I just hit my last box of pods. So I called to ask for them to send me some more. Well, I'm on the auto ship program (yay for me). Great can I get my pods now, please? No. You have to wait until the 25th SO CALL BACK THEN AND WE'LL BE ABLE TO PLACE YOUR ORDER.
Call next week? You can't flag me in your system -- because you asked my name and had all my information in front of you -- to put me in a qeue or something?
I'm pretty irked because the reason I'm calling for a refill now is because I've had a large number of pods go bad for one reason or another after their "24 hour or more" rule of thumb. The chick on the phone was absolutely silent when I said, "you're going to make me call back in a week?" Apparently, the answer is "yes" though she didn't have the guts to actually say the words. I did tell her that I thought this procedure kind of sucked.
Hmmmm. I wonder how the Jewel Pump is coming along. Seems Insulet needs a bit of competition to keep them honest. It's nice that they give a diabetic something else to have to carry around on our appointment schedule and something else to worry about.
Iāll have mine with double turkeyā¦sproutsā¦and cucumber Seriously thoughā¦I keep telling them that Iāll call when Iām ready for a shipmentā¦they keep sending them out when THEY please!
I appreciate the support. It irritated me immensly and the feeling I got from them was āso, what?ā and it made me want the Jewel Pump that much more.
The PDM goes through batteries at a fantastically fast rate. I was told Iād get 3 weeks. That was a big lie. Replacing the batteries, paying the shipping so they can recycle the pods, and not replacing pods that go bad after more than 24 hours of wear are pretty good profit centers for them. I just donāt know how else I can thank them for making my life with diabetes that much easier. This of course puts the big lie to the āmaking diabetes a smaller part of your lifeā ā altruism and customer service are dead.
I agree with Spooky. I also asked for a supervisor and the customer service rep connected me with a lady by the name of Janet Tedeschi, who I think is in Product Support. She was very helpful.
No. Way.
I literally had the EXACT SAME CONVERSATION! And today too!
Sigh.
Iām like (In my headā¦)
"HEY! Mr! Iām going to have to start taking LANTUS but the time you deliver these pods! You wouldnāt want me to enjoy my forced Pod Vacation too much now would you? Maybe if I get my Pods when I NEED them I wonāt have to enjoy my time without them! What if I donāt feel like putting on another Podā¦ especially since Iāve been having occlusion after occlusion after PDM Reset after āIām sorry, we canāt deliver all of your bolusā after āoh, hey, sorry I tricked you into thinking I might actually stick to your body for more than 20 hours as a time, Iāll be going nowā¦ā
Sorry.
Needed to vent. Iām starting to think every little noise is my OmniPod alarm screeching awayā¦
Sigh.
Hereās what Iāve learned from the OmniPoder gang- they spend more time VERIFYING WHO I AM (name, address, etcā¦ and you are???) than they do talking to ME. I reported bleeding when I started out, because I āwasā and I ādidā and I got the old āweāve never heard this happening to anyone EVERā. Well, just letting you guyzzz know because in case bleeding does happen with someone. Anyway, Iāve definitely felt like a number, a person that bought this thing, Iām on my own, blah, blah, blah. BUT- I will survive this and ROCK THIS POD, thanks to everyone at TuDiabetes.
You are all making me laugh! I had a pod fall off this morning after a shower, and when I went to replace it, the next one failed during the priming stage! All this at 6 am when I was trying to get ready for workā¦ Needless to say I was flustered and irritated. Then when I came home from work, I heard a beeping noise, which turned out to be the pod that fell off me this morning. I had no idea how to shut the thing off, since it was no longer in communication with the PDM. I have also been struggling to get these pods to stick for a full three days. I seems like when I started them in April, I had to pry them off after 3 days, taking skin with it. I donāt know whatās going on now. I also had to deal with customer service today, but luckily the issue was easy to resolve
It took Insulet almost a month after I got my initial set of pods to get started from Edge Park, to actually get my PDM to me! I was not happy with them. They, too, made me call back in order to process my shipping charge for the day it would go out. And it was still not here on time.
Aside from that, I am loving the OmniPod. Edge Park has so far been very good to work with for supply ordering.
Iām about to publish anti-OmniPod ads. I had to change the pod tonight. So I get started. I filled the new pump and it did itās priming thing. THEN it started screeching. I used language that isnāt fit for civilized company. Then I decided that I had had enough. I called Product Support. I told her that after the maddening experience I had had with customer service today, I wasnāt going to let anything go from now on. I told her about the failure at priming. Then I told her really fragile these things were. Just barely knicking the pump on a corner or a doorway will make it screech. Iāve gone through at least 5 pods with this. One time I just tapped in on the top when someone asked me where it was.
She said, āeven if we donāt replace them, you should call and let us know.ā I told her that why should I bother calling them it it was not a productive call for me? I went and read her the lot numbers and the pod numbers for the ones that had failed within their āno more than 24 hourā policy. She asked how many pods I had left (7). She said, āOkay, Iāll get these replacements out to you tomorrow, you should have them in 3-5 days.ā Then she has the unmitigated gall to say, āIāll replace all five of these THIS TIME, I really should only replace the 3 youāve given me.ā Like sheās doing me a huge favor. I told her that itās the least she could do since the OmniPod has such a high failure rate.
Thanks, hon. I certainly enjoy having my insurance company line your pockets. They LOVED my insurance because the contracted rate was so good. All I can say is 'youāre bloody welcome, now sod off."
Just to provide another perspective: Iāve called customer support dozens of times over the past 2.5 years and have NEVER had a rude or frustrating experience. Quite the contrary, as the representatives are usually very courteous even when the news is not good.
If you get a bad rep, hang up and call back, or ask to be transferred to another rep or a supervisor. For example, just last month I called to request a replacement PDM because mine had gotten damaged and the screen was dead.The rep was very polite in explaining that, according to their policy, the damage/failure wasnāt covered. She was very nice but explained that her hands were tied. I asked for a supervisor or manager, and she explained that she would flag the case for review and someone would get back to me. Well, a CS manager DID call me back less than 24 hours later; upon review, he agreed to replace my PDM at no cost. They didnāt HAVE to do that, but they did. Thatās what Iād call EXCELLENT customer service!
If youāre not getting significantly less than 3 weeks out of your batteries, report that to them and request a replacement PDM (read the recent discussion here about batteries, too - it might be the Duracell problem mentioned there).
As for profit, do you really think that Insulet should just replace everyoneās pod that gets an occlusion after a day or more of usage? Do you think thatās a sustainable business model for them? Do you think they are even a profitable company? If so then you should check out their quarterly financial statements (theyāre a public company so they have to make their financials public). Insulet, although improving revenue every quarter, is still not profitable; and Iām sure theyāve still not overcome the initial R&D investment (10s of millions of dollars) that made this technology possible in the first place.
Hey, I wasnāt crazy about the recycling fee either, but itās something I choose to do and honestly the $8, three or four times a year, is neither making them any money nor something I miss in the least. Hell, most of us probably spend more than that a week at Starbucks or some other indulgence; I know I do.
Oh, and if youāre insurance plan has a health spending account option, you can apply the cost of batteries, alcohol swabs, etc. to that. Combined with co-pay and deductibles and over-the-counter meds, that stuff adds up.
Thanks, Eric. I just started the OmniPod about 3 weeks ago, after having been on MiniMed for 12 years. As I mentioned before the only frustrating thing Iāve run into so far is the initial shipping of my PDM from Insulet. Iām not entirely sure the rep knew what he was doing. I havenāt had any trouble with my pods or PDM so far and havenāt had a low battery warning yet, so hopefully I will have good luck with them like you have. Edge Park actually called me about reordering because they were concerned that I hadnāt placed another order yet. Is that where you get your pods too?
Thanks for the lecture. Much of your response to me was unnecessary. I found it somewhat offensive.
With the failure rate that Iāve had YES I expect them to replace them all. Your O2 tank doesnāt work, youāre going to take it back and get it replaced. From the chatter in the halls here, thereās an excessive failure rate on both PDMs and the pods themselves.
I do use my FSA for these kinds of things. With the crappy health insurance reform that we ended up with, they are going to cap the amount we can put in our FSAs at something like $2300 in 2014. I go through my whole $5,000 by October. I am not new to all of this. I do what I can to minimize my out of pocket expense. If Iām paying for DME, I expect it to be durable. I donāt use Duracell. Energizer. Keep 'em chilled too.
I signed up for the recycling program when I started this whole thing. I felt good and righteous about paying the $8 postage because at the time they were liberal in their replacement policy. I also get the business model and the profitability issue. Amazon just started making money. Iām sure that part of their business plan is to approach Medicare and get approved for that coverage. It would be foolish to think that they werenāt seeking every revenue stream they can. If the market feels that they are providing a valuable service, the customers are happy, and the customer base is steadily expanding, they will find shareholders and their stock will go up and they will have more capital. Iām well aware of what is required of a public company. If they maintain a good product, they will have thousands of loyal customers. Iām on the bus, but I have a right to criticize. I like the pod and Iāve been very lucky with my PDM. I had to return the first one because of faulty manufacture. But I plan on doing this for a long time and they are going to make a great deal of money off me. I wouldnāt have had to call to reorder if I didnāt have an excessive failure rate. Then they put the onus for my order back on me because itās not convenient for them to deal with the insurance company. How about trying, āIām sorry, it appears that we are unable to bill this through your insurance company until the 25th. What I will do is flag your account and we can put the order through for you then.ā I work in a high-end service field. Making me call back in a week strikes me as just lazy.
My overall experience with the OmniPod has been outstanding. The representatives have all been extremely curteous. The only issue that Iāve had was shipping out pods early. Because of a scheduing issue with my endo, I had my first shipment more than a month before I actually began my first podding experience. Therefore, Iāve always had more than a little overlap in my supply of pods. But, hey, I guess itās better to have too many than too few, huh?
I am constitutionally unable to give a false deadline ā I work for lawyers and it really peeves me when I find out that the rush was an arbitrary deadline. I figure it must be my karmic wheel coming around and FedEx 2-day isnāt so bad. When they replaced my PDM they actually had the replacement delivered on a Saturday. I was incredibly impressed by that.
The only problem Iām having is the fact that I moved, so now itās like going through the beginning process againā¦ Hopefully my pods come soon but I have found exercise easier without it on. Why canāt they make it smaller before the other companies come out. Iām open to either, and bonded by my insurance, so whatever gets smaller and covered first Iām on it.
IMO the PDM is a good device and has tons of possibilities but it still has āquirksā in it that need to be worked out. I just received my 5th PDM replacement because the other 4 all had the same problem - which happened to be the battery issue. None of the previous four customer service reps told me about the brand of battery being a problem until this last replacement.
In regard to battery brand - I was hoping to email Duracell customer service and see why their batteries are being made shorter. They donāt make it easy to contact them.
Seriously thoughā¦I keep telling them that Iāll call when Iām ready for a shipmentā¦they keep sending them out when THEY please!