Replacing 4 Year Old Aids - Horns of a Dilemma

Try Costco.

I was in a similar position. Local Audiologist wanted $8k for Oticon Intents with 3 year support

I (and my wife) both went with Jabra Pro 30’s (same as latest Resound Vivia’s) from Costco just over a week ago at $1700 including a 3 year warranty.

The local audiologist did not make us feel comfortable we would get great support from her and she was very dismissive of Costco giving reasons that made no sense (I didn’t get the feeling she really understood the types of hearing aids or level of support from Costco). I am sure if we spent time we could have found one that made us feel comfortable if Costco hadn’t worked out.

The Costco fitter seemed more competent and interested in getting us set up correctly and spent time making sure the Jabra’s were set up for us including REM testing and how they actually sounded. We go back this week to see if any adjustments needed. He encouraged us to come in as needed and said he would be happy to tune music programs etc to our needs (I think the support from Costco is for the life of the hearing aids). He also explained how to clean them etc and will show us more once he sees them after 2 weeks of use.

In the end if Costco doesn’t work out you have 6 months to return them.

It is a fair point if you are a long way from a Costco then maybe it would not be such a good choice, but if not try Costco and see what you think.

@jeffrey said:

And then there’s the most crucial thing: if you have a provider who’s really good at configuring your HAs, it’s priceless. Finding one of these at Costco may be hit or miss, and anyway, there’s a lot of movement in terms of techs at Costco. And there may be a month’s wait or more to get into see one if you have any issues with your HA’s. So research this last in particular and take it into consideration.

@jeffrey said:

Costco techs come and go, and anyway, one takes the next appt. with whomever because they’re very busy and appt’s can be hard to come by.

I don’t always want to be explaining myself to yet another random tech at costco, and then having to wonder about what he or she has done to my aids after I leave. And then meet with yet another tech the next time to try to fix what the previous tech had done etc. etc.

Clearly the experience at different Costco’s will vary (and @wgragg1 can check their local Costco and get a sense of their wait times and techs experience) - but we have always been able to book the same tech for all our visits (initial hearing tests and then fittings) and so far have been able to get appointments in less than two weeks.

The tech who did both my wife and I hearing tests and then fittings seems great and understands what we are looking for from our aids.

I’m on my third pair of hearing aids, first Rexton, next ReSound, now Jabra. They lasted 4-5 years each. All from Costco. The $4700-$7900 ones from the audiologist are not expected to last longer. Therefore, if it’s going to be an expense every 4-5 years, and the quality of the Costco products is within 5-10% of the ridiculously expensive ones, why go elsewhere, especially with mild to moderate hearing loss. I have moderate to severe loss, and they work well in most instances, having only occasional issues with very high voices. Everything everyone has said about Costco is right, so take that into consideration. But for economics and practicality, I would recommend Costco.

@jeffrey said:

Finding one of these at Costco may be hit or miss, and anyway, there’s a lot of movement in terms of techs at Costco.

Because the Sennheiser aids weren’t available when I needed new aids, as in lost my KS9s, I now have Lumitys from ebay. However, I’ve been seeing the same person at Costco for about 10 years now, and she’s an audiologist, not a tech. I have a new hearing test scheduled with her in June. Not saying that everyone will have that experience at Costco, but that’s mine.

Also, Costco has done any cleaning and maintenance my aids need even beyond the warranty period. I think that’s their policy. I was sorry not to get these last aids from Costco, but I wanted aids that would handle phone calls the same as my KS9s badly enough to do it. Hope to be right back at Costco next time.

Mild to moderate hearing loss, go to Costco.