I had never worn hearing aids before and my mild-moderate hearing loss was getting worse. So, because of reviews and cost, I chose Costco hearing aids. I had tried a couple of OTC amplifiers but they did not help me understand speech and loud sounds were too jarring with them. So, I got the Philips 9040 (Oticon) aids from Costco.

I tried them for a few months but overall the sound was awful because:

1. I could not understand people right in front of me when there was a crowd around. So, with many people around, I had to take the aid off to understand my immediate group of people. This happened even on bluetooth phone calls.

2. Loud sounds were jarring. I have loud sound sensitivity and the hearing aids made me nauseous whenever I was around loud people. Oh, and loud distant noises were awful too. Like being able to hear the far off clanking of dishware in restaurants when all I wanted to do was to hear the people next to me. Walking near traffic became overwhelming.

3. All sounds were different. I did not recognize people's voices from people I had known for years. I had to relearn how different people sounded. I also had to relearn the sound of water, fans, etc. Everything sounded flat and it was only when I took off the HAs did the world sound full.

4. Music sounded flat, too. Like listening to sounds recorded with a very low bit rate. My $20 pair of earbuds were so much better sounding. Reading the comments on this subReddit, I guess this is how HAs are meant to be, and I am not the only one.

5. There was no effective noise canceling. If I wanted to hear people in a car that had road noise, I had to remove my HAs. Otherwise, the sounds I heard were mainly road noise with unintelligible speech in the background.

So, I went back a couple of times to the HA specialist at Costco with my complaints and got my HAs tweaked a couple of times. Nothing much improved and in some ways became even worse.

On a whim, I went to a different Costco. The difference was amazing. This HA specialist did an update, and gave my Android app the speech in noise setting. Both settings now make my aids sound 100% better and I can wear them comfortably for longer periods of time. I now actually want to wear them when I go out.

I don't know what to make of my experiences. But, I did want to say that maybe if you are having problems, perhaps another fitter might be helpful.

Hello! My audiologist says it’ll be $8800 for me to get hearing aids I need for my stage 1 hearing loss. I have no problem accepting that cost if the world tells me that he’s right and good hearing aids require that.

I can’t get hearing aids unless I pay the full cost upfront since I don’t qualify for financing. I offered to put $2500 down but they couldnt do it.

Costco had hearing aids starting at $1500. Are these good quality and modern? Do they support integration with Apple devices well etc. what does the community suggest I do here?

Thanks so much

Update Below! 🙏🏼 ⬇️ thank you to all for your comments and questions. There have been some incredibly helpful and informative comments and points made that have really helped me to understand how to best move forward here and what to think about. Here is some more info to help with any suggestions people may have. Thank you so much everyone!

Insurance: BCBS. They wouldn’t cover anything from the audiologists office is what the office told me. I’m curious if they’ll reimburse me for a Costco brand though… will have to call and check.

Hearing Loss: audiologist said stage 1 out of 4. Stage 1 being the beginning stage. I have two siblings with major hearing loss and hearing aid requirements but they’re half sibs so I haven’t really been able to ask about their experiences.

My hearing loss is a reverse slope says audiologist. Highs are good. Lows are bad. I struggle hearing things when background noise is present.. music, or water running, white noise, traffic noises etc.

Located in Provo Utah for those who asked. Not the most expensive place but it’s on the rise I guess. Lots of rich people migrating here.