As a former employee of a Miracle-Ear franchise, I was able to witness a lot of unethical practices while employed. Not only by the franchise owner but the hearing specialist and the Corp MEMSI. Most Miracle-ears are franchises, goverened by the corporation.
When a franchise owner is having problems, MEMSI will require him to pay upfront for hearing aids. Several times we would have a customer pay 100% up front and then the owner would use that money for something else leaving the customer to wait weeks for his hearing aid which was bought and paid for! We would be told to lie to the customers and tell them that they were waiting for parts.
The specialist's LOVE being in an independent store. Meaning NOT in a Sears location. That way if the customer wants to return the hearing aid for a refund they can put them off, offerieng to remake it or adjust it etc. They will do this and "extend the trial period" only to still refuse a refund. There is a particular HIS in Kansas City MO who is NOTORIOUS for this. If they are in a SEARS location then all the customer has to do is go to the manager of the store and they can usually get their refund which is then deducted from the check they send Miracle Ear each month.
Miracle-ear only makes money on SELLING hearing aids, they don't care about servicing you after. They are known to reduce the hours of the store making it more and more difficult to get a repair etc. When employees show concern for the customers regarding this, they are told that the customers will "get used to it". I have an email to prove this.
Memsi is known to use USED parts. Franchise owners can sign up for the rapid exchange program. If you buy a new hearing aid say an open fit and it is sent in for repair, you will NOT get that same hearing aid back, but another one that is used.
They are WAY overpriced. The reason being that the franchise fees they charge the owners are so high that the owners have to have high prices that they base off MSRP which is a load of crap! If you go to an independent HIS you will be able to get the same hearing aid for HALF the price of what you pay for a Miracle Ear piece of junk.
Their lowest priced hearing aids are the Audiochoice aids which is nothing but an amp. They sell for about $1200. You can go to an independent operator and get a digital programmable hearing aid for less then this.
Do yourself a favor and stay away from Miracle-Ear, Amplifon and Memsi, they say that the customer comes first but if that is so then why do they HOLD a customer who has paid for his hearing aid because the franchise owner owes them money.
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