A copy of My Letter of Disappointment to Oticon

[HondaHoney]

Hello Oticon,
My name is Carla and I recently purchased an Oticon Safran hearing aid. I am quite pleased with the results as far as the quality of hearing it provides and the ease of use. Because I have profound hearing loss in one ear and moderate to severe loss in the other ear, I also decided to try the wired CROS/ BiCROS microphone at the suggestion of my audiologist. I was very hesitant to purchase the wired system because of the way it would look, but I gave it a lot of thought and compared the price of the wired versus the much more expensive wireless and decided to give it a try.
Before ordering both the hearing aid and the microphone I asked if I could get them both in the same colour (I had already decided that I was either going to order a black hearing aid so that it could blend in with my hair colour, or a brown one so that it would match my skin tone – I am a black woman or “person of colour”). The response from my audiologist was that he couldn’t see why not, so I ordered the hearing aid and microphone in black.
I was very excited to receive my new hearing aid and see if the new technology that I had learned about at the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association conference on Prince Edward Island in June would live up to my expectations. I ended up with mixed feeling because I was happy to get the new black hearing aid (which was not cheap - $1740) but I was extremely disappointed when I saw that the CROS microphone ($305) was “skin-toned” – but not the colour of MY skin. My audiologist was quite helpful and immediately called the company and requested that a black microphone be sent to replace the “skin-toned” one (my terminology not the company’s). Two weeks later I called to inquire about the status of the black microphone. I was told that it was not possible to get it in any other colour but “skin-toned”.
This letter is to express my disappointment in the lack of colour options for the CROS microphone as well as a request that Oticon make it clear to audiologists, when they place an order, that the microphone is only available in one colour to avoid future disappointment.

Sincerely,
Carla
Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada

 

[Awauphi]

Sorry to hear that you didnt get when you did said in first place. Hope they will get you free one? Who knows! Good luck on getting it!