and as such it can be taken away, my brother happened that his hearing capabilities have been reduced and nevertheless I’m extremely proud of him, It took me a long time to wake up and trying to help him, and don’t we say “it’s never late to do well”, therefore what I’m doing here, and I don’t give a damn garbage about money, because I’m not money driven, but just want to share his burden and help him get a better life, sure I might remind him of his disability, as he want an kind of HA, but looking at his losses I most of the time suggest a until lately we found out that a is also capable of nearly the same performances than the BTE; and I constantly say to him don’t bother about people seeing you wearing HA, you are complete Human being and you deserve the same respect than anyone else and you shouldn’t feel any guilt or complex, because it wasn’t your fault, and people when they see you wearing HA will take care of you and speak slowly and clearly so you can understand and communicate with them.
Comparing hearing aids with lifesaving surgery I might accept that, but comparing it to GAS! That’s unacceptable, and I will let your imagination swim if by any circumstances the planet run out of OIL, still there are plenty of ways for transportation industry to develop, for the price of GAS I think every country have got different price, I suppose if you spend £1,4 per Litre here in UK, the same £1,4 will get you maybe 10 litres in another country (I suppose), it’s relative to a lots of factors and I’m convinced that the price per gallon you are paying is way below the real price; that’s for the GAS, I think the prices of HA should be factor of affordability of each country, so that children and adults can benefit from the technology available at that time not wait a decade to get their hand on old one and still paying a huge price for it.
As those insignificant guys have bailed a rotten banking and economical systems, why can’t they bail a tranche of vulnerable people?
These are my few words, Thanks for reading.

@Baltazard said:

Hi All,
I was wondering if it’s legal to sell hearing aids? (on Ebay for example)
My brother got a bunch of them, since he was kid he keep changing equipment’s, and now he is planning to get the Agil pro (BTE or RITE not sure), so to finance the extortionist price tag of the new once, I thought he can sell the old one on Ebay! Any idea or help?
Thank you

You can sell a used hearing aid on Ebay. The fact that many used hearing aids have been sold and continue to be sold on Ebay is a clear indication that it isn’t illegal. Individuals, audiologists, dispensers and others sell used hearing aids on Ebay all the time. The only requirement is to display a medical examination waiver notice. Similar to this:

“According to the , it is in your best health interest to obtain a professional medical evaluation before purchasing a hearing aid and you are encouraged to do so before bidding on this item. If you choose to not obtain a medical evaluation before purchasing this item, I am required by law to provide to you and obtain from you a signed written waiver of the medical evaluation, and I am required to provide to you a copy of the User Instruction Brochure for a hearing aid, review the contents of that brochure with you, and afford you time to read the brochure. You must provide to me either a signed statement from a physician or a signed waiver before I will deliver this item to you. Upon your request, I will also provide to you a copy of the User Instructional Brochure for the hearing aid or the name and address of the manufacturer or distributor from whom a User Instructional Brochure for the hearing aid can be obtained.”

Old hearing aids can be given to an organization that serves people with low income. An organization that serves Deaf or Hard of Hearing adults (who have audiologist services loss. services too) can check if the aid(s) are functioning properly, and give them out for a small fee ($100. or so).

Used hearing aids are not something you can just buy, as they need to be adjusted by an audiologist to fit the next owner.

So, Selling aN old aid (since he was a kid) may not be something that will be useful to someone else. Hearing aids can be claimed on in ome tax as a medical expense in Canada, and are free for kids under 19. So our taxes pay for that(the portion not covered by your medical insurance). Same in Us? not sure.

You can put it in the classifieds section in this forum with photos. There are members who are interested.

i sold my old aids on ebay, got about 30% of original cost. as long as they’re in good condition, i can’t see any problem from your end. the only one that might arise is the buyers, getting them adjusted for their hearing loss - but they should be aware of this in the first place.

btw. where’s the selling forum mentioned here?

Edited

To me the challenge in buying second hand hearing aids is finding an audiologist willing to fit and calibrate them for you, or the difficulty in hacking software that isn’t widely available outside the industry and getting new receivers and do it all yourself. Nothing wrong with using older technology fitted with new receivers and calibration but the hearing care businesses aren’t too keen with the idea I would suspect and will demand significant fees to get their money some how. Lets be honest, the $6000 hearing aid I got brand new ain’t worth more than a tinny fraction of that (I’d be surprised if they cost more than $50 to manufacture); hence huge profits are being made on the back of health insurances and benefits ! The whole industry is a bit of a scam, but we have little choice do we? Same thing with sleep clinics charging insurance $2000 for what is a $200 CPAP device.

Just to clarify so as to not put anyone off from trying , there is no hacking involved. The fitting software is available and free. It’s just a little hard to obtain.

Edited

PSA from an doctor of audiology who no longer sells hearing aids and has no horse in the race: I would never suggest to friends and family that they buy used hearing aids. It’s a minefield … Just go to Costco or ask your provider for a lower technology level if your budget is tight. Get a good warranty and service bundled in… if you run into issues with your ebay hearing aids, you’re on your own or paying out the nose for unbundled pay-as-you-go support from a local provider (or they will sell you an expensive service contract) who will most likely see you as a burden and never stop trying to sell you a new set. And as for programming, it’s not worth it … unless you feel you absolutely must be in complete control of your hearing aids… but there will be a learning curve and it is possible to screw it up and damage your hearing. Rather than trying to save by buying used and doing DIY, save yourself the hassle and buy new (costco or low tech) and just go the easy way (support and warranty)… There is really no evidence backing up high tech hearing aids anyway, so even if you get marginal improvement on the tech side, you probably won’t see that in reality without expert configuration (very very rarely anyway, unless you somehow have gone up that learning curve on your own and have your own machine)… Time and time again the scientific literature shows the configuration is 99% of the benefit and the tech is the other 1% (those are dummy numbers, but probably close to reality)…

Not all Ebay sales/vendors are created equal :slight_smile: There are vendors who want to charge the full going price and then there are more realistic vendors. I have purchased hearing aids on Ebay, but I only buy those that are very reasonable, i.e. if I come up empty on the purchase, I am not going to be hurt very much. I will not pay $2000 for last years model, but $300 to $500 may be worth taking a chance. so far, I have not been burned, when buying on Ebay. There is always the first time :frowning:

I’m not saying it will NEVER work out for the very determined… just that, I personally don’t know that many people that this would be a good option for… and definitely don’t see this as a good option for any friend or family member. Also, if you can’t afford $1500 or whatever Costco aids go for, how can you afford to lose $500? Seems like questionable math to me. (Please don’t take that last statement as an attack… just a friendly debate)

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