Minimed ordering woes

Gah, I feel as though it's something different every time.

I placed an order for 2 boxes of infusion sets and a box of 10 CGM sensors about 6 weeks ago now.
The infusion sets arrived in two weeks, and I presumed the sensors would arrive shortly afterwards as I often have to wait a really long time for things to arrive.
The previous order, for example, took over 6 weeks for infusion sets.

I'm now at 6 weeks, so I decide to check on the status online only to find that they claim both items were delivered together on that same UPS tracking number.

Urgh. Is it just me being unlucky or are they really this awful?

The previous order I mentioned took me contacting my rep to get him to shove it along. I don't really understand how something they need to do, day in and day out is so variable?

I'm waiting for their help number to come online so I can call, but thought I'd make myself feel better on here with a mini rant first. :)

I've been slightly on the fence with Medtronic, and...Well, we'll see how they cope with this one. It's looking like it may be an our word against yours kind of situation, and it won't take very much now to have me jump ship.

Rob.

[Urgh. Is it just me being unlucky or are they really this awful?]

Your unlucky...;-)

I have never had a problem with MM shipping me product and have never had more than a three or four day wait for supply's. You could have some insurance issue that stalls the order process (needing per-approval for each order) or a doctor who is slow responding when they need a new Rx or letter of medical necessity.

Note: I always order by phone and make sure they have everything needed, doctor, insurance, shipping address, and the correct part numbers.

Every time?

Just been told that the shipping numbers for each separate shipment had the same tracking number. (basically impossible) and so it didn't ship.

While confused, he said he'd overnight another box.

My faith in them isn't too high. I'm hoping I don't get charged twice.

I have never had trouble with orders with MM. In fact, with the auto order program, my supplies are shipped regularly and I have to do nothing. MM even calls the doc to renew the RX when it expires. Sorry you are having trouble, Rob and I hope it is resolved.

I had problems with a MM shipment once. They claimed it was shipped but I never received it. Eventually, after about two months, I called and a rep told me that, coincidentally, "it just went out today, and you should get the UPS tracking number by tomorrow in your e-mail". I suspect that right after she got off the phone she hustled to get the order filled.

In spite of this, I've had outstanding experiences with MM, both in terms of equipment and support. When you call for something specialized like technical support, you're likely to get someone who understands and is genuinely concerned, but for regular ordering/shipping stuff you might get some schmuck who just punches stuff in a computer and doesn't care about their job. Remember, these are the low-skill, low-pay jobs where employees are pretty much expendable and don't bring individual value. Some of them are motivated to do a great job, but some are not. Honestly, it could happen anywhere.

Interesting.

Scott, did/do you order by an as and when needed basis rather than an automated every month shipped kind of thing?
When the problem arose that is?

I didn't have any issues when I was on uber impressive medical coverage and could allow the boxes to pile up.
Times are a little leaner and I have to make my supplies last these days. It seems that it's when my order is a specific one for exactly what I need and no more that it goes wrong.

I fully understand and commend those who have had no problems with them. I'm not asking you all to rise up and jump ship, I swear.

There just has to be more than bad luck at work here and I wonder if this is the differing factor, because I just don't see how, at the sales end of such a gigantic company, how it can go wrong so often in my case.

Searching on it on the web reveals the same kind of split. Some people who swear they are just absolutely hideously crap, and those who say they haven't so much as had a hiccup from them.

They overnighted me another box of 10 sensors. I received it 6 days ago.

I just received another tracking number from UPS today and they've sent a second with UPS 3 day.

I asked the salesman at the time if this would go through twice and he said no.

I'm so utterly sick of them.

I haven't had a any problems w/ MiniMed either, except at the start of the year, which seems to be associated with my Rxs expiriing. Because, you never know, do you still have diabetes? A question that stupid can only come from an insurance company. BlueCross always tries to blame the doctor's office but I am fairly convinced that BCBS is more likely to cause these sort of delays than Medtronics?

Sorry for the delay, I just saw your reply now. At the time, I was ordering on an as-needed basis. I had just started ordering from them, because the previous years it went through my prescription plan and was shipped by Caremark. Now it's DME under my medical plan. Go figure.

I believe the more automated the process is, the better it goes. I recently had them exchange a few boxes of Silhouettes that I have for Sure-T's. They did it, but sent the one with the really short tubing (I'm 90% sure I told them what I wanted!). When my regularly scheduled auto-refill comes around (also changed from Sil to Sure-T), I'm hoping it will be the longer one. We'll see.

I've never had problems with Medtroic either, they have always been extremely helpful and very prompt in shipping out items. I wish I could continue to use Medtronic for my supplies but my insurance when it changed requires me to use Liberty...they STILL do not have my pump supplies pre-authed with my insurance...all I gotta say is Im not paying that bill, they should have done their jobs and pre-authed it. I do need to get on them and get this settled even though its a PROVIDER issue.

Sorry to hear about the problems but I have (almost) always had excellent service from Medtronic. One order they said they were going to overnight but apparently they had my old endo's name on file (and old script) and didn't ship it. When I called in a week they cleared it up immediately and did ship it overnight. Would have been nice if they'd taken the initiative to fix it on their own and not leave the order on hold but it was pretty easily resolved. If I was out of supplies and waiting for my next order I might not have been so charitable. Otherwise they have been great. I've sent sets back to exchange for other kinds and they've always overnighted the replacements.

Yes, in fairness they're always incredibly nice and are...I'm hesitant to use the word 'generous' given the cost of their supplies, but I will anyway. They're generous in over-nighting things that are under warranty or mistakes that need correcting.

If I'm honest, many of the issues I feel grumpy with them over are true to the entire medical industry and not just Medtronic. The way they release what is nothing more than a firmware update and call it the next pump revision to be bought or upgraded to is disappointing to me.

They just make so many mistakes with my orders :(
I guess I'll update this for the record when the unwanted box of supplies arrives and I have a chance to talk to them.

My experiences with Medtronic have been similar. They have been very good about over nighting me emergency supplies, but I've been waiting about 3 weeks for them to complete an exchange that I made. Generally, service has been more problematic since I lost my insurance. I hate having to complain to CS every few days. It's easy to get paranoid.

I think I just got my latest problem straightened out with them. It helps to call every few days. The CR checked it out, call me back, apologized, and admitted it was their mistake. Hard for me to stay too mad at them.

Are you able to go through a distributor? I've been using Liberty and have not had any significant issues in over a year. The only issue I did have with some insulin getting delivered turned out to be a UPS (not Liberty) issue. So I now get my insulin from my local CVS just to be safe.

I'm not entirely sure what that means?
Do you mean order through my health insurance?

Little update, kind of. I had an endo appointment on Wednesday and, frankly because of my lousy testing data, I mentioned I'd been caught really short, on the verge of expecting my glucose sensors any day that turned into 6 weeks, so I asked if he'd heard anything on problems from Minimed lately.
He said he hadn't and to ask his receptionist as she deals with the ordering and prescriptions, etc.

She said that she hadn't but immediately placed a call through to our local sales rep.
She explained fairly well that I'd had issues 4 months ago ordering a simple supply of infusion sets, and then again on my very next order, but I've yet to hear anything back from him.
The unwanted box of sensors is in my fridge. I think I may wait to see if they charge me for it. I go through them so slowly that when I ordered 2 boxes at once before, they were expired by the time I got to the end of them.

Will update if I hear back from him.

He didn't call me back.