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First Time Visit to Costco

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I too had a speech in noise evaluation. I believe it was part of the testing.

Several times a year my partner goes to Costco to have her cleaned where they put it into some sort of machine. It’s done when she gets through shopping. She’s never paid for anything additional after she’s bought her hearing aids in the past 12 years of HAs. Including things like cleaning, repairs, receivers and such.

Costco recommends the use of the when people have things like ear wax or such. Personally I went to a CVS Minute Clinic for less and quicker when Costco recommended I see an ENT to get my earwax taken care of. My partner went to an ENT today after Costco noticed her eardrum was enflamed. On the other hand, it is pretty special to find an audiologist who will clean your ear wax.

There’s a lot of ways to manage one’s care. Me personally and my partner personally have had great experiences with different Costcos. Clearly people have different experiences of hearing professionals. I am saddened to hear of your experiences.

Edited
@bluckie1 said:

Walked around the store with my husband and the background noise was very distracting.

What is distracting to you is what I love about the 9040. They give me all of the sounds and let my mind do the filtering, just like it is used to work when I was younger and hearing all of the frequencies. I got frustrated with my previous hearing aids filtering out background noise. The great thing about the 9040 is that I get the background noise, but when they hear a voice they lock on and clarify it - they really work great for me.

It may be worth considering alternative hearing aid options, such as your local hearing aid specialist, where you can receive more personalized and caring service.

In reply to @Angry

@Angry said:

Billgem, can you describe the speech in noise evaluation? Not sure what that entails, but my HIS did some testing with speech and noise during my exam…

It’s a word recognition test with people talking in the background. The audiologist gradually increases the volume of the background noise until it gets to the point where the subject (me) can no longer repeat the words from the word recognition to test.

In reply to @RSW

I don’t know. I haven’t tried that yet. I get very few phone calls and prefer to communicate with texts. When I do get calls I’ve always had the phone in my hand or pocket. I will have to try it and let you know.

In reply to @booch

I finally went to Costco and they got my hearing aids working again. They needed to replace the and make some other adjustments. What a difference that made! But the very next day the volume on the left hearing aid was very muted again. I removed the silicone ear bud and brushed it out and got it working again. I was surprised it got clogged so fast. The hearing aid tech looked in my ears and said they were clean. Before I got my hearing aids I went to a specialist and he vacuumed them out. My left ear canal is shaped differently from my right one and it’s more difficult to get the hearing aid in. I think this could be the reason it gets clogged up so quickly.

I agree with “user990” Costco has great prices and fitter with brand names hearing aid. Just like any business you have some better than others. If you can afford it I would probably go to an Audiologist or . In fact I did the first time. She wanted to sell me a $7200 dollar package. How good was she at programming aids? Don’t know cause I couldn’t afford $7200. Went to Costco and it was great. They fitted me well enough that the “what’s” were 95% gone. The warranty was 2 year for loss or stolen and 3 years on repair. The audiologist, could only give me two years warranty. For some, Costco will work fine and for other, an Audiologist will work fine.

I agree with you, the cost was the driving factor that made me choose Costco. These are my first aids so have nothing to compare to. I got these when I retired last year and once I realized that I would be replacing them periodically due to improved technology or failure of the aids, I knew I didn’t want to budget $6K - $7K every 3 to 5 years so Costco made sense to me.

I started with Costco; went to an audiologist for further screening (and she supported same brands as Costco sold me), but ultimately went back to Costco PLUS pursuing a Noahlink for tweaking my programs. There is just too little time spent in an office to get things tailored uniquely to my needs. Maybe your best interests lie in a similar path?

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