Social media, television, direct mail, radio, email, Medicare, AARP… you just cannot get away from advertisements for hearing aids. DIY! Save $$! Comfort of your own home! You’ve seen them. I’ve seen them. They are not going away. What have I found?
- Not everything you read on the internet is true. Hearing aids do not last ten years, and they will not be serviceable for ten years regardless of the claims.
- Follow up care on the phone is fine if you can hear on the phone. Sending the aids off for cleaning is fine if you can be without the aids for a couple weeks at a time.
- Hearing test at home does not consider background noise, age of speakers or earbuds or headphones. Hearing test at home is not regulated or calibrated to make sure the test is accurate.
- Pinterest recipes are fun to play with. But hearing and speech understanding are the foundational building blocks of our communication and relationships. Do we want to play around with those and hope we get it right some day?
- A lot of these prices are unbeatable. We went to pick up some tools. The price was good. The guy wanted us to take some other tools so he didn’t have to move them. Should we take them because the price was so good? No.
Online hearing aids are an opportunity to have a bad experience with hearing aids. Don’t set yourself up for a bad experience.