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:mad::mad:I want to tell you to stay away from Starkey hearing aids. I have had two sets and both were complete junk. I ordered the top of the line and sent one in for repair and never received it back. The other never worked more than 3 months at a time. The last time it was returned, it no longer fit my ear. I could not get things made right because the man that sold them to me died. The second set was from McDonald Hearing Aids in Grand Rapids, MI. When my aid quit working they told me that it was about time because it was three years old. The other one, the casing broke and they quoted me a repair bill of $465. Needless to say, do not order from them. I am going to file with the BBB. On the other hand, if you have a repair, I have found two great sites to get them repaired at excellent prices. One is expertaidrepair.com1 and it is a wonderful company. They will even build you a brand new aid for next to nothing. I have purchased bte aids from MDHearing Aid. These do a wonderful job for the money. I had ear molds made to attach to it and was completely happy. I do prefer the canal aids overall. They are just more secure and
fit better when wearing glasses. I know this is long winded but these are expensive and I started wearing aids at age 26. I am now 52 so I have ordered my fair share. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you want to talk.

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@sbeard said:

:mad::mad:I want to tell you to stay away from Starkey hearing aids. I have had two sets and both were complete junk. I ordered the top of the line and sent one in for repair and never received it back. The other never worked more than 3 months at a time. The last time it was returned, it no longer fit my ear. I could not get things made right because the man that sold them to me died. The second set was from McDonald Hearing Aids in Grand Rapids, MI. When my aid quit working they told me that it was about time because it was three years old. The other one, the casing broke and they quoted me a repair bill of $465. Needless to say, do not order from them. I am going to file with the BBB. On the other hand, if you have a repair, I have found two great sites to get them repaired at excellent prices. One is expertaidrepair.com and it is a wonderful company. They will even build you a brand new aid for next to nothing. I have purchased bte aids from MDHearing Aid. These do a wonderful job for the money. I had ear molds made to attach to it and was completely happy. I do prefer the canal aids overall. They are just more secure and
fit better when wearing glasses. I know this is long winded but these are expensive and I started wearing aids at age 26. I am now 52 so I have ordered my fair share. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you want to talk.

These are issues with your professional, not Starkey. We as professioanls mark up repair costs (as every business does), so the $465 isn’t what Starkey was charging you, it’s what your professional was charging you.

And if your hearing aid was lost while in repair, Starkey replaces them at no cost. And your warranty is attached to the serial numbers of the aids, not your professional. So if your first one died and you needed service, the repair warranty still stands.

dr. amy

Mr. Beard, Your hearing aid broke after three years of use, after the original retailer disappeared and after the warranty expired. And you think the manufacturer should pay to fix your aid for free? Why?

We all have to pay for repairs out of warranty. i recall that it used to be around $250 but with a new Audie, it went up to $300. As Dr. Amy says, your Audie charged you that # not the manufacturer. And I believe the Audies don’t send them to the manufacturer after warranty; they send them to a company like MDHearing Aid.

The one point that seems notable is that you had two aids (why?) from Starkey and they both broke in 3 years. MY usually break around 3 years but i am tough on them. But you had two HAs, so that would be like 1.5 years each, right? What was the model of Starkey? What exactly was wrong with them?

Also, you don’t mention anything about performance. That is what most of us are interested in here. I have had lemons (Siemens and Resound) and good ones (Resound and Oticon) but performance is what we can trade stories about.

Mr Beard,

Your complaints don’t make much sense.

You say Starkey lost your aid? If that did happen, as Dr Amy has already pointed out, they would have replaced them for free.

You say an aid was sent in for repair and when it came back it didn’t “fit” your ear. Sir, repairing an aid, either or or does not change the shape of it at all. So, just repairing an aid CANNOT cause it to not fit your ear.

You complain about the cost,well, a repair and a remake can easily cost that much. If you found some All Make Repair Lab that will do it cheaper, well, good for you. But those facilities have their downsides as well.

They do not use factory parts, in fact they don’t have them. So, if all that is needed is a mic replacement then you may be OK as mics can be easily obtained. If the chip needs to be replaced, well,good luck with that.

Of all the companies out there, Starkey is as customer oriented as any of them. So your anger is misplaced.

@sbeard said:

:mad::mad:I want to tell you to stay away from Starkey hearing aids. I have had two sets and both were complete junk. I ordered the top of the line and sent one in for repair and never received it back.

With the greatest respect, Starkey have sold several hundred thousand hearing aids since they started in the 60s, so your two examples are pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

Also if Starkey lose a hearing aid, and I have seen this happen, they have always in my experience, replaced it free of charge.

@sbeard said:

The other never worked more than 3 months at a time. The last time it was returned, it no longer fit my ear. I could not get things made right because the man that sold them to me died.

So are you seriously blaming Starkey for the fact that your hearing professional died before he could make you happy? I mean Starkey is a great company, but unless I missed a memo they do not grant eternal life to their hearing professionals, associates, affiliates, franchisees or subsidiaries.

As for it no longer fitting your ear, that really is an issue of the impression taking of the hearing professional, and not Starkey.

@sbeard said:

The second set was from McDonald Hearing Aids in Grand Rapids, MI. When my aid quit working they told me that it was about time because it was three years old. The other one, the casing broke and they quoted me a repair bill of $465. Needless to say, do not order from them.

The repair charge is set by Starkey at a pretty low rate, and they were the first company in the industry to offer a fixed repair charge where even if the aid needed to be replaced, the repair was guaranteed at a fixed price prior to their inspection of the faulty device. So if someone is quoting you $465 for a repair that is THEM trying to make money from you, and again has nothing to do with Starkey.

I don’t know what has made you so angry but your arguments seem almost deliberately incendiary. On the rare occasion I have had repeated issues with a Starkey product, I have simply instructed them to replace the device for free, perhaps even with a free upgrade, and they have immediately moved to make the situation right. So even if all these issues did happen to you, your hearing professional is clearly not bothering to advocate for you to make things right.

I used to own a Ford Fiesta 1300S in England. It sucked, and cost me a lot to keep it on the road. Does it mean that all Fords are always bad and I should advise people never to deal with Ford ever again? Of course not.

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