With so many hearing aid advertisements bombarding you every week, if not every day, it’s hard to figure out what’s legitimate, what’s a bait and switch, and what’s an outright scam.
Here are some quick pointers.
- You’re simply not going to get a high quality hearing aid for under $1500 each. It’s simply not going to happen. It doesn’t matter what the advertisement says, it doesn’t matter what is promised; high quality and cheap are not synonymous.
- If the hearing aid is not manufactured by one of the “Big 6” hearing aid manufacturers, you’re making a mistake…no matter how much money you “think” you may have saved. If the instrument is not made by ReSound, Oticon, Widex, Phonak, Siemens or Starkey; you’re basically throwing your money away. The “Big 6” currently owns 98% of the international market. Does it really make sense to gamble your dollars on a marginal company?
- Hearing aids are not a commodity. You simply cannot buy a hearing aid for the “cheap” on the internet, save a few dollars and live happily ever after. You have to have your hearing evaluated, you have to have the proper instrument fit for your loss; you’re going to have to deal with potential occlusion, dexterity concerns, background noise, feedback and a plethora of various “situational” listening needs in order to even approach a successful fitting. In short, you’re going to need help and a fair amount of it in order for any of this to work.
- Commissions have to be paid. Whoever is fitting you has no intention of doing it for free. The vast majority of Hearing Aid Specialists and Dispensing Audiologists are paid with commissions ranging from 15% to 25%. Let me ask you, if a commissioned sales Specialist or sales Audiologist has a choice of selling you a pair of hearing aids for $1000 or for $8000…which way do you think they are going to go? This isn’t rocket science, you can do the math.
If it sounds too good to be true…it probably is. Don’t be duped. We all desperately “want to believe” that we are getting something for nothing. The reality is, we all know better