Hearing Healthcare Center of Manassas, Inc.

Review: Sent my hearing aid to company for warranty repairs. It was accepted via USPS return receipt on June 24, 2013 by [redacted], the professed office manager. When I called on July 23rd to find out where my hearing aid was, I was told that they had just received it and it would be mailed today. In the past this type of warranty repair has taken from 5 to 7 business days. They have had my aid for 4 weeks. The office manager was extremely belligerent to me during the phone call. He actually stated that the warranty was through Hearing Healthcare and it was their policy to try and fix them in house before sending them out. When I questioned this and asked if they paid for the repairs when the aid had to go for factory repairs, even though I had what had always been described to me as a factory warranty, I got a long pause in the conversation. I proceeded to tell him that since the old receptionist had left, their service had gone to hell in hand basket. I asked repeatedly to speak to [redacted] who is the audiologist and Owner of the business several times and I was told by [redacted] that he was the office manager and any problems would be handled by him and I could not speak to [redacted] and he would not forward a message for a return phone call to me. This is not right to keep a persons aid this long. It's not right to disallow a repeat customer the right to speak to a "higher up" person when the "customer service person" decides they don't like you. To top it off, I feel I need to have an apology for the office manager's refusal to move this up the ladder and for his really belligerent attitude towards me. Even my wife came in and said "what a jerk, what's his problem". I was told a second time that the aid would be mailed today along with a list of audiologists in my area and that I was no longer welcome at Hearing Healthcare and they would no longer do any business with me. I also still want to talk to my audiologist and Owner of the business, [redacted].Desired Settlement: A phone call from the Owner and an apology in writing from the "office manager"

Business

Response:

**. [redacted] contacted me in mid-June because he was having trouble with one of his hearing aids that he purchased through us. **. [redacted] had recently moved out of state to Tennessee and he wanted to know what he could do about it. I informed him that he two options, we could find him an audiologist local to him that was contracted with the manufacturer of his hearing aids to perform the repair or he could send it to us and we could have our in house technician take a look at it, if he could not repair the hearing aid we would send the hearing aid back to the manufacturer for repair. We are not set-up to take in repairs by mail and don’t normally do that. I explained to **. [redacted] that we don’t usually do that, but we would do it for him as a favor because he was a long term patient that we had seen many times. We received the hearing aid in late June. If an appointment is not made to have the hearing aid serviced, then the hearing aids go into our “drop off” queue. There were at least ten hearing aids that had been dropped off before **. [redacted]’s hearing aid arrived at our facility. When our technician attempted to repair the hearing aid, he found that it needed to be sent back to the manufacturer for repair. We sent the hearing aid out to the manufacturer via FedEx Overnight Express within 5 business days of receiving the hearing aid from **. [redacted]. The turn-around time for hearing aids sent back the manufacturer have a turn-around time of at least 10 business days and can be as long as 15 business days depending on how long the backlog is at the manufacturer. We received the hearing aid back from the manufacturer on July 22nd. **. [redacted] contacted us for the first time since sending the hearing aid to us on July 23rd. **. [redacted] was irate and screaming into the telephone as soon as I answered the telephone. I continuously tried to explain to **. [redacted] that we had just received his hearing aid back from the manufacturer and that it was waiting to be picked up by FedEx for delivery to him. He continued to scream into the telephone and yell over me every time that I tried to explain the time line for his repair. He was screaming so loudly into the phone that I had to transfer his call to another phone as the patients in the waiting room could hear him yelling through the receiver of the phone. **. [redacted] continued to scream at me and started to call me names such as “a fool.” He demanded to speak to the owner of the company. I informed him that she was with a patient and that I was the Office Manager. At this point he started to scream into the phone, “I want to speak to my audiologist!” into the phone over and over again. **. [redacted] has a long history of being abusive towards the staff at our office, including repeated occurrences of calling up our previous office manager and screaming at her. He has admitted in the past that he has trouble controlling his temper. I told **. [redacted] that because of his long history of verbally abusive behavior towards the staff and his behavior on the phone that day that we would no longer be able to take him as a patient. I also told him that we would send his hearing aid back to him via FedEx Express at no charge and we would include a list of audiologists in his area that could service his hearing aid and take care of any audiological needs that he may have, which I did that same day. **. [redacted] has been a patient at our office for 9 years and is well aware that we always attempt to fix any hearing aid problems in house before we send them to the manufacturer for repair. We are one of the few audiological practices that have an in-house technician and **. [redacted] always seemed to have been very happy with the level of service that our technician provides and had a good relationship with him in the past. We use an in-house technician, at great cost to ourselves, to make sure that our patient’s hearing aids are serviced as quickly as possible, not to generate any profit from repairs. [redacted] Office ManagerThe Hearing Health Care Center of Manassas

Consumer

Response:

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because:

The fabrications that this office manager put into his response amaze me. I reject this response on the grounds that, besides the blatant stupidity of the office manager, I still haven't heard from my audiologist who just happens to be the business Owner. I can't believe she has built a "firewall" between herself and her clients. Consider this case unresolved. Thank you, [redacted]

Regards,