- Internet hearing aid review sites-very often these sites are owned by the hearing aid manufacturers themselves so the info you get is not very objective- in Consumer Reports hearing aid survey they state “there is no discernable difference between brands of hearing aids”
- At least 60% of all hearing aids sold in the USA are sold through hearing aid manufacturer company owned retail stores- these stores do business under various business names and you would never know they are not independently owned
- Brand posturing- someone advising you that one brand is better than another brand- 90 % of the world -wide production of hearing aids is controlled by 6 multi – national hearing aid conglomerates who market there hearing aids under 27 different brand named
- This new technology restores clarity—the benefit that a hearing aid provides is in direct proportion to the damage that is done to your organ of hearing [Cochlea] For example if you have an 80% speech understanding score in your audiological assessment no hearing aid brand and/or model will change this score from 80%
- “FREE Baiting”-advertising pronouncements that you are receiving something for nothing EG. Batteries, extended guarantees, free no interest payment terms TV’S All the preceding benefits are simply factored into your purchase price
- Participants needed for new technology trial & field test of new hearings—it costs at least $300,000 to bring a new hearing aid to market ,beta testing of new technology is done well in advance of actually producing a finished product- this is just an unscrupulous sales trick
- “ Sales psychosis”-assuming that because an advertisement says something is on sale that it is actually a good buy- there are no suggested retail prices on hearing aids – every dispensers basically creates their own selling price. One hearing aid manufacturer will actually provide a written invoice from there company showing any price their dispenser wants it to be
- Internet referring sites that send you to one of their providers– e.g Hearing Planet , owned by Phonak, Hear.com, owned by Signia/Sivantos/Seimens, Hear Now, owned by Oticon- these are all just price fixing under the guise of providing valuable information to you. Go to the link below because this is basically what all of these companies do.
- Rated #1, voted the best of- these ratings are meaningless as they are either made by the retail establishment itself or bestowed by some type of media as a result of advertising dollars spent- the Better Business Bureau gives higher ratings to companies which are members of the Better Business Bureau than companies who are not Google. 60 Minutes expose for full details, Caveat emptor – let the buyer be aware
