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PUB Hearing (Surprisingly cheap prices)

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I can’t comment on TVs, but I’ve done the same thing with my Samsung phone, no problem, so with an international warranty I would expect JVC UK to honour this?

No, the contract only exists with the vendor. Unless there’s a specifically authorised channel like a JVC shop (or another Authorised agent) you can’t call on another vendor to honour it.

None of the main suppliers deal with the public directly so legally you have nowhere to go, unless as stated above you find someone to take you on for other reasons.

The rules are basically; you take it back for service where you bought it.

Edited

In reply to @tenkan

I think we’re talking past one anothere here. You’re talking about out of warranty claims. Sure, you might be able to pay standard rates and get out of warranty repairs done, but that’s not the point. International warranty is only 1 year, which means if you have a fault in year 2,3 or 4, you would have to pay the repair cost. If you purchased it from Phonak Australia, the repair would be covered. I also send all my clients’ aids away at the 3/4 year mark to replace the Li-ion battery under warranty to ensure they can get at least 5-6 years out of their devices. Having that done is a roughly $500 saving at least, assuming they have no other faults in the previous 3 years. Add the service of an audiologist over numerous visits and the initial savings start to diminish fast. If you then good for you, but most people don’t. This topic is naturally a sore point for Auds because these discussions completely devalues/ignores the value of a good audiologist.

WOOHO, Yeah a lot of urban myths and scaremongering going on here, but I was talking about both, international warranty and out of warranty claims, so having to pay for repairs (which doesn’t happen often) after 2,3,4 years I still save thousands of dollars on what you’d sell a new set for, as for sending all your clients in to get the battery replacement is something the manufacturers do, you don’t do anything but charge fright, and possibly other crap like administration fee, service fee, tax fee bah bah, most people do not hold on to HAs for 5 or 6 or even 4 years now, new models are being released every 12 -18 months, and if their saving $500 because the manufacturers change out the rechargeable battery that’s great,but that’s just a rip off price for a tiny piece of lithium, this is why I don’t recommend buying rechargeable, I only buy disposable, so everything about this market is just about the money, no one cares that you gotta pay for bricks and mortar store and staff, you see this is why we have online stores selling for 2 - 3k, because they know it’s not possible to make money like this anymore, you gotta move on and do online which is what people want,look at Widex now is out on the new Allure, all done within the software, 99% of people go or online because they see the market is a rip off, thank god for DIY and Costco, I haven’t had to spend my hard earned cash with a clinic for so long now, I’ll never buy from a clinic again ever, if my eBay set die then I throw them in the bin and buy another set, just like your old phone, worthless after a year or two, I can get late models for only 3 or $400 eBay, if people wanna buy online that’s our choice, we do it to save money, not because we think the Audiologist is s#*t, so blame the manufacturers and the pandemic for fueling online sales and not us.

Edited

Which all might be true in your world, but in the real World you’re an outlier in terms of the average distribution of the market. As the technical complexities of aids and the ability to integrate them with your other devices increases, people actually need more ‘hand-holding’ through the process.

Now the average technical ability of the market is increasing so your position might have more credibility in the future; but amongst our regular users, the proportion who are fully integrating smartphone use is about 50-60%. Of those, the subset of ‘power users’ is about a third. Assuming they can somehow get tested, fully service their aids, are willing to undertake programming changes and are confident to do it, would result in a perhaps 1-2% of the total (with the right testing, programming and fitting kit).

Now, I’m also perfectly happy to say we don’t see the ‘dark matter’ in our universe: the 75% of cases that are not acknowledged, actioned, tested or fitted, but that’s where the devices work.

However; in real terms we’re having to rewrite our care packages to offer additional monthly deals with MORE hands-on services for clients needing extra phone-connectivity help. We’ve identified that people in that 50-60% group above who aren’t in that ‘power users’ category need this help because they become increasingly dependent on their hearing system integration with other devices, but don’t have the skills without face to face assistance to resolve connectivity and breakdown issues.

Edit: When I say ‘fully integrated’ above I mean people who consistently use their phone through the aids AND control the aids that way. Not just someone who tried the App for a couple of tweaks at the start.

In reply to @tenkan

You’re clearly quite emotional about this. There are a few things you’ve said that are incorrect IMO. Firstly, I charge absolutely nothing for sending aids for batt. replacement and manufacturers certainly dont reach out to my clients to inform/remind them to do so - you’re complete wrong there. I can empathise with your frustrations to a certain degree - Manufacturers (not clinics) do have a significant mark-up on their product. Welcome to capitalism - they, like every industry, will charge as much as they can feasibly get away with. The profitability of individual clinics however is very different. As I understand it, most clinics are lucky to make a 10-20% net profit. I know you don’t care, but there are many people who arent able to that do care. The vast majority of hearing aid users rely on clinics/auds to access hearing rehab. There is a non-trivial percentage of my clients that require significant and consistent face-to-face support with the management and maintenance of their hearing aids.

And lastly, no, Widex don’t have auto- - that’s laughable. Their sensogram is often claimed to be a substitute but I can assure you, as someone who on many occassions has run a sensogram then checked the output via REM, it is not.

I’m glad you’ve found a cost-effective way of getting hearing treatment, but trashing the industry at large is misguided, myopic, and fails to consider the vast majority of users that need the support of bricks & mortar clinics for their hearing care. I’d love to see pressure placed on manufacturers to make hearing aids more affordable, but not at the cost of an entire profession.

In reply to @ynneBBenny

If you have a Costco close to you, go there $1600 and three year service and pre-check ups every year and all cleaning every time you go to Costco wanna spend 3000 when you can get near the probably be better hearing aid and what they were gonna give you for 3000

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