So I got a low battery alarm on my omnipod PDM. I went to change the PDM batteries and when the PDM booted up it failed the pod.
I had previously read that this is caused by a worn out PDM internal battery. Others have complained about this issue on this site.
I called Omnipod to report right way (before I enevitably forgot). I did not have to wait on hold at all. They told me they would send a new PDM out. In about an hour. Just beacuse you can’t be without a working PDM. Even thought this was low priority issue and the old PDM was fine to keep using.
So 45 minutes later a new PDM showed up on my doorstep. Now I do live in Canada’s third largest metropolitan area but wow… just wow… that is good fast service for a trivial problem with a medical device.
In U.S. when I dropped the PDM in my dog’s water bowl on either a Friday or a Saturday night, it took 3-4 days to get the replacement. Whenever it happened, it coincided with the shipping department being closed so even though the phone support person told me I would get it the next day, it was a minimum of three before it actually arrived.
I’m glad you got great service!! They’ve been leaving me scratching my head lately…I paid over the phone for a spare PDM the other month…and then they still sent me a bill to pay for it again. I never can quite tell if it’s going to be an awesome experience with them (it usually is) or just miss the mark a bit.
Yes - the Canadian support number is different but I think the calls go to the same place.
I called around 6pm my time but I think if it was after 8pm it would be next day delivery.
I was impressed that there was a local stash of PDMs that they could send out with a local courrier. I suspect because the Canadia market is smaller their organization is more efficient.
I had the same problem sometime last fall, also in Canada. I had a replacement PDM delivered within 90 minutes, on a Saturday. With this kind of service, I’m comfortable not having a spare PDM – which I couldn’t afford anyway, at the Canadian price.
I believe this is standard practice to have a stash of pumps in major cities, at least in Canada. I was told by the Tandem rep that Richmond (I think) would have a stash of t:slims in case of failures. I think some other cities as well.
My first pump failure in 2007 happened when the keypad died and a button stuck alarm sounded every five seconds. It was totally unusable. The nearest stash of pumps was Toronto. They initially told me I’d get a replacement the next day, but the courier apparently lost it. I was super stressed out and everyone from the pump company to the courier to YVR (airport) staff were calling me. They ended up not being able to find the lost pump and having to ship out a second pump, and in total it was three or four days without a pump. After that, the company switched couriers and started stashing pumps in each province.
My next pump failure, different company, I had a new pump in three hours.
And not our US experience. I distinctly remember being told they’d ship one out and it would get to us 3 to 4 days later. And in the meantime we were instructed to figure out what else to do. Their hands were tied. Ridiculous. Especially since having a spare seemed quite cost prohibitive with our experience up to that time (we’d have to pay full list price we were told - since then that’s been refuted by folks here who’ve had better experiences. Our purchasing and training experience with Insulet was awful - we just got a dud rep.)
Anyhow I’m so glad Canada has a plan for this. You’d think American could figure that out since it is basically the same company.
