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Counterfeit Hearing Aids

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Hello all! Will someone just give the straight facts please? Are there counterfeit aids out there?
Where do they come from? Who is selling them? Thanks!

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I haven’t heard of them. I guess you might see improper descriptions from either the uninformed or cheats. That’d be possible on some of the free ad sites.

I purchased a pair of aids at a too good to be true price from an online seller.
When my audiologist checked the serial numbers with the manufacturer
he was told that the numbers do not exist. How can this be? Thanks all!

Would be good to clarify with audiologist/manufacturer whether aids were never built with those serial numbers or if they’ve been taken out of the system (replaced because they were lost)

I cannot see how it would be financially advantageous to produce cheap copy’s of big brand hearing aids, import them or smuggle them in, and then market them online for a small percentage of the retail price of genuine ones. Where is the profit in it? So I am left to ponder what it is I have purchased? Where did they come from? Who is selling them? It was claimed that the aids were preowned and had been worn less then two hours. The person or people making the sale had a huge amount of 100% feedback on the auction site. I thought it worth a chance to see what I would be sent. The aids seem to be working as they should so far. There is just that mysterious serial number thing about them. I love a good mystery. Does anyone know more about this?

So they work? And are programmable by your audiologist? To your needs? And they work with the software from the manufacturer that they are meant to be made by? If yes to all the above they sound real? A supply chain problem? Did the manufacturer try to confiscate them? Were they just from another country and the database check was just from your country? Lots of possibles.

I bought my first set of Phonak hearing aids on line from USA (I’m in the UK) and when my then audiologist told Phonak the serial numbers, the serial numbers didn’t work because they were bought in the USA.

If the manufacturer has genuinely no record of the aids then they could have been stolen from the production line or from a distribution centre, prior to them being shipped.

That’s pretty unusual TBH.

The audiologist had some difficulty getting the left one to pair with his programmer. However that
may have been a problem with the programmer itself. When both aids finally connected they
seemed to take the commands sent to them. I think that they are functioning as they should at
this time. We have not preformed real ear measurements yet, so do not know if they are producing the proper output. So, I am hoping that they work, and that they are genuine, and that the person or persons who sold them to me are who they appear to be. I have only started this thread due to the serial number mystery. I also want to share my experience with this purchase for the benefit of others like myself, who would never be able to afford new aids at currant retail prices. Thanks!

What brand are they? Sometimes manufacturers don’t have a worldwide database.

Also, sometimes credit returns are stolen, as happened at Rexton several years ago. The only reason they got caught is because they were Costco hearing aids, and were locked.

Many ’s and custom faceplates are now made in China, and the factories are notorious for running “extras” on the production line. [Contract record pressing factories were notorious for bootlegging vinyl starting in the 1950’s, selling them out the back door and cheating the artist out of royalties.]

@Discpad said:

What brand are they? Sometimes manufacturers don’t have a worldwide database.

This is what happened to me. Phonak don’t have a world wide database.

In reply to @gkg50

@gkg50 said:

I purchased a pair of aids at a too good to be true price from an online seller.
When my audiologist checked the serial numbers with the manufacturer
he was told that the numbers do not exist. How can this be? Thanks all!

I bought some new Siemens Signias online from a Canada seller. They were manufactured by Siemens Signia in Singapore. The Siemens Connexx programming software instantly recognized the serial numbers and worked perfectly.

When I went to my Canadian Audio and sent them Siemens for a colour change kit, Siemens in North America refused to work on them as they didn’t have a North American serial number.

Go figure…it would seem to be North American Siemens Signia has in-country protectionism from other country suppliers.

Both my Audio’s Programming Connexx software and my software worked perfectly with them. It would also seem that Siemens Signia International does not discriminate where the aids were manufactured or in which country they were initially sold.

PS. Later on, I obtained a colour change kit through other means and did the change-over myself!

In reply to @gkg50

The aids could be from another country,
For example…if you purchase Phonak aids in Canada then come to the USA and have a dispenser call
Phonak in the USA, they will tell you they can not find them with the serial numbers you have.
They do not have info on Phonak aids from other countries.

This is true of many other manufacturers.

This answer is starting to make a lot of sense. Do you know any place/site to search serial numbers to find out what country a set of ’s might come from? If there are fake copies of high end, name brand hearing aids out in the marketplace, we all need to know about it.
Have you ever seen or heard of any? Thanks!

No one is making fake aids that i have ever heard about.
Phonak, Oticon, Widex, Siemens and other brands are from Europe with offices all over the world.
They will not recognize any aids from country to country nor will the warranty be honored in a different country, from where it was purchased.

Phonak aids purchased in Canada will hot have an warranty in The USA.
When i get patients from Germany or England, they have no warranty on their aids in this country even though
it is a national brand.

That sounds like a very good reason that my pair would not show up in the USA database.
In that case, I am still left wondering where they came from.
I like to know about these kind of things. Thank you!

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