Jack H.
Zip needs to do better vetting their providers
The problem I had was that my local audiologists they have are not very good. They advertise that 95% of people have a ZipHearing provider within just 9 miles. I live in Southern NH, a suburb of Boston, yet their closest local provider was 45 minutes(30 miles) away. There were 2 other providers but both had terrible reviews. I did go to the closest provider and he had pretty good reviews. It took about 2 weeks to get an appointment. I knew which HA’s I was interested in ( Phonak sphere 90’s). I had a complete hearing assessment from a local hospital which was only 6 months old so I brought a copy with me to the appointment. I gave the audiogram to the provider. He didn’t do any hearing testing at all or ask my about my hearing difficulties.He called Zip and ordered the HAs and I needed custom ear molds so he prepared the molds which he sent to Phonak to be made. I got a call in 4 weeks that everything was in. Arrived at his office while he set up the hearing aids. I asked him to set up some custom programs for me. I was there for about 1/2 an hour. At that point, he complained that the HAs were too complicated for him and said he was sending them back to Zip because he couldn’t work with them. I walked out without the new HAs. While Zip was very professional and refunded the purchase price in full, the entire experience was a complete waste of time. The problem I realized was that Zip doesn’t vet their providers very well. The new HAs are very sophisticated yet the Zip provider I went to didn’t educate himself on the newer technologies. Do your homework and make sure the provider you select is educated and up to date on the technology. I learned that while the HAs are important, without a good audiologist, you won’t be hearing as well as you could be. The after service is more important than I realized. I’m going to go to a qualified audiologist and pay full price to get what I need. When it comes to your hearing, don’t short change yourself.