Why you should not buy from a big box store.
In today’s world, everyone wants a bargain. That’s why BigBox stores are so popular. You can buy almost anything at a significantly reduced price, even hearing aids. Certainly, getting a discount when purchasing hearing aids is inviting, but price alone should NOT determine your course of action.
Would you shop around for the cheapest cardiac surgeon if you needed a bypass operation? Absolutely not! You should choose the best surgeon you could find, because you would rely on his surgical skills to fix your problem. When being fitted with hearing aids, you should apply the same logic. You are not buying a product off the shelf. Rather, you are purchasing my 45+ years of expertise and experience to select and adjust your hearing instruments to maximize their performance to meet your hearing needs.
You should be aware that there are no state-of-the art hearing devices available at your BigBox store. There are two reasons for this. First, the major hearing aid manufacturers do not sell their products to the BigBox stores. Why? Simply stated, their technician has neither the training to understand your hearing problem nor the experience to manage the software that drives the technology.
Secondly, the BigBox hearing instruments are two to three generations old, although their employees will usually tell you that the products are state-of-the-art. But, they are not! BigBox stores buy older products at reduced prices. My practice could purchase the same devices as BigBox and offer them at the same prices, but why would I fit you with outdated hearing aids when the new technology would work so much better for you?
Here is a case from my practice I’d like to share. It is just one of hundreds that I have addressed over the last decade.
“Shelly” had a long history of reduced hearing, so she decided to go to BigBox to get hearing aids because they offered a low price. Ironically, at the same time, she had been referred to me by a long-time client.
At her initial visit to my office, I noted that she was not wearing any hearing devices. Shelly stated that she had already obtained BigBox Digital hearing aids and that she had the units in her purse. She reported that they were so loud she was unable to wear them for longer than one hour without getting a headache. She was desperate for help.
I tested her hearing and performed an electro-acoustical analysis of her BigBox devices. I noted that those units had been adjusted to far exceed her tolerance for loud environmental sounds. Then, I suggested we try two state-of-the-art hearing aids that I had in stock.
In customizing the programming (which lasted about 45 minutes), I adjusted the new units in a variety of listening situations (including restaurant, shopping mall and traffic noises) using my 7-channel surround sound system. Shelly was astounded at the difference in fidelity, speech understanding and acoustic comfort experienced with the instruments I had fitted. She stated that the BigBox employee took about five minutes to program the devices in a quiet room and sent her on her way. When she left my office, she said, “Next stop, BigBox, to return their hearing aids.”
One week later, at her first follow-up appointment, Shelly reported that she no longer had difficulty communicating in any listening environment. She said she loved the hearing aids and wore them for 15 hours daily. As it turned out, the devices from BigBox were only $100 less than those obtained from my practice. The difference: Now, Shelly can wear her hearing aids all the time and live a better, fuller life.
This case exemplifies that cost and competency do not necessarily go hand in hand. I always perform a thorough evaluation, using the data to create the algorithms in the hearing instruments that work within the parameters of your usable hearing. In Shelly’s case, the difference in performance and her ability to wear the products proved to be well worth the $100 cost difference. Remember, no matter how little the cost, hearing devices that cannot be worn or do not perform as expected are never a good value.
