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Costco Hearing Aid Center Review | Secret Shopping Kirkland Signature 10.0

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This video has almost 5k views in one day. What do you all think? Does this represent your experience at Costco?

37 people in this conversation36 min readJump to latest

Overall, I think Costco should be lauded for making it easier to access high quality hearing care. In this instance, it feels like the professional needs follow-up CPD and I hope Costco responds positively.

I’ve had nothing but excellent service from Costco here in Scotland and I’m delighted with my KS10 and the care provided. I visited the Hearing Centre this week for a follow up session which was focussed around my experience of the HAs, my needs and the data from the HAs as well as any issues (none). Plenty explanation of suggested tweaks and what impact these would have, plus assurance that they can be rolled back.

The testing I underwent was spot on, easily the best I’ve been through in 20 years (I’ve been seen by hospital audiologists here in the UK and private hearing aid dispensers so I’ve sat lots of tests). For me it was methodical, careful and focussed around my needs and experience.

There are more than 100 comments already, including mine, many from people with quite different experiences from Dr. Cliff’s assistant’s.

Yeah I checked in to see where the discussion had got to. As in any profession there’s fantastic, good, mediocre, poor and awful practitioners. Dr Cliff notes even many audiologists in private practices don’t fully implement Best Practices. A ways to go to bring up standards across the board maybe?

Ultimately, skill, experience and empathy trump ‘nice framed degree on the wall’ for me.

What Dr. Cliff described in no way matches my experience at Costco.

I did go to an audiologist this week to try the Oticon More. Instead of doing anything that the Oticon literature told me to expect for the “risk free trial,” she plugged the results from my Costco into her computer, did a first fit, and slapped the demo aids on me.

I came away from that experience trusting my Costco fitter, who wears KS9s herself, much more than Dr. Slapemon.

I haven’t watched the video but how many Costco’s and where did Dr. Cliff’s assistant visit? There are just basic statistical considerations in such a review.

Another consideration might be called “political.” Perhaps it is true that a Big Box store does not deliver the same level of deluxe highly specialized service that a highly educated, very experienced audiologist has with the expertise and financial remuneration to cater to his/her patients. But what’s more important: reasonably good, affordable hearing aids and hearing care for the masses with people trained and intelligent enough to refer you to more specialized care if needed or elite, expensive ’s that only the very well-off or the very well-insured can afford?

Along with Dr. Cliff’s comments as noted by another commenter in this thread that even many audiologists don’t implement Best Practices, I found the following commentary interesting by Jeff Hall, ZipHearing’s founder, as to whether is a make-or-break deal for fitting: Real Ear Measurement [A Quick Introduction] | ZipHearing11

Surveys generally indicate that about 50% of hearing care providers have real ear measurement
equipment, and about a third of providers use it routinely.

Hall indicates the previous >$10K cost of REM equipment was a problem but recent availability of equipment costing only a few thousand bucks per machine has made it a more affordable option (it needs to be periodically recalibrated, too, IIRC). Hall says most ZipHearing providers use it in fitting but doesn’t think it’s going to be the end of the world if you don’t get it because so often the user’s insistence that a fitting adjustment be made that takes you outside the optimum fit overrides REM (“I don’t like how tinny the high frequencies sound and I want you to give me less amplification!!!”).

Dr. Cliff is in Phoenix, Arizona, and there are four Costco warehouses in Phoenix. He doesn’t say which one his assistant went to.

I’m going to ignore this video and go in to my appointment on Tuesday with no preconceived notions. He didn’t do new wearers any good by not pointing out what someone like me should be on the lookout for. I will be bringing my own done by my audiologist to compare notes.

Well I can say I went to the private hearing specialist who wanted to charge me $6600 for oticon more 1 and the visit was terrible. She didn’t ask what my needs were, didn’t really allow me any other demos, etc… Went to Costco and the there was terrific. Bought aids at Costco and could not be happier - so there’s that :wink:

I had a similar experience, but the audiologist merely showed me a chart with prices for different tech levels and no discussion of what brands or models might work for me. Basically left it all up to me.

I hope my visit to Costco will be like yours.

Yeah at the private place the prices for all of the different brands were the same prices which made no sense to me. She really didn’t explain the differences between the brands and levels well at all. The woman at Costco insisted I try more than one pair, ran an additional test (I came in with a hearing test from a doctor’s office for another reason) and really was supportive.

Edited

I was very surprised at the tone of the Video - I left this comment…

@DrCliffAuD

Cliff,
Despite being a subscriber and grateful for much of what you put online, I admit to being very disappointed in this video. You are better than this.

You have detailed an experience at a single Costco branch amongst the approx. 660 in North America and presented it as if it was the standard to be expected at Costco. In doing so you are adversely representing the entire company’s hearing services. It is not until 20 minutes into your video that you mention/emphasise that this is a single experience at a single Costco. You then go on to imply that inferior service is inevitable because of the business model Costco use. You are potentially disenfranchising a huge part of the population that choose to or who can only afford to go to Costco and who may now feel that they are inevitably getting inferior service. That is the extent of your reach and with it comes responsibility. You should recognise this.

Many people have had an excellent experience with Costco hearing centres and have obtained “comprehensive best practice” and great results - despite the lower cost. Many people have gone to a “Qualified Audiologist” and had appalling outcomes. This experience you/they relate reflects the INDIVIDUAL providing the service - not the quality of the clinic/company overall and can not be considered as representative of Costco without more comprehensive “testing” and “secret shopping”.

I note you mentioned you had a potential conflict of interest - that is true, Please understand that by simply mentioning it you do not negate it.

Lastly, you make reference to “Costco Fanbois” - this is a pejorative term and beneath you. Just because people may have had a good experience ANYWHERE (including your clinic) does not make them a “Fanboi”. It makes them satisfied clients.

Cliff - you are better than this…… Disappointed.

I’m expecting pushback based on his other responses :stuck_out_tongue:

EDIT: my comment had now disappeared twice… I wonder if that is a glitch?

Edit 2: Can anyone see the above comment on the youtube page? It should be obvious if it is there (look at newest comments first…)… I don’t want to repost it if it is simply a case of a glitch at my end!

Edited

No, I don’t see your comment. They might be deleting them.

I am dismayed at the entire structure of the hearing loss business model. Patients should be able to buy in an unbundled format and then be able to go to any audiologist for fitting, cleaning, reprogramming, etc and buy their services a la cart. It is too closed the way it is. Outlets like Costco and Sams Club are a start, but can be improved on. I should be able to go to any place that sells hearing aids and get mine cleaned and adjusted as needed without being told that since I didn’t buy here I am not wanted as a customer.

Edited

I’d like to see Cliff turn the lens on himself and the system the he is a part of. I wonder what that would look like?

I live in one of the largest over 55 communities in the world. Over 100,000 residents over 55 and expected to double in size soon. Our daily newspaper features multi full page ads for hearing aids on Tuesdays. Now, I have no idea what these ads cost, but I am certain they are costly. We refer to the Tuesday newspaper as the hearing aid edition. These ads tout the latest and greatest hearing aids and are presented wrapped in gold and were just introduced this week. The latest and greatest. No prices are mentioned though. But if you look further you will see the bait. Lower priced hearing aids costing less than $300 each. The switch? I’m would guess that you will get your free exam and receive the bad news that your hearing loss can’t be corrected by those bargain brand , but we have these over here, but they will run you $5000! Something is rotten in Denmark as they used to say.

If you can get them to do so at a reasonable price with an unbiased recommendation. I see no point to the bundled pricing business model. Maybe you can explain to me why it is this way?

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