Eric – I’m completely with you on wanting this company to survive. 100%. God bless Insulet for bringing tubeless pumping to the market.
This is a fight worth picking. I want this company to survive for a long, long time. In terms of long-term survival, Insulet is shooting itself in the feet by failing to meet the customer service standard in the industry. Plenty of other companies seem to make plenty of money on insulin pumping yet manage to offer outstanding customer service. Many companies fail because of bad customer service. Few companies fail because of outstanding customer service.
On the cost issue, you are correct that the startup price is less expensive for OmniPod therapy, but the net cost of 4 years of OmniPod therapy is more than 4 years of therapy on a tubed pump. But no matter what the numbers are, customer service is just not the place to cut costs. Since OmniPod therapy is ultimately more expensive (which I have no problem with), customer service should be at least as good as the competition.
Wow! Whenever I have an issue with anything the rep ships it out overnight. I agree. It isn’t right to make someone wait for a replacement PDM. I would recommend calling back on MONDAY. Get the CSR’s name and talk to their supervisor. Did you upgrade your PDM or do you have the 1 model? If you can, I would buy the new PDM because you’ll have a backup. I think insulet is trying to find ways to cut back on shipping cost, not to say I agree with them. They should’ve just shipped the darn thing overnight.
Fortunately, I have a backup. Amazing how no one at Insulet asked me that question, though.
This is strange ! I went through exactly the same thing ! I was just glad the rest of the PDM was functional…and wondering how long it would keep functioning. It was a pertty scary time for me.
So I called Insulet this morning, and their initial response was that they would ship the PDM for delivery in 3-5 business days. After asking to speak to a manager, I was then told that the replacement for my malfunctioning PDM would instead ship overnight.
I am relieved to see that Insulet has FINALLY agreed to do what every other insulin pump company would do, i.e., ship a replacement overnight rather than 3-5 business days. What sucks is that Insulet’s initial game plan was for me to wait a week with a defective PDM, and I had to call three times to get them to do the right thing.
My hope is that Insulet gets religion on the customer service front immediately. The OmniPod is an absolutely awesome product, but without decent customer support, the product’s value is greatly diminished and future success becomes more questionable. This is a grave disservice to patients, as well as Insulet stockholders.
Peace out.
Glad it worked out for you, Jaybear. Did you see that they will soon have some competition?
I did. I saw Medingo obtained some degree of FDA approval last week, and I know Medtronic is frantically working on a patch pump. After my otherwise outstanding experience on the OmniPod, it’s safe to conclude that the future of insulin pump therapy is in patch pumps.
Maybe new entrants into the patch pump market will convince Insulet to reconceive its customer service department.
