Not at all, but I can see where you might have that concern. He is partial to Starkey, but sells other brands as well. I’ve been using this audiologist for 5 years, he’s never pressured me to buy anything. I came came to him from a different audiologist, because they were constantly screwing up my programming, and he got things right for me. Starkey runs this program once a year, when they release their new technologies. He asked me about a year ago if I’d be interested in it the next time they ran the program. You cannot be in the market for new hearing aids, and you have to have a good pair of hearing aids already. It’s simply a method they use to get real world testing, but he did tell me up front that people rarely return them. So there was definitely no deception. My reports, feedback, suggestions, etc. are reviewed by Starkey, and they follow up on it.
I do remember running into a situation like you are talking about. It was many years ago (maybe 15). We began to realize that I needed hearing aids, and I responded to a newspaper ad. I don’t remember the exact wording, but when we got there, he gave me a somewhat laughable exam, and then told me I didn’t qualify for the promotional pair (big surprise). However, he had me in the door at that point, so the sales pitch was on. Ultimately, we walked away from that, and it was another couple of years before I finally got my first pair.
Hot Springs Village, Arkansas