Buying Hearing Aids Online

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WELCOME TO

• Thinking of buying hearing aids online?

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Visit http//www.valuehearing.com.au Contact
1300 668 510
Bought Online - Worth the risk or not?

• Uses the web to promote their hearing services
  and hearing aids, while providing hearing aids in
  a responsible face -to- face manner with a full
  compliment of required services.
• Hearing aids aren't simply consumer products like
  computers, TV or radios.
• They  require professional assistance to get them
  fitted perfectly to you loss and need adjustments
  now and then as your hearing changes.
• When you buy a hearing aid off the internet you
  buy a product with no service component and hope
  for the best. It's like buying a computer with no
  internet or any software. 

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Visit http//www.valuehearing.com.au Contact
1300 668 510
Are you really comparing apples with apples?

• Hearing aids sold over the internet are sold
  completely unbundled which means the price looks
  really low, but you also get much less for that
  price.
• Unbundled hearing aid pricing means you pay one
  low price for the hearing aid and then have to
  pay more for the services attached to getting the
  hearing aid working correctly for you.
• Professional intervention to be programmed
  correctly for your needs.

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Visit http//www.valuehearing.com.au Contact
1300 668 510
When you buy online, you might have no or very
little legal protection

• Make sure the business at least has a business
  registration number (BN), Australian Company
  Number (ACN) or Australian business number (ABN)
  listed somewhere on the website. If not, you
  might find that if it is ever time to take action
  to get a serious issue resolved, you don't really
  even know who the issue is with!
• You can check if a business has one of these
  numbers if it is not listed on the website by
  visiting www.abr.gov.au and searching their name.
  
• Not all businesses need an ABN to operate so you
  might wish to visit your local consumer
  protection website and search for their business
  name there.

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Visit http//www.valuehearing.com.au Contact
1300 668 510
Each person's ears, lifestyle and health related
issues are different

• Hearing loss and the way it impacts on your life
  is a very personal and individualised condition.
  As such the correct hearing aid for your needs
  also needs to be evaluated using a very
  individualised approach. There's just no way
  someone who's never met you face-to-face can
  judge such vital factors as your dexterity,
  vision, memory or lifestyle all of which are
  vitally important to successfully fitting your
  hearing aids.
• We take great care and use the very latest
  face-to-face fitting and real ear verification
  techniques when you come to see us in our office
  for a hearing aid fitting. This is impossible to
  do when a hearing aid is supplied online, meaning
  you are very likely to have a less than optimal
  hearing aid fitting.

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Visit http//www.valuehearing.com.au Contact
1300 668 510
Many hearing aid manufacturers don't supply to
online resellers or support online bought hearing
aids

• Most Hearing aid manufacturers in Australia have
  very stringent polices against selling hearing
  aids online and are unlikely to provide a
  warranty for them despite the online provider's
  promises. If they do offer any warranty, it will
  be much shorter (1 Year) than when locally bought
  (3 Years). The value of the warranty is about
  200 - 300 per hearing aid per year. So when you
  look at online hearing aids add 400 to 600 per
  hearing aid to the purchase price to cover out of
  warranty repairs for an extra 2 years.
• You can check to see if this is the case by
  contacting the Australian branch of the hearing
  aid manufacturer to see if they supply Australian
  versions of the product you're interested in to
  the online provider you're considering.

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Visit http//www.valuehearing.com.au Contact
1300 668 510
Audiologists and Audiometrists are unlikely to
support or adjust online hearing aids

• Most audiologists or audiometrists won't repair,
  support or adjust hearing aids you've bought
  online. This is because it then becomes a legal
  liability for them to support a heairng aid that
  was not fitted correctly in the first place by a
  qualified professional. If they do it could cost
  you as much as 1800 per ear. Sometime they can't
  even adjust the hearing aids bought online as the
  software and hardware to do so is not readily
  available in Australia or the hearing aid is not
  compatible with the Australian version of the
  fitting software. Most retailers require an
  invoice to show you bought the hearing aids
  locally. They are also able to track the origin
  of the hearing aids via the serial number. 

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Visit http//www.valuehearing.com.au Contact
1300 668 510
If you purchase hearing aids internationally you
miss out on lots of rebates

• Rebates that can be used towards hearing aids
  include rebates from your private health
  insurance of up to a couple of thousand dollars
  in some cases. You need to speak to your own
  private health insurer to determine your specific
  benefit.
• Another significant rebate is a 20 tax rebate on
  medical expenses exceeding the 2060 out of
  pocket expenses threshold. Speak to an accountant
  to see how this could help you. These rebates can
  be significant and can offset any savings to be
  had from buying hearing aids online, while
  offering the peace of mind of an Australian
  Warranty, the full benefit of professionally
  fitted hearing aids and the knowledge that you
  are supporting the Australian economy.

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Visit http//www.valuehearing.com.au Contact
1300 668 510
Do you know who you are dealing with?

• It's easy to make an online hearing aid business
  appear larger than it is by using a virtual
  office to handle mailing and receptionist work,
  so when you buy your hearing aids online that
  impressive looking company you bought them from
  may simply vanish when you need them.
• When you deal with a brick-and-mortar clinic
  there's no doubt that you're dealing with a
  substantial business with actual street addresses
  and actual people seeing you in real offices.

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Visit http//www.valuehearing.com.au Contact
1300 668 510
Can you verify their qualifications?

• It's impossible to verify the qualifications of
  an "audiologist" online you might as well be
  fitted by a receptionist in India using the
  manufacturer's software to calculate a highly
  inaccurate average fitting for your hearing
  loss.
• Online companies claiming to have Australian
  audiologists involved should be treated with
  skepticism as it's a breach of Audiology
  Australia's ethics to supply hearing aids without
  face-to-face contact.

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Visit http//www.valuehearing.com.au Contact
1300 668 510
Beware of special software or web pages

• Some online providers promise special software,
  questionnaires or impressive looking web pages to
  help you find the best hearing aid, but a close
  examination shows them up as electronic smoke and
  mirrors. You can test this by printing out the
  first set of results then hitting the back
  button and completing the questionnaire again
  with a completely different set of responses
  you'll probably be offered the same hearing aids!
• No simple computer algorithm can replace the
  years of training, insight, experience and
  continued professional training you'll get from a
  face-to-face consultation with a certified
  hearing professional. Most of these websites also
  do not take into account test results from the
  latest hearing assessment techniques that we
  currently employ to pin point what level of
  technology is most suited to your hearing loss.

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Visit http//www.valuehearing.com.au Contact
1300 668 510
Very cheap hearing aids aren't worth the asking
price

• Some webpages promise premium technology at low
  prices with the option of self programming. If
  you really look at these hearing aids in detail
  they are no better than some of the most basic
  hearing aids available from your local
  audiologist, sometimes at even lower prices
  locally. On top of that they do not tend to be
  from the best hearing aid brands at all, but
  rather a generic hearing aid using outdated
  technology.
• We would also not recommend self programming as
  hearing loss and hearing aids are complex issues
  that audiologists get years of training in, and
  even then don't always get right. So how could
  you expect someone knowing next to nothing on the
  subject to obtain a beneficial and safe hearing
  aid fitting?

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Visit http//www.valuehearing.com.au Contact
1300 668 510
Any Issues take much longer to resolve

• When dealing with an online hearing aid business,
  even a simple hearing aid adjustment or simple
  cleaning that would have taken 10 minutes in a
  local clinic could take two weeks in back and
  forth postage to get it resolved.
• On top of this major inconvenience, you are also
  required to pay at least the postage to the
  company in the first place, costing you more in
  the long run than you might have bargained for.
• If you choose a local clinic, you can often
  simply walk in or call for an appointment to get
  the majority of issues dealt with within minutes
  rather than weeks.

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Visit http//www.valuehearing.com.au Contact
1300 668 510
Make sure you have enough time to return the
hearing aid for a refund if you are unhappy

• Some hearing aid providers might offer no or
  limited money back guarantee on your hearing aid
  purchase if dissatisfied. You have to be careful
  that you are getting sufficient time to really
  try and get used to the hearing aids, while still
  allowing sufficient time to get the hearing aids
  back to the supplier.
• We could recommend at least 45 days money back
  guarantee so that you have enough time to try the
  hearing aids, get used to them and have an
  opportunity to return them in time if you need
  to.
• Value Hearing Tinnitus Solutions actually offer
  60 day money back guarantee to all our clients in
  order to ensure that get true benefit in the long
  run.

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Visit http//www.valuehearing.com.au Contact
1300 668 510
Avoid the traps and pitfalls!

• There are a lot of traps and pitfalls to buying
  hearing aids online and a lot of unscrupulous
  businesses targeting vulnerable people out there.
  That money saving bargain may just turn out to be
  one of the most frustratingly expensive purchases
  you've ever made.

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Visit http//www.valuehearing.com.au Contact
1300 668 510
So what do I do if I can't afford hearing aids?
http//www.choice.com.au/Reviews-and-Tests/Food-an
d-Health/General-health/Conditions/Hearing-aids/Pa
ge/Hearing20aids.aspx Ask your local hearing aid
supplier if they would be willing to unbundled
their hearing aid prices for you, so you can pay
as you go, which spreads out the costs over
time. Value Hearing and Tinnitus Solutions
strive to offer Australia's lowest prices on
quality hearing aids supplied in a face-to-face
manner. We'll strive to beat your written local
quotes from other bricks-and-mortar suppliers.
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Contact Us
Visit http//www.valuehearing.com.au Contact
1300 668 510

• E-Mail Perth_at_valuehearing.com.au
• Address Suite 7, 16 Kearns Crescent
• Ardross , WA , 6153
• Call Us 1800 157 429
• [phone]
• Website http//www.valuehearing.com.au