Hearing Aid Review...excuse me, pardon, what did you say?

Anna and I are both a little hard of hearing and because the NHS hearing aids that we have tend to be a little bulky, we were pretty impressed by the claims of a manufacturer who apparently has somewhere in excess of 750,000 Americans as customers, although it doesn't say they were satisfied customers!

According to the website  http://ampliear.co.uk/ the unit is small, inexpensive at £17.95 delivered and is 'the very best'. They go on to say that since the year 2000 Mega Ampli-Ear has been America's Number 1 selling hearing amplifier (I wonder if it's the same hearing amplifier that they sent to us?). The amazing claims continue throughout the very basic website which I suppose should have been warning enough.

Anway I ordered and paid for one of these 'amazing' hearing amplifiers. There was no suggestion of delivery date so I emailed them............. 5 TIMES, but got no response! Finally the hearing amplifier arrived from Hong Kong with a load of  'junk mail' included in the package.

Anna put the battery in place and attempted to get the hearing amplifier fitted into her ear. Not only that, she even tried to get it to work! We should have known better, it looks too good to be true on the website. Something else they don't tell you is that the battery supplied only lasts for 8 hours! Compare that to the battery used in NHS hearing aids (that will not fit the Ampliear amplifier) and you are now tied to purchasing their batteries which will cost you about £400 per year, unless you bulk buy, and that's if you only use the hearing amplifier 8 hours a day! Then there is the wax removal brush, a 10 year warranty and not forgetting the battery deal of course (all optional). Hmmn!

The trial is supposedly 'risk free' and you can get a refund within three months. Well last night I telephoned what appeared to be a Call Centre in Romsey here in the UK and they agreed to refund our money if we returned the unit. I then wondered what would happen to that 'used' unit, would it go out to another unfortunate purchaser? Only time will tell if the refund is made without hassle, but as it was purchased with a credit card and if I don't get the refund, it will be passed to the card company for retrieval.

Needless to say we cannot under any circumstances recommend this hearing amplifier and would be interested to hear (no pun intended) from anybody who can!

You say Ron that this is a medical hearing aid comparing it to an NHS one their site doesn't say that, though  people may possibly read it in that way.   Here's a review of their advertising which doesn't seem to have changed on their site, which appears to be the same " hearing aid" under discussion here.......

 http://www.asa.org.uk/Complaints-and-ASA-action/Adjudications/2008/1/Cross-Hearing/TF_ADJ_43818.aspx

Thanks Paul. Having looked over it again, I certainly do not consider it comparable to any NHS hearing aid, quite the opposite and yes I suppose I did read it as a hearing aid rather than a 'hearing amplifier'. A subtle difference of course.

I wish I had seen the link that you provide above before ordering the device, it would have saved us an amount of trouble.

I have edited my post to reflect the correct description of the product as a hearing amplifier, but either way it didn't work for Anna. As ever Paul, thanks for your input.

An hearing amphiler is not an hearing aide...as I to have an hearing problem..one I don' t know if I will have if I can get the cholestrol down in my body.  So, while an hearing aide might help me now...the average one over here is around $2,000 to $5,000 and hearing aidesare made to your your hearing frequency like false teeth are to your mouth and gums....they can tune out back ground noise and can be tuned to turn in the slightest of noise also.  All of them you have to supply your own batteries the $ 8,000 per ear ones they are free though. I buy ampliers also....I get the one's Radio Shack" because you can buy for an lower price an "free" replacement clause....and bascially you simply turn them in from time to time to get an new one..most all amphliers for the ear are aournd $20 or less. They act the same as raising volume of the rooms existing noise. All them have tuners for volume control...and few more expenisve ones might have an base tone button. There is an company over here that does sell re-conditioned hearing aides for around $350 per ear...I'd have to go look them up again....they are enticing in their advertisement an have an money back guarantee. I hate that so called advertising harrassment...seems like its all fine an ddandy before you buy somethign these days but after that Nada. The AARP Magazine (American Association of Retired People) sells various stuff like this also and check thier products out an bit better....I don' tknow if you have something like that or not.  

Now let me tell what the specilist told me when I went in to have my ears checked...she said I have what many old people have when they get hard of hearing....that the bone stiffens...ubt she said, just having had my arteries unblocked that my hearing problem could be an side  line cholesetrol build-up in the ear....and she said to save myself an possible operation to get an amphiler for an bit and work on getting my over all body cholestrol and plaque build up disolved...and there's an chance I might get my hearing back again. Now something most people don't know...as they push taking extra "Calcuim" to make your bones stronger... it does not do the job.... unless you also are taking twice the Vit. D along with the Calcuim. A woman wrote in to an doctor's article in the paper....she said she was never over weigtt..had no history of meddical problems and had  arteries that required her to have them unblocked....and she was asking this docotor and his team if her "daily Vitamins" could of contributed to her blocked arteries...he replies...possibly...but it's not been research  extenstively as of yet but this seems to be happening these days to people that have no reason to be having blocked arteries....then that's when he said you MUST have twice the amount of Vit D at anytime your consuming something with "Calcium" in it. This is why the big "push" these days to get more people taking Vit D. in their diet. My newest bottle of "Centrum silver" vitamins I notice they changed the Vit. D content recently to 123 per cent...which the Calcuim is only 22 per cent....and they figure you'll get moreif you drink milk daily or eat yogurt...or eat cheese.

To their credit, the refund has been sent to our card company without any trouble!

Interesting post above Shirley, lots to consider eh?

Yes, people over here are most unhappy at the high cost of hearing aides...as its something most people need if there is an hearing problem. I have at times had more of my hearing come back then at other times already.  I had my ears tested out at an specialist's office not by the test many hearing aide companies give out for free. So they had no attachments to anything they sold ..because they didn't sell anything...they were off the main hospital where I had the heart stent put in. So not to many people would tell you about this cholestrol build up affecting ones ears/hearing ordinarily....they'd tell you your getting "old" instead.... Right Ron?..heh..you know it.