makker.nlgood value, but not all that it seems
When shopping for hearing aids, they were a good value (especially compared to local audiologists), which is why we chose to go with them. But there are some significant drawbacks that you should be aware of, that the company doesn't do a good job, at all, describing to their customers:
1. If you live outside the EU, be prepared for long, drawn out shipping and customs process. We live in the US and it took a couple of months of daily emails to the port, customs control, and shipping carrier trying to get the package cleared (you also are responsible for paying for the customs fee, which with the new tariffs, could be significant). online-hearingaids.com offered no help or instructions on how to clear customs. It's all on you to figure out.
2. false-advertising regarding 2-year warranty with the manufacturer. The website doesn't specify that the 2-year warranty only applies if you live in EU. If you live outside, you only have a 1-year warranty, and still have to work through a local audiologist who will charge you for passing the device on to the manufacturer (you cannot send it directly in to the manufacturer).
3. customer service is lacking. In our case, our device broke after a year, and we first reached out to online-hearingaids.com who told us to send it to the manufacturer because it was still under warranty. We did (through our audiologist), and couple of weeks later the manufacturer told our audiologist that no, the device was not under warranty. confused, we asked online-hearingaids and they said, "oh yeah, since we're not in EU, it's only a 1-year warranty". I understand mistakes happen, but was disappointed that they took no responsibility for their mistake, not even acknowledging that they gave us incorrect advice (had we known, we would have sent the device back to online-hearingaids.com who would have fixed it for free, but would have taken longer. instead, we're stuck paying the manufacturer for the repair - at a significant cost).
