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Where to buy customer returned hearing aids in the UK?

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Back in 2021 I bought a pair of Phonak Paradise P90s on eBay at a very good price. They have been wonderful but now I feel like I want an upgrade to Infineo Spheres. I was a bit suspicious at first but the seller informed me that they were used for a 30 day trial and then returned by the customer. I figure this must happen quite a lot but what happens to them? Do they go back to Phonak, get reconditioned and re-sold as new? Or do the audiologists only have one or two which they re-use over and over again? I’m sure they must be quite a few floating around but where to find them? Does the industry have the whole thing stitched up so you can never buy lightly used aids legitimately?
I tried to find the original seller but he’s no longer trading.
I do my own programming BTW.

This topic was discussed before:

What happens to used and returned hearing aids?
I was wondering what happens to the hearing aids that are returned after trails ? Do they go back to the manufacturer, donated to charity or sold to brokers? If Audiologist or Costco are allowed to sell their returned hearing aids, what would be the cost of the mark down, does anyone know?
@e4andy said:

I was a bit suspicious at first but the seller informed me that they were used for a 30 day trial and then returned by the customer.

Are they “Trial Hearing aids”, as if they are, you’d be constantly amending the trial period in Target (as far as I know)?

@PeterH said:

Are they “Trial Hearing aids”, as if they are, you’d be constantly amending the trial period in Target (as far as I know)?

Yes That’s how it works, but demos are without this limitation,

@e4andy said:

Does the industry have the whole thing stitched up so you can never buy lightly used aids legitimately?

As a ’r you’d know that there’s plenty of ex demos etc floating around on eBay, so that’s the “secondary market” for all these great , and yes the cartel has the market “stitched up” so only new are sold, who knows what they do with models sent back to them from the clinic’s.

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