Hearing Aid Practitioner employed at Costco…Ask Me Anything!

@SHWoodham said:

Hi fughettaboutit,

I hope your offer of asking anything is still open. I decided to try Costco for my 3rd set of hearing aids last October, and got the Rexton Trax 42. My previous HAs were Oticon Delta 4000 & Phonak Versata Art. From my research, I’m confident that the Trax 42s are better than either of my previous HAs, and I was really pleased with the price, but I’m having to ask people to repeat themselves more often now. I feel that this is due to my hearing aid tech at Costco. After his initial setup and 2nd tuning of them (not really a tuning, but he added some programs), I had my biannual appointment with an audiologist at the hospital. She gave me test results that indicated I needed more amplification at 6 kHz & above. When I asked the tech at Costco to align the HAs to the hospital test, he retested my hearing, and let the software do an automatic alignment from that. They’re now worse. And he (probably inadvertently) removed the extra programs which I was relying upon for certain situations. And he doesn’t like to get out of bed for appointments before early afternoon.

So I have 2 questions: first, can I take these to a different Costco hearing center HA tech, or am I stuck with the one I have? I asked him if he’d like me to see someone else who likes morning appointments, but he didn’t want me to change techs. And second, can Costco HA techs manually adjust amplification of particular frequencies, or is everything automated in the Siemens (Rexton) software? For my previous HAs I had audiologists who were able to do very specific customization.

Thanks for any advice you can give! and my wife also thanks you… she’s pretty tired of repeating herself.

I had a similar issue. While I loved the overall sound of the Trax 42, speech comprehension was worse than my previous aids, Resound Future. Since I have the Smart Connect with the Android app, I was able to adjust the treble until my speech comprehension was good. I then went back to Costco armed with that information (I could show her exactly how much more treble I needed). She pushed the highs based on that and now, I’m golden.

@KenP said:

Yes, you can go to any Costco.

Thanks, KenP.

@JohnC said:

I had a similar issue. While I loved the overall sound of the Trax 42, speech comprehension was worse than my previous aids, Resound Future. Since I have the Smart Connect with the Android app, I was able to adjust the treble until my speech comprehension was good. I then went back to Costco armed with that information (I could show her exactly how much more treble I needed). She pushed the highs based on that and now, I’m golden.

Thanks, JohnC. I don’t have the Smart Connect device, but I see a basic bass-treble slider has been added to the Smart Remote app, so I’ll give it a try. Your reply also indicates that Costco HA techs can manually adjust specific frequencies, so I’ll try a different tech for that.

Hi. Can CostCo hearing aids only be set up by CostCo techs?
I want to buy hearing aids from CostCo because in Australia they are 1/3 the price of other suppliers.
The problem is I live in Perth Western Australia and there isn’t a CostCo here. There is a Costo in Melbourne, but that’s an expensive 4-hour flight away (and 4 hour back of course) and I would need an overnight stay x 3 visits.
If I were to buy the CostCo hearing aids from Melbourne, can I get the software and my audiologist in Perth can set them up for me?
Thank you

Hi!

My friend got a Signature 6.0. The original was replaced recently by Costco. The problem is that there is a lot of background noise when taking phone calls on the iphone 6 plus and the voices she hears are too soft to make out the voice clearly. She did not have this problem with the originally purchased hearing aid, and apparently all the settings are set up in the same way.

Have you heard of this problem and do you have any suggestions how to address this? Thanks very much.

Joe

To add, the phone ring is louder than usual, and the hearing aid otherwise is just as clear as before when not used using the phone.

@SHWoodham said:

Thanks, JohnC. I don’t have the Smart Connect device, but I see a basic bass-treble slider has been added to the Smart Remote app, so I’ll give it a try. Your reply also indicates that Costco HA techs can manually adjust specific frequencies, so I’ll try a different tech for that.

The fact is that hearing is subjective. The audis always try to rely on the computer for best fit. That gets you in the ballpark, but a real good audi knows there is often more woek to be done.

@fuhgettaboutit said:

Hey everyone,

I work at a Costco Hearing Centre as a hearing aid practitioner/dispenser.

To clarify, Costco’s provides hearing aids with the same technology made by the same manufacturers as other clinics Phonak, GN ReSound, Siemens and Bernafon. We employ audiologists and Hearing Instrument Specialists/Hearing Aid Dispensers/Hearing Aid Practitioners alike.

I have worked outside of Costco for over 10 years as well and have a good perspective of this industry. It is an industry full of people (but not ALL) driven by money, not hearing and communication healthcare.

That being said, I truly believe that Costco’s Hearing centers are the hearing aid dispensing industry’s saving grace. We follow standard protocols that are set at the top of the dispensing industry. I have seen life-changing experiences within the hearing centre, tons of satisfied people, and very few adjustment appointments. Simply said, we are doing things right, and hard of hearing consumers are finally realizing it. Gone are the days of $3000.00+ hearing aids with little to no verification and validation procedures.

Please, we need help.
Where can we get a Siemens from India programed? …

Hello, and thanks for your “Ask Me Anything” invitation!

I am an extremely satisfied Costco customer with Rexton Trax 42c RIC 312 hearing aids with the SmartConnect device and Android app. I want to establish a Bluetooth connection to my SONY Bravia TV (Model XBR-65X850B) so the sound can go straight into my hearing aids. Because the native Bluetooth connectivity of the TV is limited to SONY headsets, I am using an Aluratek Bluetooth Audio Transmitter Model ABT01F. It is connected to the TV through the 3.5mm headphone jack. My problem is that I can’t get the SmartConnect to pair with the transmitter no matter how hard I try.

From what I read, the Rexton mini BLU device would do just about the same thing as the SmartConnect. Don’t know whether it’s worth trying that approach. I’d appreciate any guidance you can offer.

Thanks in advance!

@fuhgettaboutit said:

Hey everyone,

I work at a Costco Hearing Centre as a hearing aid practitioner/dispenser.

To clarify, Costco’s provides hearing aids with the same technology made by the same manufacturers as other clinics Phonak, GN ReSound, Siemens and Bernafon. We employ audiologists and Hearing Instrument Specialists/Hearing Aid Dispensers/Hearing Aid Practitioners alike.

I have worked outside of Costco for over 10 years as well and have a good perspective of this industry. It is an industry full of people (but not ALL) driven by money, not hearing and communication healthcare.

That being said, I truly believe that Costco’s Hearing centers are the hearing aid dispensing industry’s saving grace. We follow standard protocols that are set at the top of the dispensing industry. I have seen life-changing experiences within the hearing centre, tons of satisfied people, and very few adjustment appointments. Simply said, we are doing things right, and hard of hearing consumers are finally realizing it. Gone are the days of $3000.00+ hearing aids with little to no verification and validation procedures.

Amazing thread, fuhgettaboutit, so here’s my story. Any ideas about what’s going on with the audi?

Yesterday I had a visit with our local Costco audi. I will return and get another hearing test since my last one was over 6 months old. I brought up the Resound Cala and thought we were talking about that one. Also I have a reverse “cookie bite” hearing loss, which she said was a mild loss, she did not refer to the “reverse cookie bite” aspect at all. Mild, in a way, yes, but in some situations I can hardly understand speech, in classrooms and in restaurants. Since I teach, the classroom situation is important. Though she discussed my two audiograms with me, she never referred to the situation as being atypical or anything, so I wonder now why not.

She did come highly recommended, and when we spoke I thought we were on the same wavelength, but this morning I looked at sheets for the two aids she is recommending (KS and Brio), one of which is not what I talked about (Cala8). I was disappointed and began to question whether she really understood what I was talking about. She kept saying “Resound” during our conversation, never mentioned Kirkland Signature. I thought she meant the Cala8).

My insurance will pay for nearly all the cost of the more expensive aids, so not sure why she is steering me toward the KS. My only guess is that she is more comfortable fitting those two aids (Brio and KS). Or perhaps my local Costco does not carry the Calas yet, in which case she should have told me that. It made me feel I could not trust her to give me the information I was asking for. I find it worrisome and or perhaps insulting to have my intent ignored with the Cala8 issue.

I was enthusiastic about Costco because of the return policy and the ability to try different aids without a restocking fee. I’ll still have the hearing test as scheduled, but see that I need to then have a very different conversation with her after that, especially what she thinks about the reverse cookie bite loss, especially if it gets worse as time goes on. Then a discussion about starting with the Cala8 and if not, why not.

Any thoughts on what is going on?

I tried putting a link to this in my signature, but don’t see it showing up, so here’s the link to my test showing reverse cookie bite loss and conductive loss.

The OP seems to have never come back. But from other posts here, it would seem that the KS 6 aids are configured such that only Costco’s version of the software will work. So nobody outside Costco can program the KS 6 aids. (The software is called Aventa, which BTW the manufacturer, GN Resound, makes freely available.)

So the freely available Aventa can program the KS6?
I could potentially download it and take the computer with it to the audiologist.

Sorry, I was unclear. A regular copy of Aventa won’t work. Only the version of Aventa that Costco has (which they won’t give you, of course). Aventa is used to program GN Resound hearing aids. Every clinic has a copy.

Thank you for clarifying!