I love the Dexcom G6 system, which performs wonderfully to provide blood sugar readings over 5-minute intervals to your phone, and the Clarity software is easy to use, provides awesome analysis tools, and even allows me to provide my doctor access to the readings. These are the positives.
Unfortunately, the negatives are awful. My experience reordering sensors and transmitters has been horrendous. Orders I have placed online offered a variety of shipping options, and I have generally chosen the 3-day option. Most of the orders I have placed in the past year have been delayed and have taken weeks to be delivered. And the problem is Dexcom, not the courier. I have emailed customer service and rarely get a response. The time I did receive a response via the email option, it came almost 36 hours later. By then, I had given up and called the customer service number. By then, the order was 8 days old, and I was down to my last 2 days of sensor life on my remaining supply. The customer service rep (CSR) said the hold-up was insurance verification. I clarified that I was prompted to verify my insurance information in the order process and fully complied, so asked if the issue was on Dexcom's end, verifying whether the info I provided was consistent with the insurance company's records. He said yes. I've dealt with my insurance company on earlier issues with Dexcom, and the insurance company has superior customer service, so I suspect Dexcom was sitting on the order. The rep said he would get the order released for carrier pick-up that afternoon. Two days later, my order was picked up by FedEx, and the tracking information shows the order will arrive FOUR DAYS AFTER IT WAS PICKED UP. That will be 14 DAYS AFTER THE ORDER WAS PLACED.
Dexcom is very efficient at charging your credit for your orders, at the expense of accuracy. I had experiences last year when Dexcom charged my card so early that the charges appeared on my bill before I received my insurance company's explanation of benefits statement. After discovering, as a result, that I had been billed for charges that my insurance company had covered, I called my insurance company to address the issue, which quickly determined I was overbilled for a total of over $700 for two orders. The insurance company rep followed through by contacting Dexcom, which responded by stating my credit card would be credited for the full amount. I waited for over a month to no avail, had to call my insurance company again. The insurance rep called Dexcom while I waited on hold, and after addressing the matter with his contact, patched me into a 3-way call to get a commitment from the Dexcom rep that the credit would be provided in the next day or two. Monitoring my credit card online, I received the first of two credits in two days, and a second for the remaining balance in four days.
Dexcom offers an excellent product that overwhelmingly exceeds the quality of the company's patient care and customer service. I believe it is practices like Dexcom's that call for more thorough federal regulation of companies that are granted patents for drugs and medical supplies. If those granted the patents for medical devices cannot provide adequate services to sufficiently respond to patient needs by meeting reasonable standards of service, the patents should be permanently revoked, freeing the formula or technology opened to competitors to produce, sell, and distribute. I could guarantee that that type of check and balance would motivate Dexcom's behavior to better respond to its patients or at least provide them sufficient competition to promote patient welfare that is seriously lacking in this instance.
Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend
