Embrace Hearing

But when I got it, I was hearing some buzzing sound coming from the right hearing aid and I attributed that to being occasionally a defective device. But they were saying that it was the fact that I have nerve damage in my right ear. My ear is now hearing what it should be hearing and the brain doesn’t know how to process it because the nerves are damaged. The buzz I was hearing was my brain and not their product but they went the extra mile. I told them that it’s not that I don’t believe them, but I’m skeptical. So they sent me another right hearing aid, programmed it exactly like the one I had and said, “You could be right”. And so they sent me another one and said that if it solved the problem, to send them the other one back. If it doesn’t, to send them the one they sent me back. And they were right.

When I put the other hearing aid in, I had the same buzz, so it’s me. I sent the spare back and thanked them. They told me I have to get used to it. I appreciated it because I’ve given them a lot of money, and I will always have that nagging doubt that I had something wrong versus it was just the fact that my ears were damaged. It couldn’t hear that sound anymore and what it hears comes out as a buzz, because the brain doesn’t know what to do with that signal.

I learned to live with my hearing loss because I can get by but it’s aggravating for me especially with my wife constantly having to ask her to repeat stuff. But now, my life is a lot better and it’s significantly different because of the hearing aid. When we’re driving down the road, my wife is on my right, which is my bad ear but I hear everything she says. If I’m in a crowded restaurant and there are people talking, I can hear everything. Before, I couldn’t pick up what was being said. I knew somebody was saying something but I couldn’t hear it. I should have done it a lot sooner, but I like spending money on Corvettes and guitars too and this was always a bottom priority, but I had to make it one.

But I spoke to Embrace in the beginning about the hearing aids and the interaction I had with them was very helpful. Embrace is fairly easy to work with. And all in all, the hearing aid has been pretty good. We chose Embrace originally because of the cost and some of the reviews about it that I read online. We just started working with them and I just have to learn how to maintain them and change the batteries. I’ve been changing the batteries every nine days. If you have moderate or not really, really severe hearing loss, this hearing aid is worth the price.

I am happy with the hearing aids and they’re comfortable. I have remembered to take them off every time I get in the shower. But I get this little gravelly noise and a little feedback when I’ve only had them for four to six weeks. I know that they’re programmed to increase the volume every week or two until they get you up to the top volume. But I can always turn them down when I start getting bad echoes. I just push the button and they turn down a little bit.

The cost was pretty grand. But I think everything is way too much. I bought cars cheaper than that. In relation to the quality, I think compared to everything else that I looked at in the market, it is very reasonable. And their customer service was really nice. I’ve called and talked to them, and they’ve told me what I needed to know. That was how I found out that they save the program to increase volume over time. And I’ve recommended Embrace. I was talking to a friend of mine and he wasn't happy with his hearing aids. I was trying to get him to look at Embrace and I told him that with it, I could hear.

The sales guy called me when I was wanting to return it. He extended the warranty because I was going through some testing to make sure I wanted to keep them before I committed to them. I’m grateful for that but it was a real slow response time and I was really surprised by that and a little disappointed too. There were a couple of times I called and it took a while for them to get back to me. I called, I had a question and there wasn’t anybody to answer that question at the time. We had to wait for a callback which was frustrating.

And another thing, I'm getting a lot of feedback on it. I had a surround sound put on it and maybe that's why I'm getting that echo feedback on it. And so I had to turn it down to the lowest point. But I'm happy with them. I didn’t buy the pair that I had my ears tested because I discovered it's going to be like $7,000. Then I went to Costco and those people were ridiculous. I had to make two appointment trips to go see him and I never did. I don't know Embrace get these things from. They probably get it from China or somewhere else but they seem to work fine. And I cut the profit down in half. The reps at Embrace Hearing all seem to be really good. I think they know about the hearing aid business. They seem to be a legit type company that's trying to help the consumer for a better price. But when you go to an audiologist they seem to want to charge the highest prices that they can possibly find to solve your issues.

I decided to have Embrace hearing aids because the price was less than half. I would have preferred to use a local provider where I can go over there for adjustments. But I would have had to pay and come up with a couple of thousand more dollars to have that luxury. So I went ahead and bought Embrace hearing aids and I had 45 days to see how it worked. I thought the other brand I was working with locally was probably a little bit better for me but it got $2,500 better.

My hearing aid goes behind the ear. This model was well-formed. It does the job. But with the accessory things I'm not too fond of that remote that comes with it because the one I was trying out from Siemens, the same control was right on the hearing aids. I think the one feature that they had, it automatically adjusts in certain sound situations without having to press any buttons which is a good feature.

And the customer service team responded for me when I had a concern about fit. They treated me very well. When I didn’t understand about the remote because when I first priced everything the remote was going to be like around $120 so I didn’t order a remote because I don't know why I would need a remote. And then come to find out is that changing from one program to the next, it's supposed to happen automatically. But if you want to do it manually, you have to have a remote because you can't do that by pushing buttons on the unit.

When I found that out, I said, "Are you serious? I was used to having those different programs if I can't switch and then select them." So, they threw in a remote for me. They didn’t charge me for the remote so that impressed me. And then when I had some concerns about the fit, they sent me a longer wire or they were supposed to have sent a longer wire but I don’t really think that wire was any longer than what I had. These don’t fit as well as the Siemens one I was trying out but they fit well enough and they're working for me. And in order to get adjustments I have to package them up, mail them back to Embrace and then wait until they adjust it and then they send it back and I see if that adjustment helped. That's kind of awkward. So I have not done that.

But Embrace hearing aids certainly improved my hearing and my work situations and now I understand dialogue in movies. I just kind of go on with what it is instead of taking time to be without them for about a week or more while they do an adjustment. Embrace is a viable option for people. I know it's not in the hearing aid industry. Companies like Embrace are quite controversial because there's a lot of people who research. Some people would say to stay away from the online companies and that people should not be buying hearing aids that way. That you need a personal fitting but in order to get that, you need to spend a hell of a lot more money.

But I think one person in the industry I read, said that he would rather see people have the hearing aids and get their needs addressed than not have a hearing aid because they just can't afford it. And that's kind of the position that I'm in. I got a daughter in college and I decided to use that extra couple of thousand dollars I saved by keeping her student loan debt down. There's a good market in it for a company like Embrace. I've been treated well by them but many years in the future when these wear out I hope I have enough money that I could be able to afford a local provider.

I went with the model with the directional hearing. It was decided as the best for my hearing loss and it turned out to be as I was concerned about the directionality. I am not overly pleased with it though as it does not make a lot of difference. The directionality still does not quite pick sound up. But the hearing aids make sounds more distinct now. The sound is not just louder but is a bit clearer, which was the main thing that I was after. If it is getting loud when I am working with the kids or if I'm on cafeteria duty and I need to be selective, the hearing aids help me with that. Having to really be able to pick up some subtle things, the hearing aids made me be able to do my job. I can keep this job forever.

Dealing with Embrace's customer service team has been a positive experience. Everything worked well. Now, if only I could get the same thing for $300 rather than $2500, I would like that. But it's worth looking into. Do the audiologist. Go through that whole procedure and see their recommendations. And if they suggest, "Okay. Hearing aids are part of the answer to your problem," then, I would recommend them from there.

My hearing loss before was moderate to severe and I chose Embrace for its cost. The H-700 was the latest one and it had everything that I wanted on it. As far as streaming from TV, I can hear the TV really well now and I don't have to strain. There were some programs that I really couldn't get anything from as the sound was so distorted. But I love the blast streaming from TV now.

Still, I think that I shouldn’t have to be turning it up that much. My power levels aren’t set up right and the algorithm that they’re using isn’t working. The other thing is I get too much on the high-range. My low-range is where I get a big hearing loss, so I can understand why they're pushing it up. I can still hear low, but it isn’t in the curve that they have. Also, I don’t know why the voice is echoing and I would like to get rid of that. Other than that, Embrace Hearing is a good outfit.

I had a woman call me on a Saturday night from New York in her home at nine o'clock her time. I did a Skype so that she could look at my ear and see what I was doing. That was absolutely going overboard but she was marvelous. What happened was I had a terrible time putting this thing into my ear. We went round and round with that. My kids were holding the phone so that the lady in New York could see what I was doing. And when my kid who has hands that are big enough to hold a basketball out it in my ear, she said that was right. It took me a while because I was so excited but I got an absolutely phenomenal response.

I bought their top of the line which was $2,500 for both ears and that was very reasonable. Right now though, there's a defect in my hearing aid. It was playing music in one ear. It was trying to do something and couldn't. And when the batteries ran low, it would play two notes in my ear and I'd know that I'd have two hours to change the batteries. I normally change both at the same time because it was just a short period of time until the other one would go bad. But this one, I finally counted, it was 34. I called Embrace and they said to send it back and they would give me a new set because there was a mechanical and an electronic problem.

I went with a top brand six months ago, a walk-in and it's stand-alone at an Otolaryngologist. It was $6,500. I have a cousin who is profoundly deaf and that's the one she has and it's marvelous for her. But I'm at the beginning scale, putting my hand behind my ear and missing those little bits of conversations. I thought my hearing wasn't bad enough to justify $6,500. When I looked at Embrace, I thought that for $2,500, I got the Cadillac or whatever the best car was nowadays. The one I have has a multi-directional hearing and microphones, back, front, side. And if I'm sitting at the table and someone to my left is talking, it makes that side go a bit louder and cuts down on the right side. And if the conversation lead person changes, so does the hearing aid. It has a lot of nice pluses and it hearing aid enhances my hearing a lot.

Overall, the service of Embrace has been unbelievable and there doesn't seem to be a "No. I can't do it." They just seem to be "Give me a minute and I'll call you back." It's quite remarkable. They're wonderful with responses, with contact, following through and calling up. But there's always something to improve on like having a stand-alone where a customer could walk in and somebody would say, "You're here for an Embrace. No charge. This is how you put it in your ear."

Other than that, if anyone wants to have a hearing enhancement that they can afford and that has marvelous customer service, they should call Embrace. They can also go online and talk to Embrace. Most of the time, I talk to a seller named Kim and this other woman also is a hearing aid audiologist, the one who called me from New York. I would absolutely, unequivocally recommend Embrace to anybody who was asking. I even recommend the company even when they're not asking.

All I can say is I am very satisfied with the product. I love how I can stream music and tv programs directly to my hearing aid. Now I can listen to music (or other programs) while at work without having to mess with putting in an earbud and taking it out, and putting in my hearing aid when someone comes to talk with me. I can watch tv after my husband goes to bed and I don't have to use the closed captioning on the tv anymore. I have been thoroughly pleased with this product and have told several people about it. I think it is a shame that traditional hearing aid companies charge so much for an inferior product, and am so glad that there are more options available online. I whole-heartedly recommend the Embrace hearing aid.

The team was quite responsive and there was an after purchase call several times inquiring if I was okay with them. The hearing aids had a positive effect on my life, but it helped my wife more than myself because when I watch the TV, I don't have the volume as high. Also, purchasing it was straight and simple and I was comfortable with doing it online. I am happy with what I received and satisfied with my experience. I’ve recommended Embrace Hearing to several people.

The people there were like my friends. They really cared. From the first time I called them until I got my unit, the rep that I got followed up, asked me if everything was okay and if I needed to have an adjustment. It was like a friend calling me to make sure it was okay. They also told me everything to expect that would be out of the normal, good or bad, which I didn't get from my audiologist or other people. So when I put the unit on, I was aware of the things that might happen. They told me that there's normally a four to six week period to adapt to the unit, but I have moderate to severe impairment. When I thought my unit stopped working after two days, they gave me a website to go to for a cleaning. My audiologist says I have no wax in my ears, but when I went to the cleaning site and I had the equipment cleaned it, it had wax in there. It wasn't the equipment, but my body.

They also did my insurance forms since they're in the industry and they know all the answers that the insurance company is going to ask. I sent them a blank reimbursement form. They filled it out, and they put all the codes in there that the insurance company would normally ask for, that I would never have known. I then had a two-minute call with the insurance company since the codes they were looking for were already in the application. It was really impressive.

I also bought the remote that hangs around your neck and the TV stream. I like being able to use a Bluetooth feature to answer and speak on the phone without touching it. Plus, Embrace hearing aids really help when I'm watching a movie on TV to have the soundtrack in my ears rather than being subject to the acoustics of the room, which can sometimes make it seem muffled even with hearing aids. I’m still getting the audio from the speakers, but I’m also getting it through my hearing aids. And I can adjust the volume both with the TV streamer and with the buttons on the hearing aid, or with the little Bluetooth remote. My wife hates to listen to advertisements on TV, so she'll mute the TV, and that mutes the speakers. It doesn't actually mute the audio signal, so I still get the commercials in my ear.

Once, I had trouble getting the TV streamer to work, and it turned out to be a problem with my audio system. I had to get something that would split the audio signal out of the HDMI cable and route it to the TV streamer with an optical cable, and I figured that out on my own. But I had another issue getting something to work with Bluetooth, and the people from Embrace called me back and walked me through it, and it worked fine. Their customer support is really good and I am satisfied. The whole package I paid Embrace was a little under $2800, and the Phonak I had were $4200, so the value for what you pay Embrace Hearing is very high.