Pump makers becoming reluctant to replace faulty pumps?

[selketine]

I belong to a local diabetes discussion internet discussion group and one of the members just put her 6 yr old daughter on the Cozmo about a month ago. She just posted about many problems they had with their pump and meter and I know that it is always possible to get a faulty pump from anyone.

What I was really curious about was her experience in trying to get the pump replaced. She had the doctor (a well known pedi endo here in the Washington, DC region) and CDE, etc talking to the Cozmo people and they refused to replace her pump. They finally did replace it but it sounds like they tried to blame the problem on many other things first.

My overall question is not about the Cozmo exactly but this family said that it was their impression that Cozmo had changed their policy on replacing pumps and were reluctant now to send out another pump when there is a problem. Has anyone else noticed this to be a problem with Cozmo or any of the other pump companies?

I'm just hoping this family had an isolated experience - I'd hate this to start becoming a trend with pump companies since those of us who pump know how dependent we are on a good pump.

[BrendaK]

No, we had the opposite experience with Cozmo. About a month after Carson got his pump, the battery cap cracked for some weird reason. I called just thinking they would fix the cap somehow and they had a new pump at our door in less than 24 hours. No questions asked.

I've always heard that all of the companies are pretty accomidating when it comes to pump replacements for a broken pump.

[wendyc]

What do the pump companies do with the broken pumps?
Do they recondition them and send them out to someone else?

Just thinking...:confused:

[Ben'sMommy]

In 18 months we've had 2 pumps malfunction on us.

Of course the first time happened in the middle of the night!!! :eek:
To make things worse our Medtronic branch in Ireland closes at 6pm!!! (Very Irish...) Couldn't get through to diabetes Nurse, Endo, Pump rep. (I have all these people's mobile phone numbers and still couldn't get them.. They must all be VERY deep sleepers....;) )

Eventually we had to call Medtronic in the USA!!! They were brilliant and ordered us a new pump asap. We received it 2 days later.

Second time it broke, it was just that the battery became over stimulated and as a safety precaution the pump shut down. We called USA again (it was 8pm:eek: !!!) and they talked us through how to fix the problem. We fixed it and thought nothing more of it.
Next day a brand new pump arrived to my surprise with a note saying
"Just in case....".

How cool!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Medtonic are awesome. But then again it could have something to do with the fact that the government pays for pumps in Ireland. I don't know.

[zimbie45]

NO infact.. just the oppisite with animas.. When i was having problems with charlize blood sugar's going to low, and we changed EVERYTHING BIG TIME, animas said mostly pumps works fine no problems, however they stand behind there product and asked me if they could replace it anyway... WOW, now thats service...

[thebestnest5]

Maybe Cozmo needs a few e-mails or letters just to remind them what is really important and how excellent customer service is paramount with their products. In my e-mail I am going to remind them that one of the huge factors in choosing a pump is the customer service of the company! We're not pumping yet; but taking this proactive step might just help to make sure this stays an isolated incident.

God Bless,
<><
Sheree

[EmmasMom]

In our experience the pump companies will do just about anything to keep you happy. We have always had great customer service with both animas and minimed. I have no experience with cozmo, but it seems that if they want to compete they would have to do the same.
Maybe the pump in question had been obviously abused???? I know that the warranties cover defects, but may not cover damage caused by negligence, so maybe that's the problem. :confused:
I made sure our pumps were covered under our home owners insurance just in case something ever happened to them. Yikes!

[lisalotsamom]

We just got a replacement pump for Tessa a week ago today. She has been pumping on Animas IR 1250 since 11/05. Last week, on Tues pm and Wed am, the pump kept losing power, and then alarming that it wasn't primed. I called Animas and they walked me through troubleshooting. I discovered a small crack near the battery cap that must have been loosening the battery connection and causing the problem.
They were wonderful---overnighted another pump, and sent a return package that I could send the old pump back to them. I called the pick-up service and within an hour, they were here to pick it up. When I called our endo to find out a plan for in the mean-time, they had me come right to the office for a loaner pump until our new one arrives.
I don't know if the crack was our fault(dropped it, overtightened the battery cap???) or not, but Animas was great about the whole thing.

[selketine]

I've never heard anything so negative about any of the pump companies, including Cozmo. It really surprised me that they refused to send another pump even after the doctor and staff requested one. The parents reported that Cozmo blamed the Rapid D sets for failing and asked them to switch. They switched sets and the problems continued. Then they said it could be due to scar tissue but the girl had just started pumping so that seems not possible. Cozmo sent a new pump finally after the doctor's office loaned them another Cozmo which worked fine. I don't think the pump was abused - the girl was 6 years old and the pump was brand new.

Perhaps this family just had a very unfortunate isolated experience with a few pump reps. I hope we don't hear more reports like this from any of the companies - I would hate to think that it is going to be harder to get them to replace pumps when we have problems!

[chantal72]

my 8 yr old daughter has been using the Deltec for 3 years and we've had to replace it 3 times. One time it just died and the other two times the LCD went out. She does swim daily in the summer with it on. Anyway, the company shipped us out replacements each time with pretty much no questions asked. We do also have ours covered by homeowner's insurance , just in case.

[jeep_bluetj]

Perhaps this family just had a very unfortunate isolated experience with a few pump reps. I hope we don't hear more reports like this from any of the companies - I would hate to think that it is going to be harder to get them to replace pumps when we have problems!

I would hope so too. Particularly since the actual cost of the pump itself is insignificant to the pump manufacturer. It's the R&D, liability, and support that costs 6 grand. The pump itself should cost $30 or so.. (And hey, for an omnipod, it does.)

[Tamara Gamble]

Ty uses this pump and we have had to replace it once for a waterlog issue and once about a week ago. We are not clear as to what happened. Boys, go figure. Trampoline's etc. They were fabulous. Their customer service has been phenominal. I recieved the pumps both within 24 hours and recieved a call from them and the rep and his nurse here in the state of Michigan. I couldn't actually be happier.

I do feel though that if something is going on elsewhere then the emails are a great idea as I personally would like the service I have received to stay the same.

Sorry to hear your friend was given such a hard time. I wonder though if she was really given a hard time or misconstrued the questions as being given a hard time. Or they had not troubleshot the problem enough. I can't remember what your post said after reading everyone elses.

They do ask questions so that they can determine if it is an isolated problem or a wide spread one so they know what to look for and what to do. We had already troubleshot everything to death so there was no question. It was all done before I made the call.

Pump manufacterers are required to recall if it is a wide spread deal just like everyone else so that may be part of it. If the problem is identified it's just cataloged. If it's not the unit is taken apart piece by piece until they figure out the problem. I hope they don't send refurbished ones.

I'm not questioning the integrity of this woman and definately not yours I just don't really know the specifics so I'm just putting this out there. To have to get a doctor to do it seems extreme to me though. I never had to do that. That's rediculous!

Tell your friend she will be getting a new pump for free around the end of November like the rest of us. I'm sure they will be more willing to help her out as it will contain a bunch of new features and lets face it it's new and they will be watching it alot more closely for some kind of problems I would think.

If this happens to her again let me know and I will send an email on her behalf in regards to her treatment and their warranty.

Good Luck! God Bless! Tami

[hrermgr]

My hubby has a minimed and has been very, very pleased with their customer service. They have upgraded his pump at no charge and replaced one the very next day. When Teagan is ready for the pump, we're going with minimed and Medtronic.:D

[selketine]

I sent you a copy of the original post Tami to see what you make of it.

I am mostly interested in putting this out there to see if others have experienced anything like a lessening of customer service from any of the pump companies. Perhaps something to keep a lookout for. I have no reason from what I know to doubt this person's account of what happened but I don't know the situation personally (any more than I know any of you personally or the truth of what you say or you know me if you know what I mean). I have no reason to doubt though! Our local group is small and many folks do know each other, etc. - more in Virginia than Maryland.

I've not heard of a company refusing to replace a pump ASAP - usually they would rather be safe than sorry.

[thebestnest5]

I sent Cozmore and e-mail asking about their customer service. I am interested to see how they respond. My concern was exactly what Caroline and Jeff H. have highlighted....better to be safe than sorry....and the pump shouldn't really cost them that much to replace...and that I want excellent customer service from the company we choose to pump with in the future.

<><
Sheree

[Barry]

I cant imagine any company having more than 100 dollars in the production cost of a pump. To risk having a "cheap reputation" and risk the margin on a 5000 dollar pump does not make sense.

[wendyc]

My only hope is that the pump companies are pouring the profits from mark-up into research and improving technology.

[badshoe]

We cracked the screen twice in three days during the saline start week. Both replaced no problem.

We had a cover over the button come loose. Replaced no problem.

We had an alarm go off and and error code, Replaced no problem.

The Animas factory is less than an hour drive from our house. I have called and driven down and been back on a replacement in hours.

[EmmasMom]

Yikes!!! I may jinx myself saying this, but we have never had a malfunction or damage of any kind with our MM pumps... (yet). We had to have my husbands animas pump replaced at least 3 times, and it sounds like that may be a fairly common problem with normal use. We have friends that have had similar problems as well. It's a really good thing that they have great customer service!!

[Tamara Gamble]

After reviewing the post that Carol forwarded. I contacted Smiths Medical. It appears at this time that the fault lies in a few places. It is my opinion that the particular rep that this person was dealing with needs to find a new job.

They are revamping the system. Reps were already being called in for a new training seminar before our conversation due to a few isolated incidents such as this. They are revamping their current training manuals and system which I found out is being led by the nurse that I trained with for advances pumping last Wed. I was thrilled to hear this as I have experienced a few trainers and she is an extraordinary woman who cares deeply for people with type 1 as her daughter has this disease. So she is more concerned with the people not just the company.

Many people when they get a new pump deal with the rep for quite some time and believe that this is who they need to speak with. God forbid you get one who is clueless as to how dibilitating this disease can be or how deadly if not handled in a timely fashion. Always speak with the company first hand. This is a perk that you get when you purchase a pump 24/7 tech support. Smiths Medical actually discourages you from handling these situations any other way.

I explained to them that when I hear about something like this it is very discouraging and I want to be assured that they will abide by their warranty and service agreements. I explained that our experience with them has been phenominal but one bad post from a parent can put a tail spin on everything as our loved one's are near and dear to us. So any negetivity elicits fear. So I highly recommeded that they do further investigation when they recieve any complaint about a pump or rep. Their business depends on that. A human life depends on that.

They were in complete agreement and thanked me for my concern. It is my opinion that these incidents are few and far between. My experience with them could not be any better. I hope that all of the pump companies have the same service. Which I believe that they do based on what I have read from your posts.

Hope this helps clear a few things up.

Good Luck and God Bless! Tami