In article <3q9s15$81b at mserv1.dl.ac.uk>, berg11 at post.tau.ac.il says...
>>Re hearing aid prices: I recently referred a friend to a dispensing
>audiologist
>who I knew to have obtained his Ph.D. at one of the finest university
>training
>programs in the U.S.A. I ws astonished to receive the friend's report
>and copy
>of the contract he had been asked to sign (and did). He said that he
>had been
>treated kindly and well and was not unhappy, but I was deeply
>disturbed at the
>economics of the transaction.
You have to establish priorities in life. Purchasing a hearing aid is one of
them! If your hearing is not very important, you probably can get by with
something pretty cheap. I can get by very nicely with cheap tooth paste
which I frequently get from K-Mart or other places when it is on sale. That
is not my number one priority.
When I purchase a camera, I really don't care about the service that goes
with it, because a good camera should not require any service - so I
determine the model I want and then go for the lowest price, usually through
mail order.
You can purchase eyeglasses through the mail. (Don't they still sell some
cheap corrective eyeglasses in drug stores? I know they used to.) Or, you
can go to a doctor to get your eyeglasses. Again, it is a matter of
priorities.
The same is true with a hearing aid. I know of people who order their
hearing aids through the mail without having a hearing test. Others choose
to wear very sophisticated "computer programmable" hearing aids where the
audiologist even places a probe microphone in the ear canal to adjust the
hearing aid to the unique "acoustics" of your ear! It is all a matter of
"priorities."
Whatever you think is important! Some people do think that "hearing" is
pretty important. Others do not think it is important at all.
HearPaul ;-)
Paul Woodard, M.Div.
Des Moines Iowa
