On order

So that's it. All the research and legwork done and paperwork secured and financing arranged and it's ordered from Global Hearing Aid Clinic as of 4:30 pm today.

A bit of a shock when I called up: the person I had initially spoken to had transposed two numbers in the price. The kit isn't $6850. It's $8650. I know that for once the error was hers, not mine: "six thousand" sounds NOTHING like "eight thousand", and there's no way I could've gotten that wrong, even on the phone, because Global's customer service reps speak slowly and clearly and are a joy to call. Except when they mix up the first two numbers of an amount one might expect to pay for a used car.

This experience has also taught me that we have to up the insurance coverage we have on the thing for loss or damage. We only insured it for the cost of the processor. Now I realize that a replacement of the processor will usually mean a replacement of the whole kit.

However, there's a $1500 rebate for turning my old one in for refurbishment that I didn't know about, so that absorbed most of that blow. Apparently the damage won't be a problem. That's how they get turned in.

I checked the exchange rate; with the Canadian dollar above par I could've saved about $200 by ordering direct from Advanced Bionics, in the States. But I've ordered from Global before; I like them and I trust them. And I can talk to their customer service people, obviously trained to work with hard-of-hearing people. They're a smaller company, and in-country, as opposed to AB which seems like a faceless US conglomerate with many thousands of customers. I even know the street they're on. I just feel better about dealing with them if there's a problem.

Next step: scheduling a trip to Nova Scotia Hearing and Speech Centre, where it's being sent directly, for programming!

ronnie