Interesting discussion! I bought my aid a year ago from Costco, because it cost far less. The person who has worked with me is not an audiologist, but appears to have done all of the things that one could want or expect, including activating the telecoil several months later after I acquired a smartphone and, recently, pairing the aid with a microphone designed to work with it. For a while, I was afraid that I was somehow getting less because she is not an audi, but the audiologist I consulted, part of the clinic that does CIs in this part of the country, gave Costco very high marks for the most part. In fact, she was not aware of Live Transcribe, although the Costco person was. Go figure!