Mohammed had the time, patience and skill to inform himself of my hearing needs based on both discussion and practical hearing tests, all recorded by him with amazing keyboard speed and dexterity.
The net result after two visits is a Phonak aid that is said to meet my specific and identified needs, with the addition of a microphone to aid, among other things, essential communication between driver and navigator during our long European motorhome journeys sitting behind a noisy diesel engine.
However, there is a problem which is not of Mohammed’s making: there is no link between the Boots six-part hierarchy of hearing needs (see photograph) and the bewildering number of possible hearing aids. Boots give the customer needs a ranking as if they were Olympic Medals: Essential, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Platinum+, with a progressive increase in minimum cost. The hearing aids from just one maker, Phonak, have names like Infinio, Ultra, Sphere, Lumity, Audeo, Virto and Titanium, and levels of sophistication ii90, i70, i50 and i30. But how do Boots medals and Phonak models match? This is not helped by many Phonak models that were developed in 2024 being superseded by new ones by the end of 2025 (see photograph). Surely the Boots names should be linked to the latest Phonak names! I’m still not sure exactly which model I got, except that the receipt gives it as a Phonak Audeo i70.
The booklet provided with the hearing aid is written in only the most general terms. For example, it says the ‘professional’ should be asked to provide an individual printout of ‘Hearing aid instructions’ for the use of the two buttons on the hearing aid (see photograph). I haven’t received my copy yet.
Mohammed himself well deserves five stars, but the overall service is let down by the lack of attention to detail shown by Boots itself.