Medical Devices: Bah!

[EnglishDispenser]

If aids were not medical devices, we would probably see similar prices as Smart phones with more advanced features.

Do you spend half a day with a skilled professional when you buy your Smartphone?

And then do you demand free after-sales appointments for the next few years?

If you could demand the above, what would the phone cost rise to?

[David9683]

Originally Posted by EnglishDispenser

Do you spend half a day with a skilled professional when you buy your Smartphone?

Bah! In what world? The last pair I bought came after 75 minutes of HIS time.

Originally Posted by EnglishDispenser

And then do you demand free after-sales appointments for the next few years?

You guys have done this to yourselves by bundling future services into the hearing aid price, without stating what that really means.

[EnglishDispenser]

David,

You may be unhappy at having encountered an expensive dispenser who may or may not have provided a top-notch service ... but that is a sample of one ... not statistically significant. You certainly can't extrapolate your single bad experience to slander a whole industry.

I spend HOURS with my clients, charge low prices and operate a sort of unbundled-Lite support scheme.

I don't know many other UK dispensers well, but I can say that although Um Bongo operates slightly differently to my business, he also provides a good service at a fair price.

Sure, I have also heard of a few rogues out there ... but in the UK population of around 1200 working dispensers that is only to be expected.

Most dispenser aren't mega-rich evil crooks. Nor are the manufacturers a cartel of scheming Mafia types.

Like 95%+ of people in the world we crawl out of bed in the morning, go to work, plod through the day and then go home. We drive normal cars, live in normal houses and earn a medium level income.

As I keep saying, this is the hearing aid industry we are talking about ... nothing exciting like being spies or hired assassins or professional footballers!

A few people here get very worked up by the perceived evils of the hearing aid sector ... but surely there are more important evils in the world to get angry about? And many of those evils are sadly all too real rather than imagined.

[ZCT]

Originally Posted by EnglishDispenser

Like 95%+ of people in the world we crawl out of bed in the morning, go to work, plod through the day and then go home. We drive normal cars, live in normal houses and earn a medium level income.

As I keep saying, this is the hearing aid industry we are talking about ... nothing exciting like being spies or hired assassins or professional footballers!
.

I'd like to believe you. But isn't that exactly the answer an evil spy footballer assassin would give?

[EnglishDispenser]

I'd like to believe you. But isn't that exactly the answer an evil spy footballer assassin would give?

Bah! You've outed me. Indeed, I'm really an assassin hired by the Hearing Aid Mafia.

From now on you will need to check the underside of your car with a mirror on a stick.

Each time your turn the key to start the motor you will feel a little frisson of cold fear.

No doubt you also know the secrets of the industry : hearing aids only cost 12 cents to make. There is no such thing as a digital aid - The Brotherhood has simply rebadged old analogue technology as 'digital'.

Customers are SO stupid - can they not see that there is no way a digital computer can be packed into something as small as a hearing aid case?

You are a threat to the whole industry - you may run but you can't hide!

[HearingAidHelper]

"Customers are SO stupid "

This is entirely unnecessary. All fun and jabs asside, why do we need to go there.

Originally Posted by HearingAidHelper

"Customers are SO stupid "

This is entirely unnecessary. All fun and jabs asside, why do we need to go there.

Well, in all fairness...all us pros on this forum have to deal with hearing about how audiologists and HIS's are all in it for the money/just ripping off patients' left-and-right and don't give a damn about the end-user all the time. How is that any different?

I would HOPE that those reading the post could see that the obviously in-jest, highly sarcastic (this is where that sarcasm font would come in so handy...) statement did not apply to them nor do I think any of us on this board would honestly think that of our in-person patients.

[EnglishDispenser]

It's sad that some people have their Political Correctness control set so high and their Sense Of Humour control set so low.

"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"

[Um bongo]

Originally Posted by EnglishDispenser

It's sad that some people have their Political Correctness control set so high and their Sense Of Humour control set so low.

"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"

You've obviously used 'simple'; non PC language.......

[prodigyplace]

Originally Posted by DocAudio

Well, in all fairness...all us pros on this forum have to deal with hearing about how audiologists and HIS's are all in it for the money/just ripping off patients' left-and-right and don't give a damn about the end-user all the time. How is that any different?

I would HOPE that those reading the post could see that the obviously in-jest, highly sarcastic (this is where that sarcasm font would come in so handy...) statement did not apply to them nor do I think any of us on this board would honestly think that of our in-person patients.

That's Fairness?

Does every user need a disclaimer in their signature excluding the Form professionals from their generalizations of the hearing aid industry ??

Maybe the moderator can automatically add that to everyone's signature.