Non-Responsive Durable Medical Equipment Supplier

I wrote an article a while back, The Joys of a Good Durable Medical Equipment Supplier. As consumers of any service in the health field, I think we give these services too much leeway. 

Think about this: if we received bad service from a restaurant, home repair business, mechanic, dog walker, we would never use them again. We'd probably even go out of our way to let other people know about the bad service we received.

Why do we accept bad service in healthcare?

However, when it comes to services in the health field, whether it's our doctor, the hospital we use, or our durable medical equipment supplier, we tend to accept bad service. Why? 

I've been guilty of this myself. Just think of your average doctor's appointment. Have you ever gone to a doctor who didn't make you wait? How about a trip to the ER? We are actually happy if the wait for an emergency is only an hour. I have friends who have waited for 5 or more hours in an emergency room. Hospitals make you wait for scheduled procedures, too. The list goes on, but I hope you get my point.

I was conditioned to accept bad service

I used to think this way when it came to durable medical equipment suppliers. I was conditioned to accept bad service with any service I received in the health field. There finally came "the straw that broke the camel's back" moment. This incident happened about 15 years ago.

I thought my CPAP equipment order was all set

At the time, my health insurance paid for a new mask, hose, and headgear every 6 months. I called to place my order and I was all set. Or so I thought.

It usually took about 10 days to receive my order once placed. It never took more than 2 weeks. I placed this order a full 3 weeks before I was leaving for a vacation. I think you can see where this is going.

Getting the run-around from the supplier

After 10 days, I called and inquired about my order. This is where the run-around started. They first told me that my order had shipped, but they weren't able to give me a tracking number. I knew then that my order probably was never fulfilled. 

Phone calls were made over the next few days, and the frustration was that no one could confirm that my order was ever fulfilled. It frustrated me that no one would just re-do the order and send it out. It became a game of them sending me to different departments within their company.

Changing providers was easier than I expected

Obviously, my supplies never came before I left for my vacation. I understand mistakes happen. The issue I had was that no one would solve the problem. The lack of customer service drove me to find a new durable medical equipment supplier.

I think I was hesitant to change because I thought it would be a lot of leg work to find a new supplier and arrange insurance payments and all the other paperwork involved. It really wasn't a big deal. Like anything we do when it comes to a service provider, we need to do a better job as consumers at holding them to a higher standard. Don't be one of those people who accepts bad service.