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Hearing aid died two days after trial ended — any suggestions for refund with zip hearing?

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Edited

I just bought a pair of oticon own through zip hearing; the trial ended this week and less than 48 hours later, one of them began to cut out intermittently and then finally just died and won’t turn on. I have cleaned the filter and the vent but that didn’t fix it. This happened Friday and I emailed but didn’t hear back yet (I knew it was unlikely going into the weekend) but am worried about how strict they’ll be about the trial having ended and will just argue that they’re under warranty and therefore I just have to send them in for repairs already instead of refunding them. Any thoughts, experiences with this, or suggestions? I feel like I just wasted $5k for a lemon pair.

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Edited

Yeah, the Oticons are under warranty. Since you know that, it apparently doesn’t do anything to relieve your frustration. And losing a hearing aid this soon is a frustrating event.

If you kept them past the 45-day trial period, you must have decided to buy them and not return them. So, you’ll get a new hearing aid under warranty. That’s not a financial loss.

Zip might be willing to refund your money with a restocking fee. Or they might be willing to exchange them for a different brand. And they’ll certainly get them repaired. The 45-trial period isn’t because they want you to be happy. It’s because the state mandates it. Oticon takes back trialled hearing aids from the audi. I don’t know what Zip’s deal with Oticon is. The more Oticons they sell, the more flexible Oticon is.

Try a hard reboot, and see what happens. That fixes a lot of problems. How to do that depends on whether your batteries are replaceable or rechargeable.

Oticons are hard to find at a significant discount, unlike Phonak and Starkey.

Good luck!

But why do you want a refund? because of this issue or something else, I mean it’s a warranty repair and to be fair, it could of happened at anytime, for now we don’t know what the actual issue is, I’d hold off asking for a refund until you know exactly what’s going on.

Bc it’s a brand new hearing aid that has died within less than 48 hours of owning it. They’re never as reliable or the same once they go in for a fix. I’ve worn hearing aids for over 40 years and never had this happen; I think it’s fair to expect the hearing aid to not break in such a significant way so soon. This has shaken my confidence in the pair.

Call your Zip representive. I have found them to be flexible and fair.

The actual return period with the manufacturer is longer than the state minimum. Zip may be willing to return them especially if you plan to just buy a fresh pair.

In reply to @jiffy

@jiffy said:

Bc it’s a brand new hearing aid that has died within less than 48 hours of owning it.

Uh? I thought you’d done the trial with this same , so you’ve used it for how long?

@jiffy said:

They’re never as reliable or the same once they go in for a fix.

How do you mean? Not sure how you’ve come to this conclusion, if the manufacturer finds it as not economical to repair then they send you a new one,

@jiffy said:

This has shaken my confidence in the pair.

Wow that’s unfortunate, honestly you shouldn’t freak out just yet, could possibly be something simple, but can I ask why you chose online instead of someone like Costco.

In reply to @jiffy

Hearing aid “repairs” are actually quite rare nowdays. Most of the time you’ll be getting a service module or brand new electronics. Given that a problem has arisen this early the manufacturer is more likely to replace the entire thing with a new device under warranty so don’t worry about the return period. Have confidence that the new device should perform as you expect it should.

In reply to @tenkan

It’s not buying it from someone online per se; I did everything nearby with the the audiologist nearby who I wanted and who is good. I just paid ziphearing for the hearing aids and not the audiologist. Costco doesn’t do hearing aids where I am. I took ownership of the hearing aids after the 45 day trial, that’s what I meant.

During the last 15 years my wife and I have had our hearing aids repaired 5 times. Four of those times the hearing aids weren’t repaired; they were completely replaced.

Edited

I put a small scratch on the case. I note the serial number, which, as you said, may or may not change, and I record the battery life at the end of the day for a few days before I send them back.

Most problems are either batteries or wiring to the receiver. It’s rare for a circuit board to fail.

I mentioned the hard reboot because 90% of the time it fixes battery issues. During recharging, software glitches can happen that create battery indicator misreadings. The result is an aid that only holds a charge for a short time, and sometimes not at all. A hard reboot resets the software so the problem hearing aid charges properly again.

If it’s the wires to the receiver, then those have to be replaced, but often a company like Oticon just replaces the whole hearing aid. It’s cheaper than all the labor to take the shell apart, fix the wires and likely remake the shell. If the shell is replaced, then you won’t know what else they swapped out. However, battery life is usually one indicator.

All of my repairs came back with new batteries. Those weren’t repaired. They were replaced.

@Elderly said:

Most problems are either batteries or wiring to the receiver. It’s rare for a circuit board to fail. When it does, then neither aid works.

You’d be surprised, microphone/amplifier, but if one completely fails the other will still work, extra features that need both obviously won’t.

I’ll echo the thought to call Zip and see what they can do. I have always found them to be very easy to work with.

@jiffy said:

one of them began to cut out intermittently and then finally just died

It’s probably just receiver damage. Get the receiver swapped before freaking out. The hearing aid itself is likely fine.

In reply to @jiffy

@jiffy said:

shaken

The hardware for the newer ones they sell is updated when the mfgr. comes up with breakthroughs, so if you got them repaired a year later, after it’s been updated a lot of times, you might have reliability issues because they have to mix and match old and new technologies. However, a repair after 6 weeks does not have that problem. Your post is a lot of unhappiness & complaining about imaginary issues.

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