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Ebay Experiences

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Edited

I am curious about other users’ experiences with eBay purchases. USA Audiologists warn against them, but I’m starting to wonder if part of their reasoning is to protect their own bottom line. $$$ These HAs sold in America are so unbelievably expensive and the people who generally need them can’t afford them. The elderly, I mean. So, fewer people get HAs and those who do pay through the teeth. Either way, your AUDI is making out well.

I am curious to hear other people’s experiences if you tried eBay for HAs and even if you tried eBay for accessories. I’ve done both. If you haven’t tried eBay, I’d like to know what is holding you back. For me, it was fear of getting an inferior product with little or no follow-up support.

Some of you already know my HA experience/journey, which ended up at eBay. I ended up with a pre-programmed pair of Absolutely New Oticon More 1s and great follow-up for 2400.00!!! Holy Cow. I’ve also gotten accessories off Amazon and eBay. I’ve had ZERO problems. In fact, my German tech, who programmed my new ones for me, did a better job for me than the USA ones because he KNEW I’d be hard to fit, knowing that I’m a musician (A Juilliard trained classical one at that. Even harder to please). I tried the More 1s here. These were configured much better for me. First, they were right at my target guidelines and secondly they sounded natural and round. Just like I like sound to be!

Anyway, I bought these when… in March? Yeah. I ask him questions on WhatsApp and he’s answering me very quickly without getting annoyed… and I’ve been having a LOT of questions. I even directed my questions to him, as I have a NoahLink Wireless setup for light changes to my HAs. (Some of you know that about me as well. I’m tinkering). Don’t worry. He has me backed up… I can’t screw anything up!

I guess I feel blessed to have this guy be my first eBay contact. What are your experiences?

Ty for reading

Musician

31 people in this conversation33 min readJump to latest

I recently had a very bad Ebay experience buying from {hearinghealthsupplies}, he also sells on Amazon as {Professional Medical Surplus}, and also, {OtoMedix}. Everything about the deal was bad. Just a very sleazy operation.

The biggest issue I have is that this guy is rated as one of the top sellers on Ebay with almost all positive feedback. I understand how this is because although I left negative feedback it was removed by Ebay.

Other than this, most of my experiences buying on Ebay have been positive. Also if you complain, and report sleaze, they are good about investigating and providing a refund as they did in this case.

I’m sure there will be good and bad stories. My advice is figure out how you’ll get them programmed before you buy anything

Edited

I have bought four or five sets over the last 10 years off eBay. All Phonak. Mainly because I have the Target software to program them. However the last pair I bought (P90) I returned for a full refund because of some issues. Nothing wrong with the hearing aids themselves but my audiologist checked the serial numbers through Phonak and one of them was listed as stolen and the other one was listed as being sold to the .

What that means is that if I ever sent them in to Phonak for repairs even if I paid for it they would not be returned. I did not want to take that risk. Also, Phonak will only accept needing service from their authorized audiologists. Not the public directly. Good luck finding an audiologist who will work on stolen or VA HAs. This means it would be difficult to find an audiologist who would conduct programming for you. Why would they?

So that is a risk of buying on eBay that you are receiving stolen goods or hearing aids that were issued to the VA. VA hearing aids are not owned by the users to be resold to the public as I understand it. If anyone has bought used VA HAs and sent them in to Phonak for repairs and actually received them back (or not) please let us all know.

Also, it should be obvious if you buy hearing aids internationally you effectively won’t have any warranty. So the trick is to contact the eBay seller ask them for the serial numbers, verify with Phonak that the hearing aids are legitimate and you should be in a good position. An example would be someone who bought the hearing aids in the USA and for whatever reason no longer use them and decided to sell them on eBay. If they are less than three years old you can check them on the Target software and see how long is left on the warranty. I would certainly buy a pair like that off eBay.

@platypus said:

hearing aids that were issued to the VA. VA hearing aids are not owned by the users to be resold to the public as I understand it.

No I don’t think that’s right, the hearing aids are issued to the owners, they’re not required to return them to the or anything like that, I’ve brought a couple of pairs of VA issued on eBay and was able to verify the warranty through target as well as have one repaired without issue.

one doesn’t buy from ebay. Ebay is just a collection of independent sellers. So you have to evaluate each one separately. No general advice can really be given, it seems to me.

If you buy from any non official source, unless you have somebody willing to deal with the hearing aid company you are unlikely to get any service from the manufacturer. If you can do simple things like replace receivers, etc., it won’t be an issue until the hearing aids fail and then it will either be sending them off to Lloyds (or some other independent) for repair or getting “new” aids. If the price is low enough, it’s a reasonable risk.

MDB.

Exactly. My guy in Germany and I are having a daily discourse about hearing aids in the business and the how to’s. With him, it’s not trust the sale of the product and he’s a great ongoing resource for learning and advice. I know I’m set. This is one guy that recommend to everybody who wants to save money and learn more.

I can’t say for sure. Just prowling around, I can’t see much difference in getting aids online from a company, such as OnlineHearing and ebay. BBB rates both as A+ (whatever that means), but the latter has a customer rating of only 1.08/5, while the former has a 1.9 rating, if that is any way reliable.

Plus, its still a good idea to get an audiologist to program it to fit a hearing test.

I was just wondering, how many people who gets aids online, go to get them fitted and adjusted at a clinic which will agree to do so, if the aids are not bought there?

Costco, at $1400, sells their KS10 (made by Phonak and almost identical to their P90) which is almost $1000 less than most audiologists. Great service! I’ve always gotten custom fitted ear molds. Can’t do that online.

I have purchased 2 sets of aids from offerup.com22
More like Craigslist than ebay, but amazing deals. I first got some OPN S1’s for $300, then I saw some brand new Resound One 9’s, rechargeable even, for $900 and snapped them up (patient passed away after only 1 month of use).
I also purchased a TV Streamer, Phone Clip, and NoahLink Wireless all from ebay for amazingly low prices, and all work excellent. There are deals out there and I did find a private audi that made custom domes for me and said the Resounds would be covered as I have the original receipt from the original buyer.

Well my guy is new-hearing-quality on eBay. He’s got a 100% rating in 1,964 transactions. That speaks to me. He’s got the more1 listed at 2,496. I got it for 2400. Not bad.

In reply to @miket

I sourced my current aids through Costco and [ 1 ] They were over $1K less than the local aids is had purchased 3 times and [ 2 ] the audiologist was way more interested in my securing a proper fit. I am thrilled with my “KS10” aids.

In reply to @Psych1

I have very little faith in ebay or paypal. Years ago the buyer was afforded some degree of protection. It seems to me that both are now more interested in sales volume. If you have a poor experience, they might or might provide the assistance you had expected. In my view, it is all a game of chance. If you can accept the risk:reward ratio, go for it. Otherwise, making a local purchase might be more reasonable course of action.

With that said, I bought new Oticon OPN S1s over ebay 3 or 4byears ago. They were delivered in a timely manner with everything that should have been included. The seller was a company in South Korea. For me, the savings were worth the risk.

Unfortunately, there is always some degree of risk. If you purchase locally, the seller might not be able to satisfy your needs/expectations. How this is resolved is frequently a topic of discussion here on the forum. I have no doubt that someone will challenge my observation. There always seems to be a dissenting voice in the peanut gallery.

I advise against purchasing from sellers on ebay who insist on making private listings. It helps them shield their actions from the community. Ask your potential seller all your questions before committing to purchase. Make certain that the paper trail details everything. If there is a disagreement about the sale, the paper trail is your only way of convincing the powers at ebay and paypal that you have not received what was agreed on.

My experiences in the past have reinforced my belief that most people are honest. Remember when you are corresponding with foreign sellers, their command of English might not be of a high enough level to effectively convey what you need. Rather than risking a disagreement caused by a language issue, I suggest finding a seller who can communicate with you at a level that inspires confidence. The price is only one part you should consider. Try to think of all the things that could go wrong and address them before clicking on the buy button.

I wouldn’[t want to buy hearing aids on Ebay, at least because of the lack of continuing service. I’m a musician and needed several visits with my audi, plus a Signia rep, to get all the issues on my music program sorted out. And then, some tech issues and repairs can be addressed in house if they arise. And then there’[s cleanings…a clogged hearing aid is essentially worthless.

If you’[re willing to learn how to take all this on yourself, and buy the equipment and install the software required to do it, and learn all the skills and the parameters, it may be worthwhile. But you’re really buying blind on-line. who knows if the reviews have been scrubbed, or manipulated. Probably not, but still…
I guess I’[m old school. I have an in person relationship of long standing with my audis. That means something. They know me; my preferences and my needs.

l brought my aids from an online hearing aid seller based in NYC. The gets the new aids ordered from India. I brought my Phonak used V90 SP aids and a year later, brought new P70 UP aids for 2200 a pair. My audiologist quoted 2400 dollars for each aid. I brought the Noahlink wireless and the iCube Ii from other sellers at good prices. l do my own programming. The hearing aid seller had some issues with the postal service account so she send the various Phonak aids to me to program for her clients and she paid me for shipping. She texted to me that her clients were very happy with the aids and she said l programmed the aids better than any audiologist.
l got a one year international warranty for the P70-UP aids.
l have a Phonak hearing aid dryer and l take good care of the aids.
Many years ago, l visited an audiologist and she told me that hearing aids l buy from other countries will not work in the USA. That is one of the biggest lies the audiologist would say. She wanted my money thousands of dollars so l went elsewhere.

Edited
@Terost said:

She wanted my money thousands of dollars so l went elsewhere.

Ty for sharing your experience. It seems to me that if they lie to us with the intention of filling us with fear, they can make a lot of money. It makes me angry. That’s why Costco is such a boon to the industry. They make premium affordable. Ty again. This is a site point with me. I hate seeing the need taken advantage of. My blood boils.

In reply to @Terost

@Terost said:

The hearing aid seller had some issues with the postal service account so she send the various Phonak aids to me to program for her clients and she paid me for shipping.

I’ve done this twice for someone on eBay after she messaged me via eBay. Once 4 years ago and once recently.

I’m not out any pocket and 4 years ago she sent me a £100 Amazon voucher to say thanks. This time I was thanked with £80 worth of postage stamps.

I’ve bought a pair of Oticon OPN 1 with original packaging and it also came with one ConnectClip and a bunch of fresh batteries from eBay. It turned out that it seems to be from a veteran in the US because there are some paperwork inside to indicate as such. I haven’t had any issue with it that requires repair (except for receiver replacement which I just bought and did it myself easily) so I don’t have any experience with having veteran issued repaired under warranty. It’s most likely out of warranty already anyway, so when it stops working, I may try one of the HA repair service advertised on eBay.

I’ve also bought my brand new ZPower system from eBay for a better price than if bought from an authorized local . As most people know, the ZPower batteries turn out to be very unreliable and nothing close to the advertised one year of service. Mine crapped out after about 3 months and the eBay seller sent me a new set of batteries once. But the new pair crapped out again after another 3 months and this 5 star eBay seller stopped responding to me and totally ignored me after that second set of batteries, which is understandable, but nevertheless shows how the star rating on eBay can sometimes be unreliable.

Since that second pair of the ZPower batteries crapped out on me, I’ve bought a third pair of ZPower batteries from another eBay seller since January 2019 for my backup pair of OPN 1 and I’ve since then changed my use pattern on this back up pair of HAs and only use it sparingly (maybe a few hours every few days) and they seem to hold up OK with that kind of use until now (May 2022). Of course that’s not a normal use pattern for a non-backup pair of HAs in full daily use, but I guess as an experiment it confirms with me what I suspected about the ZPower batteries, that they don’t have enough juice to last all day after 3 months, but if used sparingly, they’ve proven the longevity of their shelf life if kept fully charged all the times.

I’ve also bought my Oticon TV Adapter 3.0 from eBay for a very good (make-an-offer discounted) price of $125 when a new one from a local authorized HCP was running for around $300 at the time.

I’ve also bought my used Noahlink Wireless interface device for from eBay for about $125 when the going price for a new one on Amazon was around $200.

I’ve bought receiver replacements for my Oticon OPN 1 from eBay for around $10 each (purchased in pairs).

I’m probably going to buy the Oticon More 1 from eBay when my current OPN 1 starts crapping out. I may try to repair the OPN 1 using one of the eBay HA repair service if the repair cost is reasonable so that I’d have another pair of backup for the More 1.

There is much more risk selling on ebay than when buying. Ebay will almost always side with the buyer.
My son sold items on ebay and the most classic scam is a buyer purchases your item, receives it and claims it doesn’t match the description and wants to return for a refund. The buyer returns an empty box while keeping the item purchased. The buyer has “proof” by tracking number that the seller received the returned item. Except that the buyer still has the item and the seller has an empty box returned to them. 100% of the time ebay will side with the buyer because they show proof of the “return” by tracking number and delivery notice. Seller looses both the item sold as well as the buyer payment and shipping fees. Ebay knows this is happening and even when they do ban a buyer for it after multiple seller complaints, the scammer buyers just re-register under a new names and they are good to continue the scam

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