Yeah, I was smelling smoke during my latest experiences with Dexcom on the G6 reorder. Specifically:
Called 3/8 and was told that I was two days early to re-order. I wasn’t, but fine, OK, I’ll call back.
Called 3/13 and was told I’d receive an email once the order shipped.
Called 3/18, as had not received an email was now told that there would be 5-business-day delay to verify insurance, at which point I would receive an email. I wondered why they didn’t mention insurance on 3/13. But okay.
Called 3/25 as I had not received an email and was told that there was no record of my 3/18 call. They had classified my 3/13 as an inquiry not an order. Make no mistake, 3/13 was an order. So, officially 3/25 would be my order date. In addition, I was now told there would be a 6 (no longer 5) business-day delay to verify insurance.
3/26, received email which at least gave me an order number. However there would now be a 10-14 business-day delay to verify my insurance before they would ship.
I’m out of sensors, so now I’ll have to call them again. This stinks to high hell. They have wildly over-extended themselves and have a product (G6) that seems to have a spotty performance record.
I never wanted to switch off the G5. THEY did that. Thanks guys!
It would be one thing if this were simply an inventory problem (bad enough, showing poor business practices). But they are also having failure issues which further blow through supply. And now they’re playing games with their customers.
Disappointing.
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Not so sure I’d call having a tremendous demand for their product as an over-extension.
Granted, there appears to be a lot of issues with the G6–many more so than with the G5.
Why not use a Smart Phone as the receiver? One reason I consider upgrading from G4 is only need to carry 1 device around. Otherwise, it appears that Amazon & eBay have G5 receivers at around $100.
Mixed reviews on G6: Might wait until the various problems are resolved before I go to G6 although with sensors reportedly failing 50% (or so) before day 10 would result in purchase of 2 boxes and getting another box as free replacements.
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Well, I’m a little salty about this, so I’m being a bit hyperbolic.
But this feels like a product (the G6) that was released based on a pre-determined schedule rather than product readiness. Because of this, supply problems have ensued. These things happen, fair enough.
What is frustrating though is Dexcom’s inability to acknowledge their supply problems resulting their straight out repeatedly lying to me. And being locked in via insurance to this brand of CGM does not allow me to explore other options. Dexcom is not facing the penalty of customer loss for poor product & service.
I know, welcome to healthcare in America, where the best tenets of capitalism come to die.
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??? I just use GriffGrips, nothing special, easy to order on Amazon.
Can you get the sensors from a pharmacy? That’s how I do it and they’re spot on every time.
So can Dexcom ones, but it all depends on insurance. I get mine (G6) from Walgreens, and have had zero problems with supply or quality, but it seems a lot of people have to get them from Dexcom direct, and Dexcom customer (as opposed to tech) support seems to be where the problems are.
That’s interesting – that you can get your Dexcom sensors from Walgreens. I had to get them from Dexcom direct – maybe because I’m a Medicare beneficiary, and Medicare specified the source from which I had to reorder supplies. I’m glad, of course, that you’ve been able to get your reorders filled without problems. Dealing direct with Dexcom was a nightmare for me, as it has been for others in this Forum, right from the start.
Dexcom has plenty of liars in it. I received an email Monday telling me that after over two months, my G6 order had finally been released and to expect a FedEx number. Here we are, 48 hours later, and I still have nothing. FedEx has nothing in its records, either.
This company has no shame. Next time, I’m going Libre.
Yes, the bitterest complaints seem to be from Medicare recipients, who are just stuck with ordering from Dexcom. I also haven’t had any of the quality issues people have been reporting. I only upgraded about six weeks ago, but so far all my sensors have been fine, barring one “sensor error” that bumped me out of the datastream, warning me it could take as long as three hours to evaluate, but it cleared in less than an hour and I’m still using that sensor. I’ve also successfully done the rollover thing, getting a full 20 days out of my previous sensor with no detectable degradation in accuracy. And as for accuracy the G6 has been dramatically superior to the G5 for me. I regularly bolus from it, while I always felt the need to double-check the G5 with a fingerstick, notwithstanding that sticker about the FDA saying it was ok for bolusing. The other thing I hadn’t expected is that I’ve had virtually zero Bt dropouts with the G6, whereas with the G5 at least a few times a week I’d have to resort to “forgetting” and re-pairing, restarting my phone, yelling imprecations, offering bribes, animal sacrifices by the light of the moon, and the like. Really hated that.
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Yep, certainly have noticed it. When I call tech support it is because I have an issue/question ‘now’, not something for sometime in the future. Often it is late at night when I call tech. In the past was never an issue, never had to wait much. These days, I leave my message, wait a couple of hours until past midnight, then give up and go to bed. One time the call back wasn’t until sometime the next day. Not acceptable!
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You may want to post this information to Dexcom’s Facebook page. Dexcom management seems to pay attention to the Facebook page. They need to understand what is happening.
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Seriously? You don’t think Dexcom management is aware of issue with supply/demand and complaints?
The point of posting this stuff on the company FB page is to put it out there in a public forum that they can’t so easily ignore. I’ve done this with MedT when a problem came up and they suddenly became very responsive in fixing it. Of course Dexcom isn’t going to suddenly hire back all their CS staff and can the Philippines operation because of a single FB post, but it is a way of making them feel the heat–their marketing staff pay a lot of attention to what goes up there.
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Hi Les4: Unfortunately, I can’t go online and reorder. I have Cigna insurance, which now requires ordering on a monthly basis. For reasons I do not understand, Dexcom has informed me that they cannot handle online orders for us Cigna folks.
@DrBB a quick read through their Facebook page indicates they’re replying directly to complaints, & getting things sorted for those who respond via the social media email. The (public) squeaky wheel…
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“an overpatch (only available from Dexcom tech support and more hold time),” (sorry for the awkward quote-job)
Go online and search for the website of a company called Grifgrips. They make over-patches for almost everything, including Dexcom sensors, though the last time that I got some over-patches they were more the G5 shape. Since they are made of flexible fabric, you can stretch where necessary. Grifgrips are oriented to children (over-patches in all kinds of fun shapes and colors), though you can get simple ovals in boring colors, if you really want.
I’ll definitely check this Grifgrip company out. On the other hand, if I might be permitted to whine, with all the other costs of managing diabetes, it really irks me that this is just one more thing that Dexcom knows is an issue. Their financial projections for the full year 2018 was revenue of approximately $975 million, versus the prior forecast of $925 million and a gross profit margin of approximately 64%. Seriously. They can’t just include some overpatches and save us a few minutes of our time on hold? Do I really have to spend another ~ $1 per patch to avoid Dexcom hold music? Diabetes. The gift that keeps on taking .
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Aetna too.