My experience was so bad that I have decided to write it down in detail. I went to the Hearing Life in Neptune. When I arrived, there was no receptionist, and a bag of garbage in the middle of the floor in the empty lobby. I rang the bell and met Cheryl Schwarz, the woman who runs that location. She explained that she had no help and if she didn't put the garbage there, she would forget to take it out. Ok whatever, a little odd but I brushed it off.
The testing was fine. I was told I needed one hearing aid. She wanted to sell me the large hearing aids that sit on top/behind your ear. I am under 50 and told her I'd prefer to have the in ear one on the pamphlet.
Now, here is the main problem with the hearing aid industry in general. Hearing aids, used to require a prescription until just recently. And so the industry had a government made monopoly, or at least oligopoly. They were protected, they were the only game in town, so the manufacturers felt no competition. As a result, you get a crappy, overpriced product with lame old features that doesn't work well.
Specifically, my hearing aid cost $5,450 for one hearing aid. When I got it, I asked if it had wireless charging. Cheryl laughed at me and said "not at that price". No for $5,450, you get one hearing aid that has no wireless charging, and furthermore, is not rechargeable at all. So for over 5k, you still have to replace little bitty batteries every four days for the rest of your life.
Next, she said she had to configure it. She put it in my ear and it was too loud. But to configure it, she has to take it out and plug it into a wire into her computer and make changes, meaning I can't hear the changes as she is making them, and I can't make the changes.
To be clear, for 30 dollars you can buy a pair of headphones that have an app, connect to your phone, are rechargeable and wirelessly charge, you can connect to Bluetooth and take calls and listen to music. Here for 5 grand, you get one hearing aid that does none of those things.
The hearing aid itself was no good for me. For some people I'm sure they work, but for me the sound of my voice was like a terminator voice in my ear, and it hurt, and was uncomfortable, and I felt in some weird way impeded my hearing. Whatever, let's put that on me, not them, fine.
So I asked for a refund. I emailed and asked, and Cheryl told me I should have gotten the big over the ear one and tried to sell me again. I again politely declined and asked for my money. She told me she was going away next week but to call her office and she'd take care of it. I called the next week and they told me to bring it down for my refund, which I did. Then they told me they couldn't refund my money until Cheryl came back and inspected the hearing aid, fine, no problem. Then they called me a week later and told me that I needed to make an appointment to come in to get my refund. I ask why and was told Cheryl told her to tell me that. I made the next appointment, which was another two weeks, and asked Cheryl to call me, because I didn't understand why I needed to be there for the refund.
Cheryl never called me. I went in and said I was there for my refund. I was made to wait forty minutes, though there was no one in the office. When I entered she was clearly angry, and asked me about why I was returning and I told her the quality of the hearing aid was garbage.
At that point she went off on me. She started screaming at me that it was a good product and I should have gotten the other one and she didn't care about the return but that she could keep 250 of my money. I did not need a hearing aid for that conversation. She was very upset, way out of line for the situation and for any professional. I just kept saying I wanted a refund, but she kept yelling, and I'm not exaggerating, YELLING at me. I grabbed my phone and began recording her, I have the recording if anyone would like to see it, though I started recording at the end of her rant because I was too shell shocked to grab it sooner.
I have never been treated the way I was treated at Hearing Life in Neptune. Cheryl Schwarz mentioned that she was retiring soon, I urge her to consider moving up that date. I will tell everyone who can hear about my experience with Hearing Life in Neptune and Cheryl Schwarz. read more
