I have a Tandem Mobi pump, and I get my pump supplies directly from Tandem. I have my supplies on auto-reorder, and usually that goes through with no problem. This time, however, it seems that Tandem just canceled my order, gave no reason, and didn’t even tell me.
I received an email on 11/20 saying that my order was processing and was set to ship on 12/12. Here we are on the 19th and I have not received my order, nor have I received any further communication about shipping, etc. I called them, and the rep told me that she saw that it was supposed to ship on the 12th. She expedited my order and put on free 2 day shipping… when I asked why my order had not gone out, she said that Tandem had canceled it. When I asked why, and how do I prevent this from happening in the future, she said something along the lines of “I don’t know why Tandem is canceling orders and not telling the patients. It causes a lot of confusion. I wish they wouldn’t do that.” Okay…. we’re in agreement on that point, but I still have no idea why this would happen.
Has anyone else had a situation like this with Tandem?
I’m so sorry! I don’t get any supplies from Tandem… but I’ve been generally really happy with their customer service, so I’m sad to hear you’ve had this bad experience. And that it sounds like it isn’t just you? I hope it’s something they are fixing.
Now I did have that happen with my insulin through Byram once… My brother and I both have T1, so when we both lived with our parents our fridge would be full of insulin. We were both on the same, so we would just unpack the boxes and just use whatever was oldest. Eventually I realize I haven’t seen a package with my name on it for a while… Called Byram and found out my prescription had expired, and instead of telling me or my doctor they just stopped it all. It had been almost a year! Luckily I had a cushion and my brother’s supply too, but I was so angry. I’ve had fine experiences with Byram since then. But I pay a lot closer attention to delivery frequency after that.
Isn’t this bananas?! Because THEY MAKE MONEY BY FILLING YOUR PRESCRIPTION!!! At least on that front, you would think your interests would be aligned! I have something similar happening with Alto Pharmacy, which sends my Omnipods – I have to chase them every single month to get them to send the damn pods…
I don’t know if you are on Medicare but Medicare is now quite clear about not covering auto-refills:
Note: Medicare won’t pay for any supplies you didn’t ask for, or supplies that were
sent to you automatically from suppliers, including blood sugar monitors, test strips,
and lancets. If you’re getting supplies sent automatically, are getting misleading
advertisements, or suspect fraud related to your supplies, call 1-800-MEDICARE.
That is from this very helpful document:
There’s no date on that document but searching Medicare.gov seems to show that it is the current version today (Dec 2025). The document is, “Category: Coverage and payment | Product # 11022”.
Private insurance often follows Medicare rules in the US (it’s cheap to do) so it’s entirely conceivable that a private insurer might ban auto-refills as well.
Hm. Thanks for this. I’m not on Medicare, but maybe my insurance decided to follow these rules. I’ve never had a problem in the past, but it could be a recent change.
Hi @Brianna1 jumping in a little late on this. I get my supplies directly from Tandem too. Over the past ~9 years or so, the only time they have just cancelled my supplies order has been when either my Rx was expired OR my insurance had blocked it. What also sucks is that in January (or your first supply order of the year) Tandem does a full benefit review which adds 1 to 3 weeks onto the give it to me now because I’m almost out timeline.
Yeah; Walmart are saying that my 3-month Omnipod order is on backorder. I’ve seen this fiction before; the insurance company won’t pay for something that goes beyond year-end and once I did have a 3-month prescription filled close to year end but just for one month. Cigna knows I’m swapping to UNH in 2026 so that may explain the reluctance, even though they only owned me from April (when I went on to Medicare).
The second part too.
It’s counter-productive. We know it happens so we stock up before October for the winter, then we can last through the reauthorisation drought of the new year. What do I have in my stocking for Christmas? Why is this stupid?
Interesting. My insurance has covered these supplies in the past so I don’t know why they would just stop now, but that is entirely possible. Or an expired prescription. It’s so frustrating to me that they would just cancel my order and not tell me! It’s not like my health depends on using this pump, which I can’t do if I don’t have supplies!
Arg. Well, I do have a supply cushion, thankfully, and, if necessary, back up MDI. As you said, “horde, horde, horde”.
@Brianna1 I share your concerns about supplies. On my last pharmacy order, the only thing missing was the insulin!! They found the pumps while I sat there (took another 30-45 minute wait AFTER they found them to give them to me). Interestingly, I had to explain the pumps were basically useless without the insulin to fill them! It took a call to the doc to re-send the insulin script, despite the pharmacy texting me everything was ready and I was able to pick it up the next day! Fortunately, @elver has it right, I had some horded away for these “just in case” moments. On the good side, I haven’t experienced (yet) the longer term outages some here have experienced!
It had been almost a year! Luckily I had a cushion and my brother’s supply too, but I was so angry. I’ve had fine experiences with Byram since then. But I pay a lot closer attention to delivery frequency after that.