Went for an appointment with Peter a while back and just getting around to this review now. I don't normally leave reviews, but I thought I could impart some helpful tips about the specialist and how you can get a good deal because healthcare in this country is hard enough, especially when you get old.
1. He cares more about selling a lot of hearing aids, than the price he is selling them. In other words, if you're willing to pay full price for the hearing aids, he'll let you, but if you push back a little more he will go down in price.
2. This is important--he is NOT an audiologist, although he will be the first person to tell you that. After some research, it is my understanding that a hearing specialist or "director of hearing" is just a salesman with training in hearing aid software. He's essentially just a salesman who can adjust hearing aids. And that's fine. I heard from a few patients of his I know from the eye clinic that he's actually pretty good at adjusting hearing aids.
2. You can get him pretty low if you make him feel like he's doing you a favor. The feeling of altruism feeds into his overall inflated sense of self-importance.
3. I have never met a young man who talked about himself more than this one. He constantly brought up how wonderful he is and how much people love him, but when pressed for specifics he would become quiet and cagey, as if I was intruding on his personal life. I understand if one is not willing to talk about one's personal life at work, of course, but then one should not talk about one's self at all because it comes off as quite disingenuous. I just smiled and nodded, and placating his narcissism did seem to put him in a generous mood.
4. He's disappointingly misogynistic, but you can use that to get a better deal. It's very subtle, but he did little things like address my husband more than me, the client. He made little comments like, "Let's check with your husband," and "I'm sure you two need to talk it over before deciding," basically reserving all agency in the interaction for my male counterpart as if my opinion was secondary, or perhaps even unnecessary. I'm a patient of Dr. Stelzner at the eye clinic and I went with Peter because I thought it would be convenient to get hearing aids in the same building. I thought I once heard him tell his receptionist that he could never have a male receptionist because he likes to be the dominant one on the team, and "women are naturally easier to dominate." I thought that was an extremely unprofessional and demoralizing thing to say to a co-worker within ear-shot of a prominent female ophthalmologist's waiting room. I just brushed it off as something I might have misheard or took out of context. Although, after my experience, I'm thinking my initial impression was absolutely correct. Also, apparently, he is nobody's boss, he is just a hearing aid specialist hired to work at one location of many within a larger company, and the receptionist is actually the office manager. They are supposed to be a team, but he clearly has little respect for his teammate and the value she brings, which is not encouraging to see. Why he feels the need to dominate the person trying to facilitate his sales, I don't know, but it seemed quite predatory. However, this behavior could work to your advantage--make him feel dominant in the sales exchange and he'll feel better about giving you a better price.
5. He practiced bad hygiene and was dishonest about it. As I was walking into my appointment I saw him drop a hearing aid on the ground, pick it up and throw it back on the table. I thought nothing of this until I walked in, sat down, and a few minutes later he tried to put it in my ear without disinfecting it first. I asked him to please disinfect it because I saw it fall on the floor earlier, and he said, "Oh, you saw that?" He did disinfect it, but he would have put that dirty thing in my ear if I hadn't said anything knowing full well it wasn't clean. That added to the over all disingenuous, scuzzy feeling I got from him.
Needless to say, I did not purchase hearing aids from him, although I was able to negotiate the price down a bit after employing a few of the strategies mentioned above. If you're willing to deal with the ego, dishonesty, and overall sliminess of this "director of hearing," then by all means. I hope these tips get you a good deal at least. Again, I have heard he's fairly good at adjustments, so I'd give him 1 1/2 stars, 2 if I'm feeling generous.
I'm giving the clinic 3 stars because I have met Ruben a few times and he is a lovely person! I've heard great things about him, and I have a feeling my experience would have gone differently if I had made my appointment with him first. Unfortunately, this ship has sailed. read more
