Unacceptable problem with Insulet/Omnipod

I have an absolutely unacceptable problem that needs remedy immediately,
today.

I am an Omnipod user and an Insulet stockholder.

My PDM crashed this morning (Sunday, 12 Sep 2015) during a bolus dose. I
contacted customer support, and we could not get the PDM to reset. I was
informed that I needed to contact my insurance company to get a "warranty
renewal" and then Liberty Medical (supplier of the Pods) to arrange shipment
of a new PDM.

I was planning to leave for trip to Europe on Monday. I was informed that the
earliest I could get a new PDM was Tuesday. I was also informed that Insulet
could not ship to Europe ! Not only will my health be jeopardized, but I need
to get sufficient backup basal and bolus insulin supplies for the long trip.

As you may know, every other insulin pump manufacturer ships AT A MINIMUM an
overnight backup pump upon pump failure.

Another possibility is that someone has an extra or loaner PDM (UST400) ?

I live in New York City. Thanks,

Mark

Yes, getting medical support over a weekend can be a real PITA. I once did the idiotic thing of running out of syringes in NY state over a weekend. I tried calling the Dr I was seeing at that time. He was not in his office, of course. He also, without access to my records at his office, had no idea who the hell I was so he refused to write a script for me.

I ended up going to an ER at a hospital where they could visually verify that my appearance did not scream “addict” and that I seemed to know something about treating diabetes with insulin. They gave me a script for enough syringes to get me through the weekend.

I hope you don’t end up down that rabbit hole. :confounded:

I have one that I won’t be using for at least a couple months. I can lend it to you if you still need one and can handle the girly sticker I have on the front of it :wink:

1 Like

Mark - sorry to hear about your predicament. Hope you got it worked out. I had my PDM go crazy on me once and had a replacement overnighted to me immediately.

Our Endo has a PDM that they’ll loan out for issues like this.

Thanks for the offers. I posted the following on IP@insulin-pumpers.org
Mark

Thank you all, I have a new PDM from a kindly rep who met me in NYC this
afternoon.

Lessons learned:

  1. despite what they say about rapid replacement of PDMs they cannot ship to
    Europe at all. They do not ship on Sundays. But they do have a presence in the
    US, Europe, Canada, and Israel. I do not understand this problem.

  2. Record keeping at Insulet is sloppy. I was on file as having an bout of
    warrantyb PDM from 2011. That was my original Omnipod system. That PDM and the
    pods are no longer made. I actually have the bin warrantyb new system from
    last year. They badgered me about contacting my insurance company and then
    getting my pod supplier to arrange for a new PDM delivered. Who knows how long
    that would have taken. Only when I pointed out the impossibility of their error,
    they admitted the error.

  3. It may help to call the Insulet main tel # 978.600.7000 and leave voice
    messages with all the many, well compensated members of the board. Hopefully
    they will change their policies to be more modern, responsive and focused on the
    health of the patients.

  4. If you travel outside the US you should have a backup PDM. I was never told
    that I should do that. It will cost about $500 out -of-pocket for that piece of
    junk, but it is worth it if traveling. I was on a biking vacation 3 weeks ago in
    Europe, and if the PDM had failed and I could get no replacement it would have
    been a disaster.

Thanks to all the kind and generous people who offered to help.

Mark

It happened again to me, a PDM failure Saturday May 27. Called tech support and they cannot have a replacement to me before Wed May 31. Four days. This is the modern world or so I am told. How can it be that they have 24 support and no mechanism to in place to solve this problem immediately and overnight.

Does anybody have a contact with a sales rep or support staff or someone from Insulet in the New York City area that might have a PDM in their possession? I live in New York City and can travel the region to pick one up. Fortunately a kind Insulet rep was able to do his for me in 2015 and saved me from immense trouble on an imminent trip. Thanks, Mark

Hi Mark, sorry to hear of your problem. I guess the delay is warranted due to holiday weekend.
However, I have a PDM, not using. Insulet replaced due to a delayed reaction in the insertion mechanism. Long story short, it’s yours if you’re interested.
I live in Staten Island NY and will be home in the mid to late afternoon tomorrow. I honestly believe it works.(will find replacement batteries). If interested, contact me at: tbelle077@aol.com

Just curious whether this worked out. FYI, my endo recommends keeping backup Lantus pens and syringes just in case I need to switch to MDI if the pods should become problematic. She generally gives me a sample pen to keep on hand. Yes, Insulet should have overnight service available 24/7, but the bottom line is that you alone are responsible for your treatment and should have a Plan B in place.

You can trust it. I have used Lantus many years past expiration. It’s fine.

Hello, in France, we get “rental” insulin pump, so after years of having an animas, I decided to try the omnipod. It was the worst pump I ever saw, The first day it gave me an error and I had to change the pod (after less than 12 hours). When I called the reps to inquire about that error, there was absolutely no one in Europe who could answer that question (very reassuring). Then, I just kept having problems with the pods (falling while I was on long runs, a pod getting an occlusion alarm at work etc etc). After less than a month, I went back to a real pump that works and is practical for every day life. In my opinion the omnipod is a gadget where one good idea was used by people who have never been on a pump and is designed in a way that is so impractical for day to day life that I could not bare to have it any more (the beeping…great when you do not sleep alone at night, my wife was so happy to hear that music when ever I did a bolus). I am a very active person (running and climbing) and I would much rather deal with the tubing of a good pump than the non tubing of a (dangerous) gadget.

The pod is not for everyone, but many have a great experience with it. There was a period of time several years ago when the company was having all sorts of quality control issues, but in my experience, the pods today are more reliable than they have ever been. Perhaps your trial was during that period of unreliable pods. Sorry to hear that customer support was not good for you. France is becoming a significant market for Omnipod, which has distributed through a third-party company (Ypsomed) in Europe. That could change as the contract is currently in negotiations. Poor support is unacceptable.

OK good news, I was able to wrangle a replacement PDM on Sunday from a NYC regional manager who delivered the PDM via an Uber driver. Now that is how things should be.

More to the point, the 24 hour tech support at Insulet should have the authority to ship out a replacement themselves (have some on hand) rather than need to rely on a 9-5 shipping department.

Re: the negative pod experience. I have to say that the current generation of pod has a vastly lower fail rate- I’d say I may have 1 per year now. Actually the PDM failure rate is higher I think…

Some practices that have helped: I am hirsute so use an electric shaver to on pod areas to improve adhesion and use Hypafix tape to fortify the pod. I am also pretty active and sweaty and rarely have a problem now.

To reduce occlusions I have found that rather than suspending basal when needed, reduce the rate to 0.05 or 0.10 U per hour. That way there is always positive pressure in the cannula and that seems to reduce the occlusion incidence.

@Jim2 Alas, my experience was 4 months ago… I believe the pod might fit people with a fairly sedentary life style, where you can always have some insulin available and a pod at hand. In my case, I go sometimes go out for 16 hours in places where it is not easy to have those at hands, and hence, I do feel better having a reliable pump. In 14 years of using an animas, it has never let me down, that is the pump works, catheter, occlusions etc are easy to deal with. To each his own, but again after having the animas standard, the pod is not for me.

Not sure how you get tubeless = sedentary, and tubed being non-sedentary

Sorry you had troubles with it, but I have no problem leaving for 16 hours without carrying around anything extra. Maybe you had a bad batch of pods, but they are not unreliable.

I agree, Eddie2. I have never, ever had to use any sort of backup for the pod. I have a very old Lantus tube in the refrigerator but never carry any sort of backup on a trip or vacation. I will carry a couple of extra pods if I’m going out of town, just in case I have a failure. I have rarely had to use one.