5 Facts the Hearing Industry Doesn't Want You to Know
1. Manufacturers all give discounts to businesses working with them.
This is a fact of business.
All businesses in every industry receive discounts and the hearing industry is no different. A majority of clinics are even owned by the manufacturing companies!
What the consumer (you) has to look out for is being sold hearing aids by specialists. Many specialists are more comfortable with certain software and certain hearing aids, and they will sell you what they are comfortable to fit or what they get big discounts on.
This is not what the consumer wants or needs!
How do you know that the person that you are dealing with is not on commission and selling you a certain product because it's in their interests to do so?
2. Internet companies will tell you that you are better to save money and buy with them than have someone take a personal interest and care for you.
This alarming trend of buying hearing aids online misses one crucial step—specialist hearing care. Hearing is incredibly unique to everyone and everyone has different hearing needs.
A specialist studies for years and never stops learning how to look after you properly!
Buying a medical item online and expecting your self-treatment to fix your health issues isn't realistic. Buy stuff online cheap, sure! Just please not your hearing aids!
You need a professional to care for you and you also need to have recourse against a company selling you inferior items.
Hearing specialists have millions of dollars of public indemnity so you are protected.
3. There are over 17 companies that make hearing aids and it's not about the price—it's about the quality of the device you are receiving.
People say to me that they can "buy X hearing aid online for X price and it is cheaper than yours so why wouldn’t I do that?"
But do you know what you are buying, or whether that is the latest technology?
Why is this important?
You are technically buying a computer in a small little device. This computer in our industry becomes obsolete very quickly.
So, how do you know that you are receiving a hearing aid that is not 3 years old and will soon be out of parts and can’t be fixed?
Hearing aids last 5 -7 years now.
Robots make the parts and when they change technology they can't make the parts for older hearing aids.
It is just what they have on the shelf left available.
When the shelf is empty your hearing aid will no longer be able to be fixed. This means that your hearing aids may only last 3-4 years then they can’t be fixed.
Hearing aids are too expensive to be replaced this quickly.
4. As a doctor/specialist, we could tell you anything and you would probably believe it!
When your doctor says, "go and see this person about your hearing" do you actually believe that the doctor knows this specialist personally, and is this the best place for you to go?
I wonder.
I have 70 doctors that refer to me and I have only met half of them, but they know of my business and know that I will treat people decently.
If you think this is a personal recommendation from your doctor then you may not be right.
When you go to the doctor’s recommendation and they say "$12,000 for the top of the range hearing aids", then you say "well, that must be right my doctor wouldn’t send me here if it wasn’t".
Unfortunately, the doctor doesn’t know that in our industry there is a huge disparity in price to the tune of thousands of dollars.
Why do they charge that much?
Because they can!
5. Buying hearing aids from other countries is a financial disaster.
The manufacturers of hearing aids in this country will not fix or honour your purchase from America or elsewhere. The manufacturers in each country are bound by certain rules of trading.
Here in Australia, they will not service or repair hearing aids from outside of Australia, so you will have to send your hearing aids back to wherever they come from every time you need them fixed!
Breakdowns may occur more often than you think they will. There is no guarantee that they will last forever with no issues. You do need to take this into account.
How do you have the aids tuned up?
What if your hearing drops (which it will over time) and the hearing aids no longer sound like they are doing the job?
What does all this mean for you?
It means that no one here in Australia will touch your hearing aids.
I know I won’t.
People say "But they are cheaper, I wanted to save money."
That’s great, but now you are faced with the hearing aids not doing their job and no one here can take care of you because you saved money on a product that no one will touch!
This is not in your best interests.
If money is the only barrier standing between you and hearing again... and hearing properly... some hearing care providers, such as ourselves, offer interest-free finance to remove this for you!
Are you ready to do something about your hearing?
A hearing test takes 15 minutes and is free. Call 1300 797 519 to book today