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Buying used hearing aids

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I am financially strapped and considering buying used hearing aids on eBay. I previously had a set of Siemens digital hearing aids purchased almost 6 years ago for $4,000. I was not very impressed with results. I have since lost one and am told the other can’t be replaced.

I had the small behind the ear units with the small wire and dome that set in the ear. I am a complete novice about the process. What is the difference between these and the aids that have like a clear plastic hook that hangs on the ear? I am 63 and experiencing more and more difficulty functioning in business.

Is there any reason that I shouldn’t buy 3-5 year old technology used for $3-500 for a set versus new for $2,500 and up? I have noticed several vendors on eBay that seem to have considerable inventory.

I would appreciate any and all thoughts, insights and advice.

11 people in this conversation12 min readJump to latest

You will need to educate yourself on the models available on ebay. You can do that on the manufacturers site. They will still have some info on the discontinued models. Ebay is an easy place to get burned on aids so you want to be sure about what you are getting. Prices vary greatly.

After you have the aids, you will need to have them programmed and that requires having test results. If you have medical insurance, ask your doctor to refer you to and who will do the test and is the only likely source of getting them programmed. You would be in a true medical environment. Clinics are commercial business and unlikely to program them or to charge a large fee. My ENT programmed mine for $75 one time fee and did several followups.

If that doesn’t work, you’ll still need the test but you can go to lloydshearingaids.com32. They will program them to prescription and give unlimited followups for $50/aid.

When you’ve gotten started, you can link to the aids you plan to buy. There are several folks knowledgeable about older aids that can give you advice. I am not one of those but others are.

Hi, I am a new member who is trying to figure out what I can do for my mom. She is retired and has failing teeth and hearing. All of her resources right now are going towards getting her teeth fixed. Getting older on fixed income is tough. Anyway, she just got her hearing tested through a program called truhearing. The test was only $45 out of pocket! She recieved her audiometry graph and now I am looking for used ’s on ebay. Looking for any advice on saving money and best HA’s for her. The audiologist of course wanted to sell her new ones. Even with financing this is not doable. If anyone has advice, I will listen. I discovered asking people in forums through my Subaru forums and learned so much.

Robert

Costco has very affordable hearing aids. The most popular is the KS8 that does for only $1,599. They probably have other models cheaper than this as well if that’s still too high for you. Your mom will get full service and up to a 6 month trial period in the US.

I don’t think Costco offers anything cheaper than KS8s now. They used to offer some inexpensive Bernafon , but no more.

In reply to @Volusiano

thank you, but like I said she is trying to put money together for lots of dental work. Used is the only thing that she can afford. In the 300-600 range. THe audiologist said she’d tune them for her for about $200, but I see tuning available on some of the ebay models. I do have her audiology report to help with that. So, used is where I’m looking. Thanks again

If it was me, I would look for Phonak Audeo or Bolero Q series or V series. V is the newer model and about 1 generation behind the current. An example of model names would be Phonak Audeo Q90, Phonak Audeo V70. The technology levels are 50, 70, 90. So you could have V50, V70, V90, Q50, Q70, Q90.

Audeo means it is a style.

Bolero means it is a style.

I have the B series which is newer than the V, and there is not a huge step up in technology from V to B, and mine are really good. The V and Q should work very well, for a few hundred dollars.

Edited

Why don’t you post your mom’s to see what it looks like? It may have some bearing on what would be recommended.

Also, in terms of used from eBay, if you’re not sure what to look for, look for used Costco HAs like the KS7, KS6, KS5, etc. Because those were affordable to many people brand new in the first place, and the KS8 is now only $1,599, the previous generation ones may go for a lot lower. This is as opposed to looking for more premium but used HAs, if people paid $6000 for those brand new, they’re not going to sell them used for $300-$600. They’re more likely going to want at least $1-2K for them. But people who paid only under $2K for their previous Costco KS models are probably more likely to be willing to sell them for a lot less, maybe in the $500 range.

If you go the route of used Costco HAs, be careful because some previous versions may be locked even though the later versions like the KS7 is no longer locked. I don’t know whether the KS5 is locked or not. I’m sure somebody else can chime in on this. But once it’s locked by Costco, only Costco can reprogram it for you.

One other consideration with buying a used Costco pair of HA, even if unlocked, is that the audi who’s willing to program a used pair for your mom may not want to bother trying to download the Costco program to tune it for you. I don’t know if they can use the OEM equivalent software to tune it or not. Again, maybe somebody more knowledgeable about this can chime in to help you.

In reply to @Volusiano

KS 5 and 6 were Resound and are locked. KS4 (although pretty old) was Rexton and shouldn’t be locked. This info is from PVC’s list of Costco hearing aids. With that , I’d highly recommend finding a professional to work with.

Edited

Yeah, it’s probably not going to be just a one time programming by a seller with that kind of loss.

If an audi is willing to tune it for $200, make sure you ask him/her how many visits this would entail, if any. Maybe that’s just for an initial one time programming and that’s it. If so, and each subsequent visit is another $50-$100, you may soon end up paying over a thousand bucks easily after it’s all said and done.

Wyatt, How much are you asking? How old are they? From What I am reading that seems to be a good model. Honestly a little overwhelmed by how much there is to learn regarding ’s.

In reply to @robcor2

If it was me, I would jump on these if it fit my budget. You would have to have receivers that are appropriate for her, power and wire length. Your Audi would supply the receivers for, guessing $150-200? This model is what I have and love them. Costco has these hearing aids for $2500. Everything is adjustable. If this is her first set, there is a period of getting used to them. It is not like getting glasses. Start slow and work up to wearing them all day, every day, no matter what.

I buy all my hearing aids on eBay for less than a tenth of retail and they all worked great. When I bought mine on eBay a couple years ago. I found gray market Siemens Pure 7 Binax brand new for $550 a pair. i got 2 pair because they where so cheap. I also got a pair of Siemens Pure 5 Binax 2nd hand on eBay. All of them work great. I do my own programming. I never spend a lot on my hearing.

I like this seller. She sells a lot of them and her feedback is 100%. I haven’t bought from her myself, but I contacted her through eBay and she seemed friendly.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2018-Brand-New-2x-Signia-Siemens-Pure-7Nx-RIC-13-Hearing-Aids-Pair-Set-7-Nx-Set/362556705960?hash=item546a104ca8:rk:5:pf:0&var&checksum=3625567059609504b78248c34fea8abcaa42b0d22b85&enc=AQADAAADAFjVrDbVsZ8oH%2F8PNHtt9VX4%2Fw7FZcmMuqsX8uaFEduV87Wep7UFXO8MY7ImRlB%2BiGj6Y54IclasXzCqzdIuWkbqk0%2BmRas%2BjVYUX28hC5ex0Z9uGITtTPmoJr2gN8RUveG0hVIEN8tmSVgO0qW%2BwmgLyxS8miNSdkihDBkHNp9qbAqDLF%2F4MFyTCe6046s%2FYWZgkni%2Bgoyf7767YK4o7H3ljUZYSVkadVS4SRhvIdzL%2BuMce9q9raB2oei28Z%2BbfZyOoA4QAWt6OQyRu%2BqdLfDJP6ozPt3mr9uggqrMH%2FmNr7Ns5Y72KonZ%2FhM0xTpVGfIS0B8BEZAlw5q7YYR4ClhdoSf%2Bj%2FhefKMcmTPzEBz0EfJHG1ooWveJZP20wGKLujad20tTQi7SDIFnuwNvIa3dVgcP4cuzdF0zZvmKD9fAuLowDoaGzm82IGQzbWhl3R6kNXEeNWxj0T0bxTQuXCVEhr40%2BM62lFvA849MUR4nF1CztANMGe%2FofJWHpn114B%2BXw1pPHAdGapzmomv6HHVSI9gF3EkFoEn2rz%2BRGVwyYczQO4%2FziqOgqX6uOGvEV%2B7icGTwKiTgRneBKkOg89ugmuYoqBVic0xYm1hsXBm3N1vm6pJsQmVAk9%2FEAFJw8KPnjjOzwzTQMZwnrOoeykfKsnBc3O%2Br6kE1mXrOfW74kf%2BY76h9008Remx3Jfh5lnF1%2Fy3NdGcK%2FkVBUpr1%2BdVZfl9kP9%2FU9K3E2gqHFNIilzTn8xlcy7tTOkaLYIDzooACqCFO8wnOH%2F28fVvYBF7b8vRsX%2BrWAoW4PsPFSZrtWeQM%2BXnQ7aQvqaQZ9th9%2BxjLhD379c4byDdaldVKZPrTvUYIARYKV%2BncvkxR%2FyhzzZSjmO8Lf7fyh0QTleWivBPWFT2Ir%2By7yBOBnANt2CzaYL51%2F5IbrK9xVIsa4S2c3xBi1MOxMjIVLp%2FbnrkHaLT0ebyVqFlBGdIs9YCdvIpRtZzPOyFo%2Botk4HK%2ByLgXsqFgzyRiAU1Ua272uXYofg%3D%3D

Edited

I didn’t buy hearing aids from her. But I just bought a used ZPower charging system for my OPN from her. I haven’t received the item yet, but so far shipping was prompt.

Edit: I received ZPower charging system today from this seller and I’m NOT happy. The power adapter that was advertised to be included is missing. But even worse is that the listing was advertised for Oticon (OPN) but the 2 battery door modules don’t fit into my Oticon OPN 1.

I’ve sent her a message to notify her of the issues. Hopefully I’ll hear from her soon. I’ll update my post here to see if the issues are going to be resolved to my satisfaction or not. To my satisfaction would be having her sending me the correct battery door modules and the missing power adapter out asap to me, and if she wants the wrong size parts back, she should send me a prepaid return label.

New Edit: Finally heard back from this seller and she sent me a replacement system that fits my OPN.

With eBay proof is in the feedback. First make sure the seller has 100% positive feedback. Because a feedback rating only goes back 12 months, scan all the feedbacks looking for any negatives going back to the beginning. No negatives feedbacks means the seller bent over backward to please even the most pickiest buyer. Then its pretty safe to buy from this seller.

Can anyone tell me where gray market hearing aids come from?

Here is another seller that has what I assume is gray market Siemens / Signia hearing aids:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Brand-New-2018-2-Signia-Siemens-Pure-7Nx-RIC-312-Hearing-Aids-Made-for-iphone-/401702184767?oid=28330750223521

My advice is to buy a pair you can afford on eBay whose comes fairly close to matching your mother’s and go with it. Everything in this life does not have to be perfect. She will certainly be a lot better off with that are fairly close than none at all.
I know when my HAs were being repaired I wore an old pair of my wife’s and they were far, far better than nothing. That’s my opinion anyway.

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