Embrace Hearing

The customer service with Embrace was great but I had to send the hearing aids back three times. The first time I sent it back, they didn’t correct the problem. So, I had to send them back again and they had to fix it. Then they had to send them back to Embrace to reprogram. The two times I sent it back, it got sent back to the original manufacturer for a problem and when I did, they FedEx-ed everything so it was a one day process. When I dealt with Embrace and had to come back from there, it went to US Postal Service and it took several days. So, they need to consider the fact that you’re out of hearing aids for several days. If you do next day, it’s better. The hearing aids have been in the mail longer than I’ve had them in my head but I’m not complaining about the customer service because they’ve been in contact with me every step of the way.

Right now, I’m trying to get used to hearing sounds again and my left ear is worse than my right ear. I have tinnitus where I have ringing in my ear, so they were dealing with that and we’ve been adjusting the volume up on my left ear, which is why I have them now. So, I’ve been wearing them probably about a week now since I got them back and so far, they seem to be good. I'm hoping they got it squared away.

I was wanting to get the hearing aids during the 15% off but I ran into problems getting a hearing test scheduled and then getting the results of the hearing test. It took me about a month to get the hearing test to Embrace. But they were very patient. Afterwards, I had a question on getting the Bluetooth to work and Tim, the customer service rep, took me through that. It was on a Saturday too. So all in all, I’ve been very satisfied with customer service. They basically filled me with kindness.

I wear the hearing aids everyday for most of the waking hours and I’m very pleased. I really like the way that the Bluetooth works with my mobile phone. I only have to press one button and I get to talk on the phone and the reception is very clear. It’s great. I also bought the TV plug-in thing and what I figured out, which wasn’t advertised, is that I can plug that into my computer and listen to my computer without the need for headphones or a speaker. I’ve been listening to music on that and that is really great. But I’d really like to be able to do that on my phone too.

If I could listen, streaming music, from my phone via Bluetooth, that would be pretty cool. The way it is set up though is the app allows you to control the settings via Bluetooth but the only Bluetooth that works with sound in your ear is when you get a phone call. I also listen to audiobooks and I tried listening to an audiobook directly from my phone but I couldn’t do it. Nonetheless, I love my Embrace hearing aids.

The customer service is good and they've tried to deal with everything I've raised as best they could. I just about called them the other day because I have a connection that I like for both my computer and my TV which works most of the time, but sometimes it doesn’t. But if you wait a little while, they’ll work. It hooks straight to my hearing aid, so that I can listen to my computer or the TV and my wife doesn’t hear it. I came to the computer and it wasn’t working. I tried several times. I tried to call them, but their line was busy. Then I put my hand up my ear and I didn't have my hearing aids in so that was why it wasn’t working.

I like the hearing aids and I have been putting them in in the morning and taking them out at night. I got the best that they sold and the big thing is, I don’t pick up the background noise so much. It’s not perfect yet but it’s so much better than my other ones. I’m happy with them as well as my wife, which is a big thing. It’s not that we always hear each other but it’s not just a continual problem anymore either. These hearing aids from Embrace are working for me. To get the quality of hearing aid that I have would cost me more than double if I went in a normal way. Embrace is making a lot of progress in hearing aids so I don’t have a problem with them. My brother has hearing problems that are worse than I do and he doesn’t wear hearing aids. I kinda wanted him to try some of mine and see how he likes them.

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.

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.

In the beginning, there was a little bit of pain and some awkwardness trying to find the right tips to fit. I’m using a medium on one side and a small on the other and I still am not sure if I’ve got it exactly the way I want it. The hearing aid is very effective but it’s just an adjustment curve. One person told me to just put them in and never take them out but sometimes, I wanted them out.

I’m not wearing them 100% of the time ‘cause depending on the environment I’m in, it’s almost a little bit annoying. The environment that I was working in had a lot of echoing background noises and some days, I would be okay with them. Some days, I would just take them out because I couldn’t stand all the magnified noises I didn’t wanna hear. But it’s just a matter of getting used to them and getting them adjusted right.

Their customer service keeps in touch with me. They call or email to find out how I'm getting along and if I'm having any problems. I had a few issues at first. My hearing is very serious so I was a little concerned that I had to have the volume turned up so high. I was afraid that that didn't leave me much room for future hearing loss to be able to dial that farther. I had to send the aids back once to get them reprogrammed and that took Embrace about a week and a half. But they were really spectacular to work with and my aids are pretty good now. For the money, I'm very happy with them. My husband still complains that I'm having him repeat things too often but that's because he mumbles.

When I would switch to the program, the noise would go away for about four seconds and then it would come back on. I could barely hear the other person talking even though they were only about 10 feet away from me in the room. So, it seem to mistake background noise, which should have been eliminated, as something I wanted to hear, so that became an issue. I talked to the representative, Tim, at the time. And I also wrote this up on the return so they have all the information.

It would be nice to have the feature that when you get a phone call, it comes through on both ears and not just on one. And the programming was not what I expected. Sometimes, there's too much put into the automated portion of the program and it doesn't allow the user enough flexibility to dial it in to a specific environment. We can only go from program to program to program. But sometimes, the program is generic and it doesn't match every situation. I know in a previous pair of Embrace I had, I had a hand control that I could decrease the sensitivity to the higher frequencies and eliminate HVAC noise.

My experience was unfortunate and I understand. I had a pair of Embrace Hearing years ago and one of them died and I needed new hearing aids right away so I went out and got one. Otherwise, I'd have to send it in, and then you're without hearing aids for a while. When you deal with a local vendor who has hearing aids, if you experience difficulty or have a problem, you can take it right in and get things taken care of immediately. It's that delay. Embrace has a good product. I had a good experience and a bad in the past, but it became too difficult to manage and I really wanted something that worked now and not have to go back and forth. There were some issues that were hard to work around.