I had the most uncomfortable, terrible, and discriminatory experience at Connect Hearing in Midland. I left their office completely shocked at the way I was treated. As someone that has lived with hearing loss for 19 years, I have never experienced something like this.
My right hearing aid stopped working and after attempting to troubleshoot them myself (replacing batteries, wax shields, deep-cleaning, etc.) I called their clinic on my way to work and left a voicemail prior to their business hours. On my voicemail I explained in great detail what may be the issue and what I’ve done to try and fix them myself but to no avail. Additionally, I explained that this is an emergency and that I looked forward to a phone call back to book an appointment.
The voicemail I received back from Kathy was extremely rude and unprofessional. She begins to laugh in her voicemail to me, stating they “cannot expedite an appointment” and that I will have to drop them off to have them looked at.
I arrived at their clinic and upon entering, I see Maggie, the Hearing Specialist, and Kathy standing and talking in the corridor. I say “Hello, how are you?” and Kathy and I exchanged pleasantries. I put my hearing aid case on the counter and say that I would like to drop these off for a repair, in which she replies in a pleasant tone “okay” and once I mentioned my name and that we’ve played “phone tag”, abruptly and noticeably, Kathy’s demeanour change. I tell her that I don’t know what’s wrong with the hearing aid, I’ve tried to troubleshoot at home but I’d like to leave it with them. She says, “well what’s wrong with them?”, I replied “I don’t know, that’s why I’m here.” Kathy replies with a sharp tone, “we can’t help you if we don’t know what wrong with them.” I look at Kathy with a shocked facial expression, and she intentionally and shamelessly mocked me. I ask her, “is this how you treat all your clients?” Kathy says, “we have many customers that don’t have an issue with the way we treat for them.” At this point, I notice Maggie whom I’ve only dealt with at their clinic, disappeared into her office with no effort to try and deescalate the situation.
I closed my hearing aid case and said “Forget it. I’ll take my business elsewhere.” Kathy had just enough indecency and sarcasm to say with a large smile on her face “Have a nice day, Carla” as I closed the door behind me.
To say that I felt so uncomfortable and discriminated by this clinic is an understatement.