Refurbished hearing aids being sold as new? Be wary!

@pters said:

My audiologist took my credit card number but didn’t take any money, and I was able to try them for two weeks. If I wanted a longer trial, I had to pay in full. Has the audiologist paid the manufacturer anything at that stage?

He may have, but they would re-imburse him once they were returned if it was within the manufacturer trial period. He would be out the cost of the associated services. Where I am, the government also funds some of the cost of hearing aids but reimbursement for that is months and months down the road, so we essentially just loan the hearing aid user $1000 for a few months until the government pays us back.

Hearing aid prices largely cover R&D, not materials in the device. I mean, it’s the size of a quarter.

@KenP said:

Several years ago, the VA disclosed what they buy aids for. It was around $270 each which evidently gives a decent profit to the industry based on quantity sold. So the rest of it is business expense and controlled markets.

What’s VA? So assuming a bit of a markup and some admin costs, the manufacturer might be out of pocket a few hundred dollars per returned trial? I wonder how much that ends up adding to the purchase prices.

VA = Veterans Administration (US)

It is the largest provider of hearing aids in the US – about 20% of total.

I wonder why they “weren’t having it”. They can set it up in front of you. I think transparency is very important when it comes to selling hearing aids. In my opinion, a consumer should not be paying full price for hearing aids that were worn by someone else during a trial period. THEY ARE USED! Worn in someone else’s ear where dirt and sweat accumulate, where inside components may have been jarred or damaged. Doesn’t matter if hearing aid dispenser cleans them before giving them to someone else. Should I pay thousands of dollars for hearing aids that are used? They are already overpriced as it is. The only way consumers are going to know for sure if they are getting new aids is if they ask to have them unboxed in front of them. End of story.

This is very true. I’m surprised you were allowed to see the invoice. You bring up an important point about the possibility of manufacturers repackaging used aids as new. If this is going on, for shame. This is fraud, and audiologists and consumers don’t know and can’t prove it’s going on. I wonder if there are any internal or external quality control policies that prevent this form happening at the manufacturers? Based on the number of online complaints I read about problems with new hearing aids, I wonder. It would be nice to get a response from someone who works for a hearing aid manufacturer. What do manufacturers do with returned used hearing aids?

If you read the thread carefully you will see that it was not me who made that comparison - it was Halfear. I was responding to his comparison.

There is no evidence that what has been proposed is happening. The OP just made an assumption and ran with it.

No hearing aids ‘cost’ $10,000.

Transfer prices that manufacturers must clear are about $300. Cost to them must be less than that (or they wouldn’t make a profit).

@Um_bongo said:

No hearing aids ‘cost’ $10,000.

Transfer prices that manufacturers must clear are about $300. Cost to them must be less than that (or they wouldn’t make a profit).

I had always assumed the manufacturing cost was way less than $300, but I didn’t realise manufacturers were taking such a tiny proportion of the final price.

I most of the final price is to cover the audiologist’s costs, they should theoretically be able to sell me an identical spare set, identically programmed for, say, $400, shouldn’t they? Plenty of optometrists are doing this with glasses.

That’s a transfer price; not a wholesale price. That’s the amount that includes all of the manufacturing costs, factory R+D and the supply chain plus marketing support to the Audiologist etc.

Wholesale prices to the Audiologist will be (in the U.K.) for the top end, circa £1k plus 20% tax per aid. These equate to about £3.2-£3.6k for a pair of top end aids.

This shows you that the manufacturers are taking at least as much profit as the Audiologist even with an independent set-up. Where they run the high street set-up, they take 100%.