OT: Hearing Aids

[dennis]

[whisky-dave]

talled by a professional.

Where as I do too.

I guess you didn;t go see dr. cripin or dr. shipman either.

So at some point you had a pair that worked so what went wrong ? What happened to that pro optician you had previously ?

But then again I have the same problem here with professional services.

same here when I ask them any Q here like why does the logo on yuor emails that links to the professional services website which you attach to all ema il come up with a page not found. I reproted it to them last year too, and then when you go to the page not found there is an email address to click o n for reporting things and that email address if clicked say so such email address.

I'd just go to another optician I guess, they aren't like doctors are they where you can only have one ?

I hate to ask but are you sure you were in a opticains and not the betting shop next door ?

I have the same feeling here about our 'professional' services. About a month ago PS sent out an email invite to discuss professional devel opment training for technicains, the email placed a event reminder in my ca lander for 16th April, so I replied back asking them what time the course w as, they repiled 3pm on 2nd May 2018. If they ask me why I haven't attended I'll say my calander said it was 16th April that;s what I got when I recieved the email, see if they can anwser that one, I doubt it.

[Brian Gaff]

The NHS ones are pretty basic and you need to change the batteries very often according to friends of mine. If you want proper digitally tailored ones than the price is almost anything you can think of. Like you i don't know why, as the tech is not new and in my view its another thing like glasses frames disability aids etc, that cost twice as much plus what you can get away with, using the small market excuse for the profit made.

Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Also all councils are supposed to have a sensory loss team, one of which normally helps with hard of hearing problems, ie advice on loud phones doorbells portable loops for the tv and such. Brian

[whisky-dave]

It doesn't have to be new just refined and perfected this takes time.

or phones or laptops they all pretty much do the same thing. regarding battery usage and quality.

I wonder how they can get away with it then, perhaps like some products the expensive ones are actually better it;s just not everyone appriaciates it , and this doesn't just work for Apple products in case that is what someon e thinks I'm getting at. I'd never spend £50 on a bottle of wine but I know those that would an d have, me £5.99 at most, for me wine is NOT worth more. But of course if I knew about wine maybe I wouldn't let anything under £50 pass my lips.

[Sam Clark]

The working glasses are 5 years old. Two years ago I got a new prescription and bought a new pair of glasses. For my usage the new glasses were significantly inferior to the old ones.

Same prescribing optician company. Which is why he had access to my previous records. I wasn't even accusing them of giving me a crap prescription, for all I knew it could be the company who made the glasses who were at fault. However when something does go wrong it is natural to question how it went wrong. It would have been easy for them to help, give me the old prescription test my old glasses, etc.

[whisky-dave]

It might be difficult finding out what is inferior about them. A friend of mine who brought glasses about 2 years ago went into a shop and brought some reading glasses for a few quid they worked grwat for about 10 mins then he could feel his eyes starining to focus and got headaches from them. So I'm thinking maybe there is a reason his optician couldn't supply him wi th a pair of reading glasses for under a fiver, perhaps he knows the £

5 are crap. Another friend paid £395 just for the frames he wanted. I can;t see the reason frames are so expensive, I can just about understand that measuring and forming glass to a high standard might cost.

I totaly agree and often do, especialy when it comes to our professional s ervices team ;-)

From what I understand about opticains and the like is that they don't like using old prescriptions for new glasses because peoples eyes do change eve n if the person doesn't think they have, so a new test and pair of glasses are requred even if the users doesn't think so.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Don't move to Scotland, then. ;-)

[Peter Johnson]

You can't generalise. They are all different. I find my local one quite shambolic but I am sure they are not all like that. Friends who live three miles from me have a choice of two hospitals to go to, wheras I have no choice, because they live in the county and I live in the city. In you case, consult with your GP and find out just what would be involved, rather than guessing.

[Richard]

As Chris said, two trips. I think you can get tested and NHS hearing aids at Specsavers. That's where I get my replacement batteries.

[Graeme]

In message , Chris Hogg writes

OK, thanks. Two is not too bad. Yes, there is a small hospital about ten miles away, although I think they handle little more than convalescence cases from the main hospital these days. Will enquire.

[Jonathan]

Our local specsavers does NHS hearing tests. I don't think you need to go to a hospital.

Jonathan

[tim...]

but you aren't paying to advertise that brand to the world, are you?

Most people who wear hearing aids are embarrassed about it (you'll have to ask them why), they tend to avoid going around with "hey look, I've bought a fancy branded one" smile on their face.

tim

[Cursitor Doom]

Yeah, but if you do, bring plenty of Buckfast with you - you'll clean up! :-)

[tabbypurr]

Professional means they get paid, that's all. A piece of paper does not make someone competent, though it does improve the odds a good bit.

NT

[Steve Walker]

There was an article in a newspaper (some time last year I think), some trusts were only allowing one hearing aid, despite the recommendation being two where needed. Buying another one yourself was about £2500-£3000, while the NHS was only paying a couple of hundred for them

- but of course they won't take a payment and buy one on your behalf.

SteveW

[Steve Walker]

Ha! So professional that the local hospital's audiology department syringed my mother's ears far to forcefully and virtually deafened her in both ears - permanently. Despite it being their actions, she had to be put on a waiting list and wait 9 months to get hearing aids.

SteveW

[PeterC]

Just looked at the local town and the trust doesn't fund them - so £495 up - and up - and up...

[Martin Brown]

That is only true if they don't switch them off at night and leave them on the bedside table screaming loudly at each other. If the microphone can hear the output to the ear they howl like crazy. The NHS units are not at all bad these days with reasonable digital designs - their main weakness is physical size when compared to the private in ear ones.

They are tailored to individual frequency response by octave and gain.

The latest digital NHS kit is certainly worth a try before splashing out on a private hearing aid. They have improved immeasruably over the past decade from "barely useful" to really rather good. The improvements when they moved to full digital processing were truly remarkable.

[Dave Liquorice]

So why didn't you take them back?

They can measure the lenes, compare against what the presciption should be, check position of lens in frmae in relation to eye etc. If that all matches up the only other thing left to check is the eyes, so a retest.

How did they select the strength? From the correct part of a prescription or just trying on? And are their eyes the same anyway, probably not...

Peoples expectations. They don't have any idea of the real cost, like mobile phones. They get a contract at £35/month for 2 years, a fiver or less buys the airtime the other £720 is buying the phone. Glasses have always been expensive so people expect to pay through the nose. I'd guesstimate a 10 times mark up frames in the High St chains, more in opticians. If the chains can do a BOGOF (inc lenes) the price of the first purchase must be somewhat elevated.

Mostly plastic these days and I'd be very surprised if it wasn't an automated process, except for very complex prescriptions.

Yep, they will generally baulk at new glasses based on a prescription older than about 6 months. If you can show a fairly stable long term history and have a non-vision related reason for a new pair they ought to do them. Any hint of a vision problem and, quite rightly, a test is required.