I Tried the Viral $249 Hearing Aid for 30 Days. On Day 3, I Printed the Return Label. Here's What Happened.

Reader story by Jim, 72, Pennsylvania  |  Published by Healthy Living Digest  |  Last update: June 17  |  📖 3 min

I'll tell you how this ends: I kept them. But it was close. On day three, I had the return label printed and the box sitting by the front door.

My wife Margaret is the reason it's not on a mail truck right now. I'll get to that.

Why I ordered them

The clinic quoted me $4,600 for a pair of hearing aids. I'm on Social Security. Medicare covers nothing. I drove home and didn't tell Margaret the number until dinner.

A few weeks later my son sent me an article on this website, about a $249 pair called Modern Hearing. FDA registered, same chip supplier as the expensive brands, 45-day trial at home.

My first thought: nothing that sounds that good ever is.

But you can send them back for a full refund. The way I figured it, the only thing I was risking was a walk to the mailbox. So I ordered them.

Day 1: the kitchen faucet

Small box. Charging case like my grandson's earbuds. No app, no manual the size of a phone book. I'm not good with gadgets and I had them in my ears in ten minutes.

First thing I heard was the kitchen faucet. Water hitting the sink. I hadn't heard that in years, and I didn't know I'd lost it.

Day 3: I printed the return label

I'll be honest about this part, because nobody else is.

Day two and three, everything was too much. My own voice sounded like it was coming through a tin can. The refrigerator was suddenly the loudest thing in the house. The newspaper crinkled like fireworks.

I decided they weren't for me. Printed the return label, put the box by the door.

Margaret looked at the box and said one sentence:

"You gave the $4,600 quote six weeks of thinking. You can give the $249 pair one week of wearing."

Hard to argue with that. The trial runs 45 days. I'd used three.

I even called the company, half hoping they'd tell me to send them back. A woman named Diane picked up. No menu, no script. She said the first week is like that for a lot of people — not everybody, but enough that they tell you to give it time — and told me to call her back if it hadn't settled by day ten. Full US phone support, any question, before or after you buy.

Day 6: something switched

What nobody told me: your brain has spent years turning the world's volume down. When it gets everything back at once — the dishwasher, your own footsteps — it can be too much for a few days. That's how it went for me, anyway. Then your brain remembers which sounds matter.

Day six, Margaret said something from the yard and I answered without thinking. That was the moment. The return label went in the trash.

Day 7 and further: the result

The TV is on volume 12. It used to be on 46. Margaret checked twice because she didn't believe the number.

Sunday dinner with all the grandkids, which used to be the hardest table in the world for me: I followed it. Not perfectly, I won't lie to you. But I was in the conversation instead of nodding along next to it.

Phone calls without the speaker on. Church without picking a pew by the front.

One more thing. Years ago I tried a big beige pair from the drugstore. I'm bald — there's no hair to hide anything behind — and that thing hooked into my glasses every time I took them off. Here's my own ear, the old pair next to the new one. See for yourself:

And that's why nobody has noticed I'm wearing them. My buddy sat next to me for two hours at the VFW and said nothing.

My honest advice

If your hearing loss is severe, go see a professional. That's not what these are for, and the company says so themselves.

But if you're like me — normal age-related loss and a clinic quote you can't justify — order them, and give them the week. Not the first three days. The week.

The first days can be strange. They were for me. Two buddies from the VFW ordered a pair after seeing mine — one had the same noisy first week I did, the other put them in and they just worked for him right away. Either way: that's your ears adjusting, not the device failing. You have 45 days, so a week costs you nothing. And if they're not right for you after that, just send them back.

I almost sent back the best $249 I ever spent. Give it the week.