Embrace Hearing

I’ve known a lot of people who purchased hearing aids in the last two years. Within six months, every one of them decided not to use the hearing aids any more for a variety of reasons like dealing with feedback and echoes. I was considering not buying a hearing aid but I finally decided. I do a lot of public speaking and a lot of leading of groups and so forth, and I need to be able to hear. I did some investigating on the web, and I contacted three different companies. The man I talked to at Embrace was incredible. I was also leaning towards trying to buy a device from someone in Baltimore where I live so that they could physically look at it and adjust it, and show me how to do things to it.

This fellow had really good answers for why things would work better with Embrace because they have videotapes. They also have people on call, and they don't have to wait three or four weeks for an appointment to watch those videotapes. It was that man’s pleasant intelligence and conscientiousness that led me to make the decision. I was also very interested in the thing that they call a TV connector, and I definitely wanted one of those. I like it because I don't have to turn on the subtitle or the closed captions anymore. I can understand what people are saying. I don't like everything they're saying on the news these days, but I understand it. I also discovered when I read the literature that came with that device a little more that it can also work with my computer.

About three hours ago, I did a webinar online for a bunch of people. I had had difficulty doing that lately since I lost all this hearing. I just plugged that TV connector into my computer, and it went straight in Bluetooth right into my ear. It was fabulous so I ordered a second one. I don't wanna have to keep moving back and forth between my computer and my TV. It is better because I can listen to that television as loud as I wanna listen to it, and nobody else hears it in the house. That’s a feature I didn't have when I was listening with my real ear.

I was skeptical about hearing aids, and I put mine in right after it arrived. We had a little trouble, and this nice guy talked me through. A little bit of wax had gotten on the thing that’s underneath the wax guard, and he showed me how to take that off. He talked me through cleaning it. After that, I stuck it in my ear. I’ve had none of the problems that my friends reported having. It’s not perfect. I have lots of trouble in noisy rooms, still. Also, I drive a cute little convertible, and I have lots of trouble with the wind in my ear. But those aren’t their fault. I’m a skeptic who has become a zealot for my hearing aid.

About three weeks after I had fallen in love with my hearing aid, I had to fly to a conference where I was giving a paper in Texas, and on the way there, I fell asleep on the plane. We landed and I went to the rental agency, got a car and drove to my hotel room only to discover that I didn't any longer have my hearing aid. It apparently fell off in the plane and I didn't even notice it. I came home and immediately bought a second one. That’s the one I’m now in love with. In fact, I like this one better. It comes with a little wire thing that you’re supposed to curl up in your ear, and you use that to pull it out of your ear. It’s different from the thing that’s connected to the hearing aid itself. With my first one, that little wire thing wouldn’t stay in my ear.

My professional life was becoming more and more difficult before I got this hearing aid. Also, my wife doesn't get mad at me because I can hear her. Embrace Hearing perhaps saved my marriage. The only thing is I don't like the picture of the woman that comes up while the app is coming up on the phone. It’s sexist. I don't know why you have to put a beautiful woman on there. When you open the little app on your phone, it takes a while for the thing to load, and while it’s waiting to load, they have a blonde woman in a red dress leaning up against the side of the wall and that bugs me every time it comes up.

I got the medium hearing aid from Embrace but I don't use it all the time. I took too hard the fact that a hearing aid doesn't give you perfect hearing, but it helps. When I wore it to a restaurant, it gave me some difficulty because the background noise was loud, and it tended to override the voices of the people at the table. That may be because I have a simpler model that doesn't really allow all the fancy accommodations. And I also hadn't bought anything with the view to be comfortable in large groups. I wanted something to be comfortable in small groups.

It took me a while also to become adept at putting them in. It was a little difficult, and my ears would hurt or itch or feel very uncomfortable. But after a while, that settled in. And now, I'm pretty good at putting them in. When I wear them, the hearing is quite more agreeable. I find a significant difference, and I hear considerably better with them on than off. I'm quite pleased with them. I have recommended the hearing aid to a number of people.

The sales reps were well informed. However, I sent an email and it was slightly incorrect. So, I was scolded by Bran who returned it. He said I shouldn't have sent it there and not to send it there again. They were kind enough to forward it to him but I felt that he was a little rude. At that same time, it said in the instructions that you could ask the right size for the ear portion and I wrote in that same written conversation that the conch lock was not fitting right in my left ear. The gentleman said he would forward me more of those and he would forward me the medium-sized ear portion that goes inside your ear, and that was probably five weeks ago.

We were traveling, so three days ago, I wrote back and said that it has been about at least a month. I didn't know if I should expect those to arrive or if it was lost somewhere in the system. They were attentive when still waiting for me to send my money and then after that, it's kinda like, "Oh, too bad." I wasn’t pleased with that. I've been a little bit disappointed with the service since the purchase but I would recommend Embrace.

We had put Embrace Hearing in the back of our mind. We were thinking about it, then we did some more research on it and they had the same product that the other people were selling for close to $5,000. So, he took a chance on it because there was a "use" period and he could send it back. Barry loves it. He was really impressed and he thought he made the right decision, and Embrace has also been very helpful. It was good when he could hear and it has really made a change that he can hear what I’m saying. Embrace hearing aids make a big difference for people that can’t really hear.

The person that my husband spoke to wanted to continue speaking with him, but we realized it is a smaller company and they have limited staff. We accepted that. There wasn’t someone there all the time to speak to, but the man got back to us. If they had one here or anywhere near us that we could call, they could set up an appointment and we could come in, but we couldn’t do that here. We have to wait until that particular individual was on call. Nonetheless, Barry feels we got a fine product. One that had all the bells and whistles would cost a great deal of money.

I decided to go ahead and I was impressed with the material that I was reading about Embrace on the internet. One of the things that frustrated me though was that it was very hard to find good comparative information on hearing aids. Most people have only had one or two brands of hearing aids in their experience so they either like what they have or they don't but they don't have comparisons. On the other hand, when I called Embrace, I felt like I was getting sound information as opposed to a sales pitch. So that impressed me. They were also considerably less expensive than others and that appealed to me. Embrace operates largely online and their argument is that you pay the $150 to go, have the audiologist check out your hearing and let them know what the audiologist found then they would reprogram the product for you as you need it.

They also said that what often happens is that there's a relatively small amount of money that actually goes into the hearing aid then the prices increase to cover the handling. They also said that you would often find that others would boost that price up. They would tell you you're getting a top-of-the-line hearing aid and therefore it's more expensive. To some extent, that's certainly true. But then the folks are likely to charge you even more and tell you that by paying more, you're getting free service.

There are some people who might greatly benefit by sitting down with a hearing aid technician to walk them through things. But Embrace has online videos showing how to change the batteries and the wax guards, and I'm able to follow the directions. So in my experience, it has all worked the way they have suggested that it should work. So I'm pleased. I paid less than a thousand dollars for my hearing aids and as far as I can tell from talking with other people, they will do just about whatever other people are getting out of theirs.

One of the reasons I was also willing to try Embrace was all of the reviews they had online. They were not all positive but everybody said that the company has been very quick to respond to their questions, and that has been my experience as well. Over the phone, they were certainly helpful in terms of telling me what I might expect. When I called to discuss things, they did a very good job as well. The technical person answered my questions and provided information. I sort of anticipated that at the end of that time, he was gonna turn me back to the sales force or try to push me to order right then but he didn't. He simply told me to get back with them if I had any other questions. So I've been very positively pleased with the relationship.

I've also had emails from them telling me things I might try. I got an email suggesting that because of the way the batteries are designed, if when you first put them in, you take the little tab that covers the battery off and expose it to the air for a few minutes, that will increase the life span of the battery by 25%. And that's certainly in the range of what my experience has been. So that is one example of their follow-up and taking care of me.

In terms of the hearing aids, I think the audiologist was correct. I'm not always sure whether I am benefitting from them or not. But there have been a couple of times that I've seen evidence that they're doing me some good. On Saturday mornings, I ride my bike while my friends are jogging and sometimes, that means that I am behind them rather than with them. Previously, I had found that it was increasingly difficult to keep up with the conversations. But since starting wearing the hearing aids, I've noticed that I'm much more engaged in the conversations. I am probably also more comfortable with the small children when I'm telling stories.

The aids I've got are programmed for hearing in large conference rooms where I want to hear the speaker in front of me and mute the sounds behind me, and I think I can detect the difference. I am more comfortable in those situations when I change the program for that setting. There's also a setting that is supposed to mute road noises and when I tried that on one occasion, I found it easier to listen to the radio. The road noise was significantly less and that was even in a pickup truck with larger than usual tires where the road noise is greater than it would be in a passenger car. The hearing aids are helping me some and in situations that I value having better hearing. I've also been very impressed with how comfortable they are and I've told other people if they start looking for hearing aids, they ought to look at Embrace.