In regard to the All Make Repair concept, I think that Paul at Callier
Center has been a bit biased by his recent experience at the Starkey
plant. First, I work for a major hearing instrument manufacturer - there
never comes a time when we "won't" repair an old hearing aid. And I
happen to know for a fact that it is not true that all companies just sell
their parts to Starkey for All Make Repair. Starkey has ways of obtaining
CERTAIN parts which are common to any manufacturer (microphones,
receivers, etc), however they are not able to obtain proprietary circuits
from many manufacturers. When an instrument is sent to their All Make
Repair, in many cases, the original amplifier is replaced with whatever
they do have on the shelf - many times, something containing a very
different processing scheme than the original instrument.
I am certainly not saying that All Make Repair is a bad thing - just keep
your eyes open and realize and inform your patients of the possibilities.
