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Advice for a newcomer to hearing aids

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  • 10-01-2019 3:57am
    #1
    world cup
    Registered Users Posts: 29 ✭


    We’ve just discovered that my Dad has 90%hearing loss and has been recommended to get hearing aids.
    No one in our family has experience with hearing loss/hearing aids to date and don’t know how best to go about it. We’re not going directly through HSE as it will take too long (my Dad is elderly), so we’re looking at the likes of Specsavers and Hidden Hearing. Can anyone advise about ones to be recommended or avoided? He lives in Waterford City.

    Many thanks


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    #2
    Sharknose
    Registered Users Posts: 29 ✭Sharknose


    I was fitted with hearing aids (earphones ) from Hidden Hearing in Arundel Square Waterford in 2013.

    The equipment is top quality. The improvement in hearing is almost unbelievable. The higher range models have Bluetooth facility to transmit TV sound and iPhone directly to your ears.

    The initial service and follow-up is excellent.

    However, they are very expensive, top of the range set costs €6K.

    When you consider the technology in iPhones and what they cost, this seems a lot.

    You pay upfront, and they say that the initial assessments, and the lifetime follow-up service, including batteries is "free". If you believe that of course they run their offices, pay their staff, and develop their products for "free" . I reckon the actual hardware is considerably less expensive than what they charge.

    If you want to upgrade it is again another €6k. They only offer a nominal €200 "trade in". Older people will pay a lot for their hearing, but you might say this is bordering on extortion.

    No harm in making an appointment and getting a test, that is free.


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    #3
    feargale
    Registered Users Posts: 8,636 ✭✭✭feargale


    Sharknose wrote: »
    I was fitted with hearing aids (earphones ) from Hidden Hearing in Arundel Square Waterford in 2013.

    I am not at all surprised by your overall post. I got the free test from Hidden Hearing, which was followed by the hardest hardsell I have experienced in a very long time. Each time I demurred I was met with a verbal barrage that would do credit to the toughest crossexamining barrister in the Law Library. I am around long enough to know hardsell when I encounter it and it is just counter-productive with me. I made my excuses and left.
    I went to three others, and each one told me that my hearing was borderline and that it was up to myself if I wanted to get aids or not. In all cases the earphones offered were much cheaper than Hidden Hearing.
    When I am enquiring about investing in my health I like to be treated differently to the prospective purchaser of a second-hand car. I can only imagine how poor fools from the back o' beyond fare in these situations.


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