Costco selling returned hearing aids as new?

I have gone to private practices or public healthcare providers and they have fitted me with hearing aids that were intended for someone else and they either didn’t like them or returned them or the fitting wasn’t what they liked. They just covered their tracks better. If I don’t see them crack open the factory plastic sleeves and all the accessories they ship from in the manufacturer my guess is they were once fitted by another person.

This has never happened to me. They have always programed the hearing aid while I was in the room.

This doesn’t make any sense to me, since you have to make an appointment for a fitting when picking up new hearing aids. I have to think this another case of taking anything you read on the Internet with a bit of skepticism.

I’ve certainly had the experience where the hearing aids have had my audiogram entered ahead of time before they were fitted to me. This just seems like efficient practice. Everybody makes mistakes. In general give people the benefit of the doubt unless one sees a pattern.

Never, never happened to me. They have always programed the hearing aid while I was there in the room. I have always had to make an appointment too.

They have always ran the feedback manager too. The last new fitting included the real ear measurement process in addition to the feedback manager process.

The new hearing aid came with a box listing the hearing serial numbers and instruction manual.

So I’m a bit skeptical, especially when reading stuff on the Internet.

MDB theory seems to be that the hearing aids where already pre-programed.

By pre-programed, I mean the audiogram was preinstalled. The real ear measurement and feedback adjustment would still have to be done while you were in the room.

But that doesn’t make any sense since the programing software would show your name and would show that the program in the hearing aid was different. The programing software also shows the serial numbers of the hearing aids.

If any of this is true, then the easiest thing to due would be to return the hearing aids for a refund, and go to a different Costco, especially since you are not happy with the fitter.

If one shows your name and the other a different name, perhaps there was a mix up between two different sets, in which case they would have different serial numbers and one ear isn’t properly set up for your profile. If these were returned units, the technician did a pretty poor job setting them up I’d say, and should have been factory reset, cleaned and repackaged. Obviously one can not expect that the possibility of having returned goods isn’t there while expecting to be able to return yours. Returned units surely aren’t thrown away and I never seen HA sold as “open box refurbs”, so what do we think happens then? Go back to Costco I’d say and return them, or at the very least question the origin and set up. Costco has the world’s best most lenient return policy. These are medical devices, and should be well regulated when it comes to return units I would think.

@Gail_G said:

The hearing aid specialist is somewhat aggressive so I’m reluctant to point this out on my one week’s appointment. I’m not very happy with them so far. She insisted on giving me closed domes and my voice sounds like I am in a tunnel. She said I would get used to it

Pardon my French but “F**K that”. They are your ears. I was told the same about the domes by an audiologist (not Costco) and I said flat out that I want the smaller domes. Then moving to Costco, I said same thing. They gave me multiple sets of different sized domes to play around with. Everyone at my local Costco is very friendly. You should dump your person. No one should be “aggressive”.

I guess it’s just interesting that this wasn’t caught during the fitting appointment.

I believe Dr. Cliff seems to think Costco hearing aid fitters are rushed. So perhaps that’s at the core of the issue.

Anyhow, I would just return the hearing aids and try the new Rextons. The Costco fitter seems to really like them, providing the issues with the BiCores has been resolved.

Gail, this is not a hard problem. The store manager will be very happy to listen to your story and take appropriate action. Costco store managers are member-friendly. I have never had an issue that I took to a store manager that was not resolved, and resolved in a professional and satisfying way. You are not a stranger from off the street. You are a member. Were I you I would also let the manager know that I’m not comfortable with the specialist, and why. I can assure you that there will be an attitude adjustment on the part of the specialist in any future dealings with you.

From the tone of your comments I suspect that doing what I suggest above may be a bit uncomfortable for you. But I can assure you that there is no quicker, better, anxiety-relieving way of getting your concerns handled. All you have to do is to walk into the warehouse and tell the first employee who you come across “I’d like to speak to the store manager.”

@Gail_G said:

It came up with right ear Gail and showed both right and left ears as Kim.

Note that I’m a little confused by this statement. Came up on the right as Gail, and showed right ear as Kim. So is it Kim or Gail? Please let us know how it gets resolved, I’m curious.

UPDATE: I went to Costco this morning. They assured me they do not sell used hearing aids and seemed a bit indignant when I asked about it. She said that the app was probably picking up someone’s sign in from nearby. I’m not technical so I accept this. Anyway, the domes were replaced with the ones I wanted and the volume was adjusted. I’m not in a tunnel anymore. Good result for me.

Well, here’s an unpopular view. I’m using a left loaner aid right now. It works perfectly after having my programs downloaded. My original molds are attached-that is, MY molds with the reciever. My guess is that this loaner aid has some few hours of use on it, but not that many. I’d accept this loaner as a replacement for my own 2+year old aid that was sent in for repair. Except I’ll likely get a new battery and probably an entirely new aid when the process is done. My point is that I’d hate to see HAs with a mere 100 hours on them, or 300, discarded because they’re ‘used’. I’d buy such a used aid if it came at, say, 1/2 off. Gladly. that’s nothing in the life of the aid. Private providers might do well to strike a bargain with costco and others to buy their demos at 10% and then sell them as such at much reduced prices.

Why are you asking this here. Are you scared of them? If it happened to me I’d be back there ASAP