Start Rant!
I knew it would happen eventually, because it happened with my 508. I started to get motor errors and I would have to rewind and re-prime the pump… then when I would prime the pump, as soon as the (can’t think of the correct term for it) piston rod would hit the end of the cartridge, it would keep going… shooting insulin everywhere. I kept rewinding and re-priming, but still same effect.
Then on a rewind, I got this A33 error message and the pump started counting up (from 1 to 6) and the screen rebooted, but now the pump is locked. I tried changing batteries, but after that didn’t work I called Minimed.
After 28 minutes on hold, I got a rep (Ben). Nice guy, tried to have me hit buttons in a certain order, but that didn’t work either. Final solution, a new pump is being overnighted, but since it is a Sunday, it will not ship out until tomorrow. So I am without a pump until Tuesday.
Luckily (I have had this happen before), I know what doses of Humalog to give myself, but it basically means a shot every 2 hours (not including meals).
When my 512 died, I had to ship it to Minimed, and then they shipped me a replacement. So that’s what I thought was going to happen this time… not so. Ben (the rep) said that at the first sign of a motor error, I should have called and they would have put the pump on a watch list. If I got 2 motor errors in one month, they would have shipped the new pump out immediately. Just FYI, I had about 15 motor errors this month alone (and it’s only the 17th).
I’m just trying to let Minimed users know that the company is more proactive than it used to be. Hopefully, someone won’t get into the same situation I put myself in. Call, call, call Minimed if you have any issues with your pump at all… matter of fact, Ben told me that if I had anything unusual happen to an infusion set (bad site, needed to change out too soon; broken tubing; site pulled out; etc) call them and they most likely would send another set out by mail free! This was the first I ever heard of that. I can’t count the number of times I had to change sets before 3 days elapsed, and then had to wear another set for 4 days (or several sets for 4 days) to make up for it.
Maybe I’m in the minority, but when I first started pumping in 1999, most of the companies out there had poor customer service. Minimed was the best of them (then), but they still had some strict policies. It’s nice to know that the times have changed for the better.
Rant over!
-Bill