Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Sometimes it's good to be a squeaky wheel . . .

On Saturday I was due for an infusion set change.  I showered and popped in a new set before we headed off to a pool party.  When we got to our friend's house everyone was in the pool already, so I disconnected and tried to pop the cap onto my set.  It wouldn't click on.  I tried and tried and tried some more.  No luck.  So I decided I would just re-connect the pump and forgo swimming.

Again, no luck.  Try as I might, I couldn't get the tubing to click back into my set either.  I started to get really frustrated, so Pete said he'd help.  He tried.  He really tried.  He pushed so hard that I squealed in pain and had to remind him that those plastic pieces were actually attached to my abdomen.  In the end, I yanked everything out and went swimming with my friends.  After I got out of the pool, I put in another brand new set.  I was thankful that I always keep a spare in my purse.

Usually I'm the worst about calling places to complain, but I decided I should definitely let Minimed know about the defect in this infusion set.  So I called . . .

"Thank you for calling Medtronic Minimed.  Your call is very important to us and will be answered in the order it was received.  Based on current call volume, your wait time is approximately 40 minutes . . . "

Oh yeah.  Forty minutes.  I briefly considered hanging up but I decided I might as well just stick it out.  I put away laundry.  I read a couple of blogs.  I Tweeted a bit.  Luckily, my call was answered in about 10 or 15 minutes.  The Minimed Tech was extremely nice, filled out a report about the situation, and has shipped me two replacement sets.

In the end, I'm really glad I called.  It's always so easy for me to grumble to myself (and you!!) about problems with my supplies.  But if I don't let the companies know that I'm having problems, I'm not giving them the opportunity to improve things.

3 comments:

  1. Great point Karen!

    Ha ha, wv: poniters

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  2. I know this is totally not the point of your post, but after reading it, I finally realized what that extra plastic thing is in all of the infusion set packages -- it's a cap! D'oh! I've just been throwing them all away since I had no idea what they were there for. I still can't figure out how to get it on, though. hmmmm

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  3. You know - that has happened to me before too! It is very frustrating!

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