I want to be charitable in writing this review. I believe that Jennifer and Deanna at Bay Area…read moreHearing Services (BAHS) did their absolute best to provide a good service experience, but unfortunately they failed at doing so. They were friendly and tried to be accommodating, but my experience there was ultimately very disappointing.
Prior to coming to BAHS, I had worn a pair of Signia Silk 7x CIC ("completely in canal" = virtually invisible) hearing aids for five years, which were provided to me by an excellent local provider. I was very happy with them, but they were now old and rather obsolete. Unfortunately, my health insurer now requires that patients work through a hearing reseller called Amplifon rather than directly with hearing aid providers, and my previous provider does not work with Amplifon. Amplifon therefore referred me to Bay Area Hearing Services.
Here are the reasons for my disappointment:
1. Although it had been over half a year since my last audiogram, Deanna declined to perform a new audiogram prior to fitting me with hearing aids, because "your previous audiogram is probably good enough" (!) This means that even though they were offering me new hearing aids made by a different manufacturer, serviced by a different provider, and with a completely different hardware profile from my previous aids, they did not intend to test my hearing at all in order to fit them.
2. Although BAHS is in the Amplifon network, BAHS staff are not proficient in Amplifon's processes and procedures. Jennifer did not know how to use Amplifon's software interface at all, and Deanna had a considerable amount of difficulty navigating it.
3. Most disappointing by far is the fact that the hearings I was ultimately sold turned out not to feature ANY of the features or benefits that Deanna had promised when she was offering them to me. NOT ONE.
I had stated from the outset that I was only interested in CIC hearing aids. I did not want a device that was visible from the outside. Deanna had recommended the Nexia 9 hearing aid, manufactured by a company called ReSound. She spent several minutes presenting a demo of the Nexia phone app, highlighting features like bluetooth, wireless operation, volume and balance control, telehealth remote adjustment and customizable hearing programs. BAHS did not have demo hearing aids on hand to demonstrate these features, but Deanna assured me that the hearing aids she was selling me would include all of them. Delighted with the demo, I proceeded to have wax casts made of my ears and paid for the hearing aids. Deanna gave me a brochure detailing the features of my new hearing aids, and sent me on my way.
Shockingly, Deanna phoned me back about half an hour later (while I was in the car driving home) to admit that in fact, the hearing aids she had sold me had NONE of the features she had demoed and promised. NOT A SINGLE ONE. They were not wireless, did not have bluetooth, did not work with an app, and had only pre-defined programs that could not be customized. They did not feature a volume control or balance control. They did not support telehealth remote adjustment. The programs could only be changed by removing each hearing aid from the ear and pressing a button on it, then doing the same in the opposite ear. THE BROCHURE SHE HAD GIVEN ME WAS FOR A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT MODEL OF HEARING AID (and was also outdated, it turns out).
Even this information was relayed to me in an inaccurate and piecemeal fashion, and it was only after a follow-up call the next day that Deanna clarified for me the inaccuracies she had conveyed in the previous call.
4. When it became clear that this was what a less charitable customer might call a bait-and-switch, I asked the phone receptionist to cancel my order and refund the money to my credit card. (It was now Friday afternoon.) Unfortunately, the receptionist told me there was no one in the office who knew how to cancel an Amplifon order or process a card refund, and that there would not be until Monday or Tuesday. I ultimately had no choice but to phone Amplifon's corporate office in Minneapolis and process the refund through them -- a process which took about an hour and required my speaking with three separate individuals. Had I not succeeded in doing this, I would have had to file a claim with my credit card issuer.
I can see that there are many very positive reviews for BAHS here, and I believe all of the reviewers when they say they had an excellent experience there. I'm confident that most of BAHS's customers do not come through Amplifon and do not specifically request a CIC hearing aid, which may be why they may not experience the frustrations that I did.