If you need replacement sensors, here’s a good trick…WAIT until you have 2 fail. Then call. The last guy I did that with gave me a box of 3 that had no backorder while the singles were on back order for 2-4 WEEKS! Didn’t even have to ask.
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I had my Dexcom for 2 months and 5 days !
January 21st 2018 I was in contact with Dexcom to get the G5 everything was getting started 2 weeks later I called Dexcom They said the chart notes from the were incorrect I called the Dr and was told the chart notes were correct and call after call to Dexcom this went on until July 24th I was told that they had the correct chart notes and I received the G5 July 27th and August 29 5 sensors were shipped to me without a problem. September 24th I received a email to verify my info and I did later that day I got a a email that the order was processing and shipping date was September 24th . Tuesday October 2nd I logged into my Dexcom Account the status on the order was unchanged I called Dexcom I was told the chart notes were expired and the chart they received from my PCP were incorrect and they also received the chart notes from my Endo and they were incorrect according to Dexcom I asked Dexcom why was the chart notes were expired from July 24th to September 24th Dexcom advised me that the chart notes were from March 3rd I asked Dexcom why was the G5 not shipped on March 3rd instead of July 24th Dexcom could not answer the question because they did not know. I told Dexcom to cancel the order and close out my account because I’m not going to wait 6 months or longer to get the sensors. I called Medtronic Thursday about the Minimed 630g Insulin Pump I will get a call from the Medtronic rep Monday.
Had a bad G5 sensor yesterday (Friday). Second one in a year (that’s a good thing). Time on hold was a decent 5-6 minutes around 4PM. I was prepared for a 1/2 hour wait. 
Unexpectedly I received a call from my insurance’s DME claims processor asking if I had received my order. Order for what I ask? They tell me they sent the authorization to US Med for the Dexcom 5 CGM.
Called US Med this morning, got punted around a bit, and was told they received the authorization and all they needed was the doctor’s order form! I convinced them to send it directly to me because I have an appointment on Monday and will have her fill it out.
For those of you following…I started this with Dexcom directly in July.
Fingers crossed!
The most common problem I’ve had with tech support personnel located overseas, is that in the overwhelming majority of interactions I’ve had with companies such as HP that use overseas call centers is this: THEY ALL USE SCRIPTS to try to troubleshoot. It is so aggravating that they can’t think for themselves how to resolve a technical problem. Pretty much everything that I ever called about was either solved by myself at some later date, without their help, or the problem never got fixed, but the call center techs didn’t fix my problem. That has happened to me countless times. I don’t blame those people--I blame the company that fails to hire folks with good troubleshooting skills, AND fails to properly train them. You can’t take someone off the street in any city, and MAKE them a good troubleshooter. Some people have an innate ability to cut right to the heart of the problem, excluding extraneous ideas and following a logical path to make an accurate diagnosis of the problem. It’s no different than expecting someone to paint like Picasso when they aren’t even able to draw a decent outline of an apple. It’s pretty apparent to me that outsourcing leads to poor management of it’s labor force. So I don’t cringe when I get someone with a heavy foreign accent because I don’t like foreigners–it’s because I seldom get good results when I’ve dealt with them for troubleshooting, due to the aforementioned issues.
I called tech support at 6:33PM Pacific Time today (Feb 28). After I punched in the options to reach tech support it took me less than 30 seconds to get a tech on the line. Just an FYI. It’s not as bad as some of you would like the world to believe. Sure, sometimes their lines are busy as h*ll, but they are open 24 hours a day.
In almost 10 years of dealing with Dexcom I have rarely waited on hold more than a few minutes for tech support. Sales/reorders is a totally different dept, & a vastly different experience.
Transmitter failed on G5 today after less than 2 months. Called Dexcom tech support March 1, 2019 at 8:52AM Eastern Time and got very friendly tech support within 5 minutes. This also happens to be my monthly reorder date and online reorder said issue with transmitter call Dexcom. Tech support transferred me to Customer service after placing order for new transmitter and sensor and had 22 minute wait but all was taken care of and they are shipping out my new order warning me that the order shipping department is behind in shipping 5-7 days. Customer Service was great and shorter than usual wait time. Total time on phone for combined Tech Support + Customer support was 37 minutes. I asked them about timing on G6 Medicare upgrade and they said that they currently have no date and that management is no longer telling them to quote April 2019 as delivery time-frame.
Good. I don’t want to “upgrade” any sooner than I have to. I’m sure not everyone shares my viewpoint on that, which is fine.
I read a comment on a Facebook group this morning that claims Dexcom will push back the Medicare G6 rollout to the fourth quarter of this year. There was a cascade of disappointment posted in response to this initial comment.
If Dexcom did not have such a great product, I think the poor treatment of their customers together with poor and untimely communication would have exacted more damage to the brand. I’m looking for Dexcom to pull put of this tailspin and emerge as an even stronger company. At least that’s my hope!
I had hoped to transition from my G4 directly to the G6 following the original timeline of an April 2019 Medicare G6 introduction. I’m thinking I will now transition to the G5 first and wait there until Dexcom gets its house in order.
Just curious. Why switch from G4 at all if that is working good for you?
I fully expect Abbott to take advantage of everything going on.
IMHO it would be foolish to expect otherwise.
I switched insurance coverage January 1, 2019 and no longer have coverage for the G4. I have plenty of G4 sensors but I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel for G4 transmitters. Medicare will pay for the G5, not the G4.
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This would be much better for Abbott if they had a directly comparable product. Unless you pair the Freestyle flash glucose monitor with the BluCon or Miaomiao add-ons, you lose the notifications that a continuous glucose monitor provides and a flash glucose monitor does not.
It will interesting to see in Abbott can turn Dexcom’s self-inflicted bloody nose into a real world sales increase.
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Is there something official to back up the FB comments?
Let me ask all of you on this forum: do you seriously think that type 1 diabetics are going to avoid Dexcom products because of 5-7 day backlogs of product, or the accents of Dexcom personnel? Do you seriously think that those diabetics who want a better life, less stress, protection from dangerous lows, would entertain the thought of boycotting Dexcom, or turning to far less useful products.
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I haven’t seen or heard any official info from Dexcom. I am aware, however, that Dexcom originally delayed bringing the G6 to the Medicare population due its concern about building up stock to support introducing this large cohort into its system. I think their experience with having to warranty replace so many G6 sensors eroded their stock to the point that it’s likely unwise to keep to its original April 2019 plan.
Yes, this is speculation on my part but it’s also premised on some real world observations. I listened to two podcasts yesterday with Dexcom’s chief technology officer, Jake Leach. Neither Stacey Simms, nor Scott Benner asked about a delay to Medicare G6. They were otherwise interesting and timely interviews regarding the update to the G6 mobile app. This update includes the function of using Apple’s Siri to verbally inquire and receive info about current blood sugar and trend.
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Yeah, I see a lot of people on FB talking about getting warranty replacements for the G6sensors. OTOH, the “other side” will post how well the G6 works for them. Given my terrible experience with Enlites, I don’t want to go back to that sad state of affairs with a CGM. Like they say, a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush. I’m happy with the G5.
Everybody? Of course not.
Some? Definitely.
If Abbott takes advantage of the situation then it helps to show Dexcom that actions have consequences.
When one is the leader, one can not rest.
Continuous improvement or there will be somebody behind who is looking to topple the leader.
Healthy competition is good for everybody.
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But a non-CGM really isn’t competition for Dexcom. Only someone who doesn’t need the safety of alarms or 5-minute-interval readings would opt for the Libre. Granted, pairing the Libre with the Blucon improves things, but I’ve no idea of the adoption rate of Blucon amongst Libre users.
It remains my opinion that all the hand-wringing over Dexcom’s issues has been blown out of proportion. And they ARE profitable. I’d be very worried if I had the notion that Dexcom might soon go out of business. That news would freak me out as my G5 has VASTLY improved my quality of life.