5 years ago I bought 2 Resound Dot 2 hearing aids and a hi pro programmer on eBay. My husband thought he could figure out how to program the hearing aids for me. He is a retired physicist and can do anything he sets his mind to usually. But time constraints and me not wanting to use the hearing aids at work when I needed to put a stethoscope in and out of my ears 4 - 5 X an hour made me hardly ever use them. Now I have given up and the hearing aids and Hi pro machine are going to go up for sale to the highest bidder on eBay. I went to at least 5 audiologists around here and no one would work with me. My husband and I did figure out how to get the programmer to work and we saw the little graph on our laptop and adjusted the “gain” but I think there was a lot more to adjusting the hearing aids to my hearing loss than what he expected and I couldnt figure it out either. So let me know if you would be interested and I will share the link with you when we put them up on eBay.
Paid over $3000 for one Phonak smart audeo 9 in NYC incl lifetime “free batteries”, tuneups etc.
When I decided I needed to add the other ear, I grabbed a PAIR of Phonaks…I believe the audeo smart 5s…for a little over $600 on Ebay. Different audeo programmed em for $200.
I think used from Ebay is the way to go, and is more reflective of the ‘free market’ value of the aids than the prices foisted on us by spe cialists
I will NEVER buy new or at full retail again. I agree with the poster that said to focus on current models so that your audi has the appropriate software, but other than that?
No issues. No problems, and a ton of $$$$ saved.
Executive summary: it takes a lot of time and research; you are best to do it yourself; you will save money; there are other options.
I figured I would try hearing amplification about a year ago. My wife agreed. I have a degree in electronics, so I figured I could program my own. I went cheap first, purchasing the hearing assistance boxes for a few dollars on eBay just to see what they were like. That was a cheap and short education: don’t bother, they’re not for real people. The next thing I tried was a Focus Ear 3 on eBay for $100. This worked surprisingly well and I still have it as a backup. I purchased another but returned it because it didn’t work right compared to the original I had purchased. I then went to Costco to get the hearing test and try out their hearing aids. I found I don’t have a standard hearing loss. I have an asymmetrical loss with 100% speech recognition in left and only 60% in right. The Costco aids sounded good, but not $2,000 good since I can understand fine with my left ear. I next researched . After review experience on this and other forums, the first task was purchasing a HiPro and cables on eBay. I got the HiPro for a little over $200 and cables and a few generic adapters for another $100 on eBay. The next task was discovering which brands I could get software for and what adapters they required. Trolling this website and the internet resulted in a number of brands I could use - Rexton, Oticon, Resound (though adapters are a problem finding for Resound). I have since accumulated software for a number of other brands. Then I browsed eBay for the brands I could program. My first pair was a Rexton Revera for $160. These worked OK and were easy to program. My daughter now has them. Since I had spent less than a quarter of the cost of a new Costco fitting and now had some experience programming them, I continued browsing ebay for other options, just to see. The next pair I got was a Kirkland KSHA03/Rexton Cobalt 16+ for around $200. I still have these and am wearing them now. These are one of the best values on eBay in my mind and come up on eBay quite often. They program with the Rexton software and 312 pills which are pretty easy to find. I also found an America Hears BTE set that had the programmer for $75. I guess no one knew what they were. I used these for several months and if I had found them first, I probably wouldn’t have bothered with anything else. Most of my time was spent researching my hearing loss and DIY for hearing aids. I am convinced I would not have gotten the correct fitting after the research I did. My personal hearing loss is shared by less than 5% of the population and therefore gets little attention by the industry.
My take away and recommendation from this is as follows:
Get your hearing tested first, so you can research your hearing loss type and options and eliminate any medical issues that might be hidden.
Determine how much time you are willing to spend to get educated. The trade off with going the eBay route vs the traditional route is time for research and searching eBay vs the cost of new hearing aids and the lack of control over how your aids are programmed. Since I am retired, I can afford the research time. If I were working, I would probably have gone to Costco and be done with it.
If money is your biggest issue and your loss is symmetrical and common, check out the hearing enhancement devices from various places or the self adjustable, name brand (Siemens, Rexton, etc) hearing aids always available on eBay from China/India/Singapore for between $100 and $200 each. These are quite good electronically and will most likely do the job without having to mess with software, cables, programmers and high cost dealers. DON’T get the $10 to $40 items from eBay or Amazon: YOU WILL BE DISAPPOINTED!
If your loss is unusual, like mine, research DIY. It is by far the best option for unusual hearing losses REGARDLESS OF COST. If I had gone to Costco, it would have been a several month process because of the appointment lag time and my inexperience with hearing aids. There is a learning curve and trying to tell someone else what I hear is a real challenge, especially when they are on the clock and I had no idea what the capability of hearing aids are. With DIY, there is no clock and no misunderstanding. It is just you, the software and the hearing aid in your ear. I adjusted and tried different combinations until I was satisfied. The final result is somewhat anti climatic: I find the formula, with a few tweaks for feedback, to be what I prefer most. The problem with a professional is they will almost NEVER use NAL-NL2 for a first time user because it sounds too loud for a first time user and I would have had no idea that NAL-NL2 even existed. I had to discover this over a number of months as I became more used to my hearing aids.
If you want a professional to deal with your hearing project, start with Costco, if you have one nearby. There are enough other posts to give you a clear picture of how they operate. I found them to be helpful, non pushy and competent. Their prices are the best anywhere for new high end devices, INCLUDING eBay.
DON’T get the $10 to $40 items from eBay or Amazon: YOU WILL BE DISAPPOINTED!
I bought a pair of Phonak Minivaleo 101az for $40 from ebay. I put them in my ears and have been wearing them ever since. I also bought a like-new pair of Siemens Life 700s for $200 that I use as my “Sunday pair”. I paid $100 to get them programmed to my hearing test. They are absolutely excellent. The Siemens are better, but I do lots of rough work outside and don’t want to loose them.
The key to buying on Ebay is to watch for something that’s poorly represented, poor description, in the wrong category, etc. With my Siemens aids the seller insisted that they were “not hearing aids”. I sent her a message and asked her the model number. I was the only bidder.
I had no idea before coming to this forum that purchasing online hearing aids was popular. Thought it was something of the future… guess it’s hear. lol
Never imagined that people would program their own hearing aids either. I have thought about it when I see the audiologist do it for me but I assumed I would be unable to as this is their profession.
It has really got me thinking for the future for my next set of aids…
