MDHearingAid

On April 10th, I contacted this company to order a new hearing aid. I had previously had one which had been lost. It performed well for me. I chose to order a battery unit rather than my original rechargeable model. The agent noted that I was an existing customer and said that she would get a 15% discount on the new unit since I was a loyal returning customer. Since I was having connection tubing sent each quarter for the old unit, she said that I would be contacted that afternoon to switch the tubing replacements to the new model (which was different). She was very nice and seemed thorough. Then I received the email acknowledgement with no discount; and through almost 5:00 PM the following day, no one ever contacted me about the tubing switch.

This is no type of customer service when spending hundreds of dollars on something. I even sent an email to customer service questioning why I never got the discount (my AMEX was charged within an hour of my order) and why no one had called. In this era of texts, cell phones, emails and computer efficiencies using the old "24 hour" excuse is sadly out of date. They charged my card and shipped the new hearing aid before the day was over but failed to contact me as promised, failed to initiate the discount and failed to answer my questioning email to customer service. They have their priorities backward!!!

I called the next day, the 11th, and after arguing with a different agent they finally issued a credit and answered my email about the tubing switch. To the agent's credit, she did call me back to confirm that the credit was issued. People should not have to call to follow up with a manufacturer. It's the other way around. MDHearingAid states that their units can be returned for any reason within so many days. After this experience, I seriously doubt that it would be as smooth as they state.

When one cannot afford the $3-4K price of the major brands I have found the MDHearingAid I bought about 15 months ago deliver adequate hearing support under most conditions. Like some other reviews I have found that they do not work as well in noisy surroundings even with the 3rd stage filter selected. I also have found that the telephone connection does not work well with my iPhone. It is better to just use the iPhone ear pods without the hearing aids. They have helped my moderate hearing loss in most conditions. I have also found the service to be quite responsive. They immediately without resistance replaced two hearing aids after about 6 months of use when it they seemed to not work correctly.

The other common issue is with the hearing molds. It is recommended that they be replaced relatively often and cleaned regularly, meaning about once per week. This always clears up reduction in hearing quality. They are also sturdy, surviving many drops and even a number of shower forgets. I do wish they could improve the sound quality and filtering system but one gets what is paid for. For the money and value of use I recommend trying them.

I purchased these hearing aids about 18 months ago. They have served me very well and meet all my expectations. I have read the negative reviews on this site and believe I can accurately guess at what is causing the problems. Thus, the reason for this review. These hearing aids are very prone to blockage of the ear cones by wax or dead skin, even though it's not obvious when you look at the cone. I have had the device seem to go dead at times and replacing the battery had no effect. I then ran the cleaning rod through the tube and function was immediately restored. Also, properly setting the volume control is critical to controlling squealing. If you have it set too high, you are going to get feedback, it's that simple. Just read the manual when you get them and abide by it. The hearing aids are phenomenal for the price. I have just ordered the new comfort tips and am looking forward to receiving them.

For a few years every now and then a family member places a flyer for hearing aids someplace where it jumps in-my-face. So this morning I went to the site and looked at their products. BUT, I am of an age where I suspect EVERYONE, so I do my homework. I went to the BBB site for Chicago since the address on the company site listed Chicago as its address. Nothing found. NADA!? I then did a search on "MDHearingAid complaints" and started getting a pretty good idea of what others have endured. I like this Consumer Affairs site. I read reviews by customers and decided NOT to throw money away.

Something still did not click. Not sure what it was. I looked at the MDHearingAid site again and noticed an A+ BBB rating posted on the site which did not jive with what I had just encountered on what I will call the real BBB site. So, I clicked on the BBB logo and was taken to what appeared to be a BBB site. I started wondering what was going on, so I again entered the company info and city into the form, but this time I was given a warning about an unsecure form, so I canceled the submission.

I retired from the IT field so I know rotting fish when I smell it. It was then that I noticed on the Consumer Affairs site that Detroit was the listed address of this company. I also noticed that some medical person posted her analysis of the company as "goodie goodie". So, I am giving you my take of what I have experienced this morning and I would not throw $1100 out the window on something guaranteed for 90 days. I also did not like the wording of their warranty, "they will determine if the unit is faulty and if they are liable". I wish consumers would take just a little time to research companies and products BEFORE they throw hard earned money out a window into a 90 mile an hour wind. Go with your gut. It reacts for a reason.

It's important to know that the reason for all the glowing 5-star reviews on the company website is that they accept nothing less. The website responds "try again later" when a reviewer attempts to submit a lesser rating; yet when an identical review with the coveted 5 stars, the site has no problem accepting it. MD Air, therefore, is dishonest from the start.

I've had the same problems as all the other reviewers giving them 1 star. The aids very simply don't work at all well. The screaming feedback verges on painful, occurs very often and unpredictably. Just touching my head or getting near another person sets it off. They fit so poorly that one mysteriously fell off my ear, never to be seen again.

MD Air doesn't honor their warranty no matter what the reason for trying to return them, as described by other reviewers. Just as I'd given up hope of ever seeing my wasted money again, I received an email: "WARNING: Your warranty is about to expire." I called to explain (again) that the aids were defective and asked for instructions for returning them. The response? "Oh, that manufacturer's warranty doesn't really mean anything. We just contacted you to see if you'd like to buy a 2-year extended warranty." I suppose they believe that any customer stupid enough to have dealt with the company is likely stupid enough to spend even more money for a manufacturer's warranty that, by their own admission, is worthless. I agree wholeheartedly with my fellow 1-star reviewers: Don't waste your money!!

I bought the MD Hearing Aid set and I don't suggest anyone else wasting their money on aids that don't work right and the help you get is incompetent. They couldn't care less except to get your money.

I bought the MD Air with 1 year protection plan. I kept these hearing aids two weeks past their trial period. I wanted to give them a little more time before returning them. The feedback got worse over time and even one of the hearing aids wasn't recognizing there was a battery in it (wasn't turning on). They started to get worse the more I used them. They also weren't working for me they way I was hoping. They didn't amplify speech that produced clarity, all they did was amplify high frequencies so that someone crumbling paper next to me during an office meeting was unbearably loud. I contacted their customer service and asked to speak to a manager. He absolutely refused to accept a return, even if I absorbed 50% of the cost (which I offered).

I had no use for the hearing aids and mailed everything back to the company saying to please offer a refund of some kind. The manager I spoke to was a little passive aggressive and mailed my hearing aids right back to me without asking to discuss the situation again where we could come to an agreement. He said because I was past the trial period there was nothing he could do.

This was the worst customer service experience I ever had, and I partially blame it on the industry not having enough competition so they can enforce rules that don't make sense. Furthermore, the manager consulted with their on site 'audiologist' who requested my 'audiogram'. She came to the conclusion that the hearing aids should be working for me just fine, but both of them managed to completely avoid my claim that the hearing aids were producing feedback that made my tinnitus worse. Aside from me being upset that they wouldn't waive the trial period, I would have to say that the hearing aids aren't as good as the more expensive ones.

Does not work well in noisy places like restaurants or with high pitched female voices. Needed earphones to watch TV. Does not work well with telephone use. Under most hearing conditions they were satisfactory. Much better than nothing. Long battery life. Had mine about a year and had zero problems.

I purchased a set of AIR hearing aids from MD Hearing Aid about a year ago. I had some "name brand" (expensive) aids for years. I have high range loss and am middle aged. The MD Airs performed better than the others I have had. They have held up well. The batteries last weeks, and I have had great support from customer service. I have several friends who paid for the name and found that the MD's work as well or better. Read reviews but get some and try them, some reviewers are not fair in their expectations. This is a quality instrument and will help many IF they read and follow instructions and take time to acclimate. (About a week.) All I know is they work very well for me!

They worked fair, but tubes were kinked and couldn't hear in noisy environment, even with 4 adjustments. Calling got me nowhere as reps. had NO understanding of problems, but e-mail got me new tubes twice. When I saw the ads for new FIT I thought having in ear and NO tubes blocking ear canal would be a big benefit. They also said they improved outside noise distortion and new technology for better voice recognition.

This sounded like what I needed, so I tried to trade-in for them, but nothing doing, so I purchased a pair for $995.00 and they came with a 60-day guarantee of satisfaction. (90 % if returned less than 21 days because they want you to give a long trial they say). When I rec'd. them I tried putting the right one in ear and what a noise it made. I tried different volumes, but same noise only more or less louder. I tried the left one with the same result. (They sent 3 different sized domes which they said would be needed in extreme cases) which blocked the canal which I tried to avoid.

I had one stick in my ear because it was so tight, and Dorothy had to use tweezers to remove and all in all spent over an hour trying all different things it listed to try, and ended up with a headache and 2 sore, swollen ear lobes. (I let my wife see if she had better luck since she also wears hearing aids, and she yanked it out of her ear immediately screamed and threw it on table).

Being Sat. I didn't try calling and waited until Mon., expecting to get some kind of explanation, or advice, but no, only alibis telling me I needed to keep trying until I got used to them. They would shift me to different reps. who were supposed to be knowledgeable, but same thing. I called a couple more times on Wed. to see if they don't have a Product development dept.

After a long hassle, the girl said she would transfer me. I finally got to speak with a Nicholas who said he would check what was wrong and indicated it was new and they were getting a lot of complaints. He finally said they would need to take it under advisement and someone would call me back within 4 days. (I waited 6 and NO call back so I tried calling for a Nicholas, and they wanted to know why, which I explained and found Nicholas to be just another answerer.

After more call-backs and transfers I found they have NO one with any product or technology experience in Chicago. (Where all calls go to). I contacted Capital One to intercede since it was their c. c. I used. They did, and we finally were assured I could return and no re-stocking fee would apply. I have returned as per their instructions to Detroit, Mi. which is apparently the company is located, Not Chicago, Il. CAPITAL ONE has agreed to stay on top of this to get at least the charge refunded, but that is only a part of my frustrations after all this wasted time and energy. (I would have gladly accepted a simple explanation of what the problem is, but no one would give it).