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Hearing aids - help in choosing best new ones for my Dad?

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  • 28-01-2010 6:51pm
    #1
    buzz55
    Registered Users Posts: 554 ✭✭✭


    hi,
    My Dad currently wears in-ear hearing aids, and gets on reasonably ok with them. Not fantastic by any means, they can have a whiney noise if mobile phone interference happens etc.

    One of the tiny 'extractor' cords (not sure of correct term) became loose & fell off before Christmas.
    Dad went back in to hearing aid company in Limerick from which he purchased said hearing aid approx 5 years ago. Girl said its a pity he didn't take out insurance on them as it would cost €350 to service both hearing aids & replace the little part missing.
    This price seems exorbitant to me for such a small item.

    Anyway, customer service in the company was pretty much non existant. The aids themselves certainly weren't cheap when they were bought in the first place - something around the 4 grand mark if I remember rightly.

    Sorry for rambling on, but I'd really like to (a) find out what new & better items may have come on the market in the last 5 years and (b) where in Munster would be the best/most professional/best customer service place to go to?

    I just want to do right/best by my Dad but really have no idea where to go. At the time he bought his current ones, he was told that they were v good as they were not just an 'amplifier' - but as I say, I'm clueless as to what the terminology means.

    Can anyone help/advise on where to go, what's available and what kind of price? Is there any government grant available?

    thanks!


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    #2
    buzz55
    Registered Users Posts: 554 ✭✭✭buzz55


    Anywhere in Cork/Limerick recommended?

    What about the ones that Specsavers offer, are they any good?


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    #3
    BrianD3
    Registered Users Posts: 8,315 ✭✭✭BrianD3


    I don't have any constructive advice, all I can say is a close relative has two hearing aids and is not happy with either of them. Each one cost a couple of thousand. IIRC one is a Siemens and the other a Resound. Two different audiologists involved.

    There was lots of talk beforehand about these hearing aids about how great they were but they didn't live up to it in our experience. From talking to other people they also have difficulty with expensive hearing aids and end up hardly using them. The people that seem happiest with their hearing aids are the ones that got basic models free from the public health service. Perhaps because their expectations were lower.


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