Costco vs. Independent? Hard to stomach spending $7k again

I would never buy hearing aids online because I feel so much more comfortable having the advantage of having my Costco hearing specialist literally a mile from my home, but when it comes to progressive eyeglasses I have had excellent experience twice buying progressive rimless eyeglasses online from GlassesUSA and I have no connection with them except as a satisfied customer.
(OTOH, when it comes to eyeglasses, my signif/other bought progressive eyeglasses from Costco’s eyeglass department and was very unhappy with the glasses and with the service of their eyeglass department and returned them.)

@NateS said:

I would never buy hearing aids online because I feel so much more comfortable having the advantage of having my Costco hearing specialist literally a mile from my home,

Of course this makes sense because if you’re going to buy Costco HAs then the natural thing is to have their HIS do the programming for you. But there are people who want HA brands/models not available from Costco, and for those people the online route will save them a lot of money.

I just got my programming device today and was able to get it up and running in about an hour and from now on I don’t have to visit my audi anymore. That’s not to say that people who want to buy online will need to buy their own programming device. The online provider should be able do it for them remotely just as effectively as the audi or HIS can in person. Of all the times I visited my audi and Costco HIS, the in-person interaction that I have with them could easily be done if I were on the phone instead with a programming device sent to my home. In fact I would learn a lot more from the experience at home because I can see everything on the screen and they walk through the programming. In their office, they don’t share what they do on the screen with me. I just sit there twiddle my thumbs while they interact with the programming software.

Thanks @audiometrix_hearing for taking good care of me. Based on the strength of a really meaningful initial consultation, I decided to put the hammer down on Oticon OPN3 devices. Easy enough to do, as I had a reasonably recent audiogram.

I had fallen into only using my previous ReSound Versos for when I was out of the house, or doing business. So far, I hardly notice the Oticon’s in my ear at all. They sound very natural to me, which is a big change. They are also very comfortable on top of my ears and inside.

My only issue is that the Android app doesn’t recognize my devices. I had low expectations on that, but it would be nice to control the volume from there.

Also, I’ve been using the Aftershokz Titanium bone conduction headset (paired with my computer and smartphone), which works very well with the HAs (and without). That was recommended elsewhere in the forums.

My devices arrived quickly, with a whole bunch of goodies in the box (extra batteries, domes, cleaning instruments, etc…). And of course, they were a lot less money than the first time around, with really no compromise on the product.

@kendor said:

My only issue is that the Android app doesn’t recognize my devices. I had low expectations on that, but it would be nice to control the volume from there.

Do you have Bluetooth enabled on your Android phone before you open up the Oticon ON app? It needs to be on for the connection to be established.

Yes… Clearly Oticon doesn’t have their act together on Android. I have a less popular (but recent vintage) ZTE Axon 7, and it maybe that unless you have a handful of flagship phones (e.g. Samsung), you are SOL. Because Apple purposely controls their own ecosystem, it’s obviously easier in IOS land…

What do you mean by DIY?

Program your hearing aids yourself.

@SilenceIsGolden You are right about the unidirectional direction. Of course we could say that about any business – even when we throw in the communist. And it is even our (consumers) fault. To often, we accept list price where our forebears at least bargained with cars a last bastion. Don’t know how to fix that. If you look up oligopoly6, you will see what we are up against in buying hearing aids. Aids are one of the limited areas where restraint of trade applies.

@user22 Would you mind changing your ID to something a bit more informative? As a forum it is hard to keep track of those who are informative with such impersonal ids. Of course that work the other way in remembering who uses FUD.

See that’s the struggle for Providers. Our reps must be lying to us to save face about their products being sold in bargain marts.

We have always been told Costco hearing aids are always at least one, sometimes two, generations behind.

I was also told the Forte was a Linx 2.

However, any good provider can beat costco’s price with a better aid, so it’s not really a problem.

Manufacturers talk about the hardware platform but only in generalities. Taking the Resound aids as an example, the hardware has been used for the last 4 generations. That implies that the difference is software and that the Linx could get a software upgrade to the current model. Of course, that would never happen.

Octicon’s current hardware is new generation hardware and this wouldn’t apply.

Looking at my iPhone 5S from 3 years ago, it upgraded to IOS 11 which will be the last software upgrade it will receive but that dramatically different from the HA model and a very profitable business model.

Android is more like the HA model, mostly. Few vendors upgrade software. This even applies to security problems. The vendors here seldom upgrade software.