Hello - I have been reading posts on this site for a couple of weeks, and wonder if others (besides JK) have encountered less than satisfactory service from hearing professionals at clinics. I have been using a very high-end clinic for about 12 years now, and have had different experiences ranging from satisfactory to barely acceptable to unacceptable. In the unacceptable bucket:

1. Customer service - HA company takes 2 weeks to do repairs that actually take less than a day to do, and charges extra for expedited service of 2-3 days. It's as if they don't care that a patient can't work or function without aids. Also, when I asked for a copy of the insurance agreement before being willing to spend money to renew, I was told they don't do that and don't have a copy available. Really! I swear.... I did not renew. Now, I'm extra vigilant with my $7000 HA's.
2. Respect - My feedback has been dismissed, diminished and ignored at times. The worst was when an audiologist suggested a different company's HA. I agreed to try (because how could I assess effectiveness without trying). Within hours, I was miserable. The sound was too harsh (I'd had HAs before, so I was pretty sure this was not just an adjustment issue); a series of 4 or 5 adjustments over a period of 5-6 weeks yielded no better success. Each time, I reported that the experience was like an assault on my system and I could not function in meetings or other typical settings any more. Finally, I begged to return to my original HA company, and when fitted with a new pair of those, got my hearing and sanity back. When I asked the audiologist why she had taken me so far down the road with the other company, she said she liked their sales rep and service better. Honest.
3. Training - Hearing professionals who sell HAs basically get their training from the HA companies. This is a travesty, as it is a total conflict of interest to only have the HA seller's education and not a professional course of how to work with hearing impaired adults to ensure the best product and service.

In the okay bucket:
1. Lately, the audiologist I have seen has treated me like a fully functioning human being. I guess that's something!

You probably wonder why I don't change clinics. I wonder that myself. I think I don't expect to get any better service anywhere else, tho that's probably flawed thinking. It's also that changing partners in mid-stream means learning to swim in tandem again, and I'm not sure I have the energy to do that. My current HAs need adjusting (I can tell my hearing loss is slowly worsening). I plan to go to the local (NW Washington, DC) HLAA meeting in a couple weeks to gear up for the next round. Perhaps I'll find more information there that could make this journey smoother.