Wanted to provide everyone an update to this post I made in Nov 2023 as it received a lot of traction (top post in last year on this forum, 8.2k+ views, 740+ likes, etc.) Upfront, I wanted to THANK EVERYONE for being so active with my previous post. – I really do think it made a difference.
After flagging on Twitter, I was contacted by a senior US Phonak representative (Head of their department). I appreciated the discussion, and everything was fair and candid. On this call I confirmed:
The post has been forwarded and discussed internally including with product leaders at Sonova (Phonak’s parent company) in Switzerland
The feedback has been taken under review for long term product updates but in the short term, their release schedule remains unchanged. This makes sense to me as the short term product roadmap is locked in. In my mind, if this were Apple instead, we’re not impacting this year’s iPhone 16 release model but potentially those in the future as more flexibility is introduced into the product roadmap and development
Overall, I call this a win.
I’ve expressed my willingness to be contacted by anyone in the organization and provide product feedback as needed based on my personal experience.
Will continue to advocate as best I can and appreciate everyone’s support!
I congratulate Phonak on actually listening to our voices as people who use AND need their products, many businesses just consider us to be customers/people who give them money and not take into account how their products impact our lives.
Thank you for your persistence in this matter. I have sadly returned my Lumity HA and purchased the Oticon Real with disposable batteries. I like them but would have preferred the Phonak because that is what I am used to and the app is much better. At least there is hope for the future improvement in battery longevity in the future.
@Conndor I guess @Michael_Phonak and his corporate team were reading the forum, so now we know that HA manufacturer are lurking around, hopefuly they will take our concern into account when designing new products.
Kudos to everyone who took part in that thread and all the HA manufacturer reading and acting upon users feedbacks
IMO all the hearing aid manufacturers have people in these forums reading but not participating.
My guess is they don’t participate as a) they don’t have corporate approval, b) don’t want become the ‘ticket help’ person for any queries and c) their system isn’t set up to manage and respond to all the queries, complaints, etc.
@Conndor Valid points, but people do do AMA, and this guy works for Costco, yet he does videos about HA and respond to his viewer:
I think it all to do with persnality, some take it as 9 to 5 job and basta, some don’t give a rat a**, but there are a tiny fraction that wants to help his fellow human being, and those are few and far between and they don’t think that it’s all about:
Agree. I would also add that some forum members direct unpleasant comments to the manufacturers when they actually do post comments here. Hence the reluctance to engage in a public discussion.
to everyone who took part in that thread and all the HA manufacturer reading and acting upon users feedbacks
