Dr Cliff not recommending Costco

@kevels55

He focuses on YouTube revenue I think.

He had a video describing what he charges to fix someone’s hearing aids supplied by another audiologist. Cost was huge and I was shocked

That made me realize that the gentleman who is working on my hearing aids now is really valuable to me. He can’t sell me new hearing aids. He brings expertise the Audi who provided my hearing aids didn’t have

I have an appointment with the new firm on Monday. They will check and clean my hearing aids and make adjustments too. Their recent hearing test helped a lot. And they followed up with two additional appointments one week apart

edit:
Reported elsewhere – I have brand new Power Receivers. They are so much louder!

It’s not just revenue from YouTube, he gets a low cost advertising platform. If it wasn’t for his YouTube videos, a lot fewer folks would know about his practice.

All valid points, including Dr Cliff’s. When i was struggling with my new Jabra’s Costco never even offered a different brand aid. They also wouldn’t let me trial other aids when i first went. They said that would require a new appointment for each trial. And we are only talking about walking around the store to trial. At like the 2nd adjustment the HIS went to a power receiver in my bad right ear but they installed a left side receiver in my right aid. I had to correct them.
I also see a huge conflict of interest in the dr slamming Costco.
That being said, i still may trial the new 9050 when it arrives, just at a different Costco than before

While I do search YouTube and the internet for reviews and advice, I find my own personal experience and that of my family and close friends of greater value. My first pair of ITE aids from an audiologist was fine in 1996. When they physically broke, I went with her current aids and had an epic fail after the initial fitting and three subsequent attempts to remove the egg beater sound from music. They were returned and after learning of Costco on a musicians link, brought my Audis graph and guitar into Costco and left 45 minutes later with an excellent fitting and a savings of $4000. My two sisters, brother-in-law and Mother all had dismal results with Sam’s Club and private Audis and were ecstatic with Costco products and service in Illinois, Florida and Nevada. I’ve had service in all of those states except Nevada and even picked up new buds on the island of Kauai and bought my KS10s in Tennessee. I’m on my 4th pair of aids over 27 years with Costco and have recommended Costco to at least a dozen friends who continue to thank me for the information. I won’t be making a YouTube video. But unless you have a severe or unusual hearing condition I would only recommend one provider.

Maybe Dr C should provide better service than costco with his affiliate network. Will be very hard to beat them on any level. Till then even if they were close it would take costco stopping their offering or closing their stores within 200 miles to get me to change.

Sorry Bud

So Dr. Cliff says he just didn’t know what he didn’t know when he first began following Costco and making recommendations online. OK. But no great revelations ensued.

He states that 50% of his new clients are disgruntled Costco users. That could be for a lot of reasons, none of them particularly meaningful. Maybe due to his visibility and past Costco endorsements on Youtube? Maybe his office was next door to a Costco (not saying this is the case but it IS true of one audiologist I know of and he loves walk in traffic from unhappy Costco peeps)? Maybe because Costco is possibly the largest dispenser of prescription hearing aids in his metro if not the country? Who knows? As he acknowledges, no one has perfect outcomes and it is likely these people did, in fact, have more complex fitting requirements.

However, I don’t accept that any private dispenser/audiologist-supported venue is de facto superior to Costco. Concierge service in and of itself is not a recommendation for or against.

He basically says he feels betrayed by the KS10 battery issue. Well, they are good hearing aids. He wasn’t wrong about that. The charging issue may be firmware related from what I can tell, and it is not unique to KS10s. My new, first pair of Widex Moment Sheers had the exact same issue. One aid wouldn’t charge properly, would drain in a matter of hours, blah blah. But he intimates that it may have been substandard batteries or lower quality standards in their manufacture compared to the Phonak equivalents he services in his practice. How, even if true, is this Costco’s fault? They didn’t spec the battery, they don’t write the firmware. Costco did attempt to address the issue. KS10’s appear to be rebranded Phonak, but this does not mean they are identical, they may even be different business units, like Toyota and Lexus. And even if Costco simply decided to abandon the Kirkland branded prescription HA portion of their business for other reasons, including the fact that they might make more money on the OTC and other prescription brands, I still don’t see how that is a personal betrayal or warrants a black box warning.

His primary “advice” to Costco was “be more like me,” which is NOT their model at all So this was a thinly veiled infomercial for his own services.

The whole OTC thing is what is likely to eat into trad audiologist profit margins, and I gather that Costco is doing both. This may sound cynical, but what I really think Dr. Cliff regrets, is being so transparent in representing Costco as an alternative to his own business model in the first place. If I were one of his affiliates, I would think why the heck are you promoting Costco when I am paying fees (I assume) for your endorsement?? I think there is still a place for people with trad audiologist business models, but perhaps won’t be as profitable as in the past. In the meantime he needs those affiliate and manufacturing relationships, probably more than ever. I really cringed to see Joe Namath flogging MDHearing, and then I thought, if it puts more people on the path to better hearing, so be it.

Having said this, I personally got a lot of information on his channel when first researching alternatives for my husband and for myself. His channel, Hearing Tracker, and this forum, (not necessarily in that order) were my go to resources. So I appreciate his contributions to the industry and HA users, and don’t doubt his overall sincerity. But he is going to have to do a lot better than say, oops, don’t use Costco: Dial up my provider network, instead.

I have the Costco Phonak battery hearing aids, with pretty profound hearing loss. I decided I needed a spare pair of aids, if one breaks/etc during travel. I got the Phillips 9040. They are awful for me, not closer to my regular aids. My plan is to go to the big clinic I have been seen at previously (House Clinic in SoCal) Ang get a new evaluation, bite the bullet and try what they recommend. Nothing against Costco, happy with them, but the potential replacements didn’t work out. I’m a retired physician, pretty much know my way around the block.

It would be interesting to see how much of his business is income from Ads compared to audiology

I’d definitely try Costco again. It’s a crap shoot going to any dispenser. I’ve sat with more independents who were worse in taking the correct steps to get a successful fitting. That said do your research, and those that frequent these forums know this, to be your own best advocate. In a decade, I’ve been with about 10 different fitters at Costco and think only about half were very good, but several were fantastic and way better than any independent I’ve yet met. At least at my current Costco I’ve experienced two great ones and they’ve been there years. Personally still on KS9 and they recently replaced a receiver no charge after 5 years.

Same experience with Costco. Same HA (KS9), same failure (receiver), same response (fixed free).

@threluja said:

It would be interesting to see how much of his business is income from Ads compared to audiology

I can assure you than he gets close to nothing from YT Ads, tens of thousands in viewership is nothing. It’s a nice allowance but definitely not worth fighting for.

I’ve been to Costco and many locations over the years. I had mostly good interactions with the fitters until I got my Jabras in January. I’ve seen 3 fitters and none of them took the time to get me set up. I finally found one at a different Costco who is my new best friend. She actually listened to me and set the Jabras up pretty good considering.

I visited Dr. Cliff’s office and got an audiogram and a sales pitch. I paid for the audiogram and declined the extremely high priced hearing aids and services (more than 5 times the cost of Costco).

Turned out the original fitter for the Jabras did a poor job with my hearing test, My new best friend used Dr. Cliff’s office audiogram, compared to the one Costco had done 4 years ago and they made more sense together. She used his office’s audiogram and the Jabras aren’t bad now.

I’m not impressed by this person or his video. He’s a lot of loud talk. His data consists of exactly one person’s trip to a Costco. All his other claims of “50%” of his patients are “mad at” Costco are unsupported by data.

And 50% of what number?
The statement is useless without supporting data.