Miracle Ear

About four years ago I went to this Miracle Ear branch when they were still in the Sears store at Superstition Springs Plaza. A very adept salesman/​audiologist, Larson Burnett, talked me into spending $ 5000 for a pair of hearing aids. My right side is 80% deaf, and it didn’t help me on my right side very much at all. At about two years of using these hearing aids, I discovered that a co-​worker had bought these same hearing aids (I know because my remote control worked his as well and both were made by Siemens) for about $ 2500 at a competitor of Miracle Ear. A month after the 3 year warranty expired, the main hearing aid, on my good ear side, went dead. I phoned Miracle Ear. The man said he’d fix them for $ 300, no matter what was wrong, and then I’d have a 30 day warranty on that repair. I told him that in consideration of my having paid double what my colleague did, perhaps he could extend that warranty to one year. I decided to think it over and told a friend who said, «You’re in the VA (Veterans Adm Health System), go there, they are free.» I did go there and for two $ 50 co-​pay visits, I had a free set of Phonak hearing aids. These new ones are «crossovers.» That is the deaf side hearing aid transmits the sounds from my bad side to my good side hearing aid which also amplifies stuff from my good side, which is a good thing because my good ear is 77 years old and normal for my age, which isn’t saying much. I feel that Miracle Ear gouged me on that $ 5000 high pressure sale (being double what a competitor charged)…I had shopped at two other places, but felt that the people who saw me were (1) not very competent, and the (2) second one rattled a rattlesnake rattle in my bad ear, asked if I could hear it, and when I said «yes,» he said I don’t need hearing aids, but I could come back if I moved to Mesa full time (nuts). In addition to double charging me, I felt that a factory repair ought to have more than a 30 day warranty. I called today and for $ 245 one can have a repair 6 month warranty. Nonetheless I suggest you SHOP AROUND and do a good job of it and get a better deal than any $ 5000 for 2 hearing aids. Thank you.