<p>Today, mom & I went to get her hearing tested at Costco. As suspected, the test again confirmed that she has significant hearing loss in the upper frequencies. We even tested out a pair of hearing aids in Costco and she said it made no difference only that everything was louder. For my part, I notice she could hear me and I didn’t have to frequently repeat myself and speak louder and lower all the time. She claimed it was no different from her regular hearing.</p>
<p>Anyone here have experiences with the different hearing aids at Costco & elsewhere? How do you choose which one to purchase? Tips? Dad, SIL and also H could use some help hearing but I really don’t know anything about these various devices. Their insurance will pay about $700 (I believe for the pair).</p>
<p>I have some moderate hearing loss, and had an in the canal hearing aid that I finally stopped wearing. It was fairly expensive, and it simply didn’t amplify enough to bring the hearing up to a “normal” level. It was small, however, and there is a tradeoff there. The smaller the unit, the less loud it is, and the tougher to hear.</p>
<p>I went to costco and tried a couple of theirs. I liked them a lot, and may end up buying one. They were a lot louder, and I could hear a lot more…so much that it would take some getting used to. </p>
<p>Right now I’m just muddling through, and I’m OK without it, but not great. The costco audiologist seemed just as good if not better than the one I had who was associated with my ENT specialist. The test was the same. Their brands are made by the same companies that other audiologists sell. And I certainly liked the ability to wear one around in the store for a while without buying it. </p>
<p>If your mom doesn’t think she needs one, things could be tough. One of the problems with hearing loss is that you sometimes don’t realize you’re not hearing the words correctly. Can’t distinguish between three, tree, free, see, be, we, thee, fee, etc. As you can see, there are endless possibilities for mis-hearing.</p>
<p>Not hearing perfectly is more serious that you realize. Not only do you mis-hear speech, but your sense of what is around you is very affected. You have no idea how much you rely on hearing to sense when someone is just behind you or to the side of you.</p>
<p>Thanks–it concerns me that they can’t hear when we ring their doorbell (& we don’t know what other sounds they can’t hear). Yes, she can be startled more often than I’d like because she doesn’t know I’m around her. My dad seems to hear better. My SIL & H also have some hearing loss but SIL refuses to consider doing anything about it. Dad is starting to think about it.</p>
<p>I do like that Costco let her walk around the store with a sample pair for 10-15 minutes. We may do it a few times before she & dad decide whether they are interested in purchasing any of them.</p>
<p>Don’t really udnerstand the difference between the different models and brands. Am not sure what was explained to mom but she’s still mulling over the idea of ANY hearing aid, so we’ll see.</p>
<p>Dad just came home & mom didn’t know it so she just asked me if he came home while I’m sitting her at their computer typing. <sigh> I don’t like them being startled because neither knows anyone has arrived. We do try to make as much noise when we arrive as possible so they know we’re here but we still can startle them when we visit.</sigh></p>
<p>Hi–I have worn hearing aids for 3 years now. The problem with buying at Costco is that you can ONLY wear them in the store and then need to pay to take them home and try them out. I do think the Costco brands are absolutely fine but am not sure I would have understood that if I had purchased my first set from them. So I spent more money at a private place but have had good service and it was worth the money. Walking around Costco is a terrible idea. When I was fitted for mine I took them home for 2 weeks for 0$ to try them out in my own environment. Your Mom needs to know that by federal law she can buy a set and return them after trying them and, also that Costco will take them back. You need to know that there could be a restocking fee at Costco or anyplace–.
I think that spend too much but that my first experience sold me so that the money was well spent after all…perhaps you mom would do better to pay more for her first pair by working in a quiet private office than taking over the Costco experience. I know that I would not have purchased from that experience if it had been my first. Good luck!</p>
<p>Costco has a FREE 90 day return no questions asked, NO restocking fee, according to the tech who tested mom. Thanks for these good questions and issues to follow up with. I really like the opticians at Costco but don’t get the same warm fuzzy from the ear department (maybe they will grow in me as well–have been using the opticians for over a decade).</p>
<p>So far, we’ve been EXTREMELY happy with Costco for everything. They have always been amazing at meeting our needs and with exceptional customer service. Still interested in reading other thoughts. Mainly, was glad mom could see if the hearing aids were comfortable, which she agreed they seemed to be. She didn’t think all that much of the walk around.</p>
<p>Hearing aids have to be programmed base on the patient’s audiogram. Adjustments are made to the liking of the patient during the initial wearing period.</p>
<p>Most states require that hearing aids be offered with a full 30 day trial period (may be longer in some states) so that you can see how well it works for you in real life. </p>
<p>Getting aids can be really disconcerting. Some are programmed to ramp up to full strength over a period of as much as 60 days, because people who have been very hearing impaired – usually for years – may recoil at hearing everything so loudly all at once. Wandering around the inside of a Costco is a terrible way to test out hearing aids, imo. Their hearing aids are excellent, but pick a better environment to accustom yourself to them. I think Consumer Reports rated them pretty highly as a place to get aids.</p>
<p>I got a hearing aid at Costco many years ago, I only needed it in one ear. Personally I find I am extremely aware of it (the same way I cannot wait to take off rings at the end of the day, I think it is me, not the hearing aid) and only wear it occasionally, when I am in group settings. I think Costco was fine to deal with, they actually remade my first one to be more comfortable.</p>
<p>My mother got a set of top of the line hearing aid at Costco last year, she tried them for the 90 days and returned them for a full refund. She felt there was no difference and that she did not care for them. I am not sure if it made enough of a difference or not, I know I notice a real difference, but I did not want to fight that battle with my mother, if she did not like them, then she would not wear them, no matter what I thought Costco was excellent about issuing the refund.</p>
<p>I am guessing that Costco dispenses hearing aids with the services of a hearing aid dealer as opposed to a certified Audiologist on staff. </p>
<p>I strongly suggest that you go to an audiologist for a complete evaluation and determination of what your needs are, rather than going to a hearing aid dealer alone. Hearing aids are way more complex than, say glasses, and also way more expensive. I am not sure that Costco is the way to go for hearing aids.</p>
<p>I learned a lot at [Hearing</a> Aid Forums | Hearing Loss | Hearing Aids - Powered by vBulletin](<a href=“http://www.hearingaidforums.com%5DHearing”>http://www.hearingaidforums.com). I love my new (9 months) hearing aids, but I had only a slight loss high frequency problem. I went to one of those expensive places first for testing. They wanted $9,000 for two aids. My Costco has a licensed audiologist and his test came up nearly identical to the the expensive place. My Costco aids were around $3,000 for two. Costco has the 90 day, no restocking fee policy, while the other place had a 30 day, 10% restocking policy. It concerns me that your mother said the trial pair didn’t help. Maybe they weren’t adjusted right. Adjusting my aids took almost an hour. Don’t buy anything unless she admits they help quite a bit.</p>
<p>Let me be a little more forthcoming on my audiologist.</p>
<p>I had a top of the line 3K model from Oticon. At the two week adjustment period, I had to argue with the audiologist over whether my model had the ability to “Toggle” through several different settings by my pushing a button on the hearing aid. The literature said that it did. The audiologist initially maintained that it did not…but relented when I pointed out the specification literature.</p>
<p>The audiologist also seemed perplexed about using the computer to properly program the aid. I think this perhaps was not the audiologists’ strong suit. In the final analysis I think my problems with the aid were that it simply didn’t offer enough amplification for the level of my hearing problem. The hearing professionals were not able to guide me very well on this, although I believe they were influenced by my desire for a completely unobtrussive product. </p>
<p>The costco person was an audiologist…not a dispenser. The hearing aids were fine. I’m probably going to buy one from them. One thing that has changed in the past few years is that many of the aids now have a “remote control” programming capability. You can adjust the unit yourself without the need for a return to the audiologist, and you can do it on the fly to change it for different noise environments. That’s attractive to me, although to 80 year old parents with technical challenges, it may be a problem. One of the things that I think I see in audiologists is that they assume the customers are technically ignorant. Another problem I think I see is that they may prefer the customers to be technically ignorant.</p>
<p>I don’t know how you could find one, but I think any audiologist or ENT that has hearing loss would be a better person to see than the one’s whose hearing is normal. My hearing loss started 5 years ago, and if you haven’t had hearing loss yourself, its not possible, IMO, to grasp what the issues are.</p>
<p>The person who adjusted the hearing aids used the computer to do so. It did NOT taken an hour to adjust them for her to try on. He did talk about how you can buy a remote so you can adjust them more on your own but that it was a separate extra charge. I do believe he has normal hearing.
He did not speak to me much or to mom for that matter.</p>
Costco was excellent about issuing the refund.</p>