$89 Rechargeable Hearing Aids: Legit or Scam?
Recently we have been notified by many people that they saw online advertisements for $89 rechargeable hearing aids. If this is something that can truly help people hear better, we need to find out more. After all, providing affordable hearing health solutions is our priority.
The Company
This particular company we were notified of is called: Audien Hearing for now… (We’ll get to that later.)
From their website, you can see that they are a newly established company, just a few months old. The website claims that their CEO is Katherine J Reid. A quick Google showed that her name and signature have been used in very similar type of websites.
What about the photo of the fictional CEO and her mum?
Alright, we now know that the company’s history is suspicious, but that doesn’t mean the hearing aids themselves are bad, right?
The “Hearing Aids”
Let’s look at the hearing aids. The website claims that :
- They are the best rechargeable hearing aids. Everyone’s hearing levels, hearing loss, and needs are different, so there is no one-size-fits-all hearing aid.
- Same technology as $5000 hearing aids. From their reviews (see below), we can see that they are actually amplifiers. They amplify sounds, the same way you turn up the TV volume with a remote control. They are not comparable to even the cheapest hearing aids, let alone $5000 hearing aids.
- Audiologists #1 recommended online hearing aid. A quick Google search showed no audiologists recommendation, and lots of people asking if they are scam or legit, which is also why we started this post.
- Rated most comfortable hearing aid in 2019. Their company started in 2020, and their product is rated most comfortable in 2019. Rightttt…
OK, so the website can claim anything without proof. To be fair, even if you believe those claims, there’s really no harm.
The next part is a different story. Let’s take a look.
How are these so affordable? OK our credibility is being undermined here. Audiologists are healthcare professionals that are trained to help people with their hearing problems. Even if there are audiologists or hearing clinics who care more about profit, audiologist will not intentionally damage your hearing health for it. The bulk of hearing aids fitting cost is the hearing aids, and visiting an audiologist won’t cost thousands of dollars. Also, read the responses for the next 3 questions to decide for yourself who is actually the one hurting customers for a profit.
How do I know they will fit me? Their answer talked about the bud size. It’s pretty clear that when people ask about the fit, they meant fit for purpose, fit for their hearing loss, fit for their benefit. Bud size is the least of their worries when people want to know “how do I know these hearing aids will be suitable for my hearing loss?”.
Do I need to be tested first? Normal hearing aids work by amplifying certain frequencies of external sound according to your particular hearing loss. Some regions of your hearing are normal, so the sound frequencies in those region won’t be amplified. Hearing aids protect your normal hearing region and amplify the sound in the hearing loss region to a safe level. Wearing amplifiers that blindly turn up volume is more harmful to your hearing health, than not wearing any hearing aids, because too much volume will damage your hearing.
Will this model help tinnitus? Even the most prestigious, confident medical professional wouldn’t be so eager to say “Yes!” to a condition with no known cure. At most, the response should be “It might help, if your tinnitus are caused by hearing loss”.
In short, the website is trying very hard to make you click buy without consulting any professional. “Don’t need to consult audiologist (even with the whole “#1 recommended by audiologist” claim) to find out more about your hearing loss! Just buy this magic cure that helped 99% of our buyers!”
Speaking of buyers… let’s talk buyers’ reviews!
Let’s start with the good. Please note that we accept that there are some 100% genuinely good reviews. We are certain that when some people use these amplifiers, they are genuinely happy about their hearing and being able to hear more. We accept that fully.
If you happen to be one of those buyers, we are happy for you and we encourage you to keep your hearing health in check and get regular hearing tests (even short free ones) for your own sake. Hearing more doesn’t always mean hearing better, especially when you are hearing more with a product from a company proactively encourages you to avoid learning about your problems before giving you the “solution”.
What about good reviews that are not genuine? It’s the oldest trick in the book but we don’t want to speculate. The reason to do it is very obvious.
Next, let’s talk about negative reviews and comments. The advertisements for this company are shown mainly on social media sites where comments can be removed or curated.
From their own Facebook page where they get the most curating power. Clues can be seen that many people are angry at them, but angry comments are nowhere to be seen! There are quite a few angry emojis (cannot be removed by Page owner) and zero negative comments (can be removed by Page owner)! Isn’t it interesting?
Again, we don’t want to speculate the validity of the good comments. But action really speaks louder than words when comments are removed… allegedly. So how do we know what those negative comments are saying? What were they trying to warn us all?
Easy. We look for places out of the company’s control! Have a read through some of them to get an idea.
Seems like their buyers are most angry about their “30-day money back guarantee” claim. Whenever people found out they are not as advertised and wanted to return them, they couldn’t return them (or not getting a full refund) due to reasons like e.g. “it has been opened” or “it has been used” or “there’s a restocking fee” or they just plainly ignored the return requests.
Last but not least…
Remember when we said that their company name is Audien Hearing for now? Website with payment capability can easily be created, domain can easily be registered, inspiring origin story can easily be fabricated, promising claims can easily be made, enticing Facebook ads can easily be produced. Phoenix can easily rise from ashes. If you cut off one hydra head, two more would grow back in its place.
So… $89 Rechargeable Hearing Aids: Legit or Scam? You be the judge. We personally wouldn’t trust a company that tried to mislead us so many times in so many ways. At least we can turn up the TV volume for free.
We have done our part. It’s up to you now. You too have the power to educate others about this. Cheers.
I ordered ev1 payed $89.they would not hold a charge they said they would replace with a ev3 for no eextra ch
arge.the replacement are the same as I already have my order no. Is 87768 they do not have a pull cord? Been working with your customer service one big run around.
Definitely a scam. The first ones they sent me were defective. With the replacement set, if got them loud enough I could hear, there was way to much feedback. When I turned them down to stop the feedback they were no help at all. Garbage. Lesson learned. Theseare NOT hearing aids like they assured me, they’re cheap amplifiers.
I ordered a pair first of January and have not received
cdani23020@aol.com
Nothing to say. Ordered and paid 200$ 2 months ago. SCAM.
Want to buy your hearing aids.
I ordered a pair need them but never got them where is my money?
I have worn hearing aids for 6 years. We got a new kitten. She found them on the bedstand and thought that they were “bugs”. After she chewed on them they were history. Instead of another $1,500 pair, I thought I’d try AUDIEN’s $89 hearing aids. They were a little slow in arriving, but not a problem. They recommended only using them 2 or 3 hours a day the first week. I “tested” them that evening watching TV while “sheltering-in-place”. The sound was certainly amplified – as advertised. I had to turn the TV volume down considerably. My wife had to turn it back up a bit.
The aids do NOT fit down in the ear very well. They protrude somewhat. One or the other of the two FELL OUT 3 times during the 3 or 4 hours of TV. I checked the Audien online website and followed the suggestion to try a different size earbud. I chose the smallest, hoping to get the device further into my ears.
The next day I accompanied my wife to SAM’S WHOLESALE. We were gone a couple of hours. Before returning home I noticed that one of the aids had fallen out without my noticing. I have had them ONE DAY and now do not have but one. I have not worn the remaining aid out of the house. It has fallen out several times. I don’t have much hope of being able to prevent them from falling out, and suspect this remaining aid is not going to last me very long (without putting a band-aid over the hearing aid to keep it in place).
I emailed Audien to report the above but am yet to get a response.
Thank you so much for this information, I was about to order a pair because of the affordability. I have to keep reminding myself that “if it’s to good to be true, then it probably isn’t true” thanks again
After reading the story I’m saving my money….. Thank you
I want to return mine, they charged me twice, one for Ev1 $60 and one Ev3 $69.it shows a number from Arizona (205)255-1112 ,I go to usps tomorrow and ship it back,keep the receipt, and then call my credit card company.
Yes good afternoon my name is Harris J Scott and I just viewed a commercial on TV about hearing aids for $89 but mind you I don’t do not need hearing aids right now this moment but I would like to have more information on this hearing aids for $89 because I seen so many commercials that have hearing aids but they are in the higher price bracket but if you can just give me a more information about these hearing aids for $89 for future reference I will be like I said I will be more than happy with the information that I receive thank you very much
Hi Harris, you responded to our blog post about the $89 hearing aids, posing the question whether it’s a scam or not. A lot of people are unhappy with it and unable to return the hearing aids. Please proceed with caution.