Nancy
I made the mistake of...
I am not diabetic but I thought Stelo OTC glucose sensor would give helpful info for a month or so. I made the mistake of signing up for auto-ship to get the better price. I didn't install it right away, so by the time I started using it, I got another shipment about a week later. I used the first package (2, covering the first month) with few issues, except that they seemed wildly inaccurate. At first, my baseline glucose was in the 70s, but by the end of the 15 days, my baseline was in the 90s, with no change in diet. And they disconnected a few times, leaving several hours in between with no readings. I at least was able to see what foods caused spikes, relative to whatever baseline was showing at the moment. My husband wanted to try it, so I would let him use the remaining two. Then another auto-ship box showed up. Customer service said there are no returns, and that it's stated on their website, which I should have read before I ordered them. Strike #1. So now I had 2 boxes of two devices remaining. I decided I would just go ahead and do another month, while my hubby was also doing his. We both installed them. Mine (#1) connected. His (#2) never did connect, after numerous tries. So we pulled that off and installed a second one on him (#3). That connected and he's still using it. My first one failed after about a week. So I installed the last one (#4), and put support tickets in on the first two that had failed. I had happened to not throw away those first two, so I still had the serial numbers. They sent a replacement immediately (#5) for the first one I had used. They sent a "thank you for submitting your ticket" message to the claim I submitted for my husband's, but then I never heard another word. So I finally demanded to chat with a live agent from the chatbot. That girl finally called me. She said the ticket I had submitted for my husband didn't go anywhere, because they wanted a record on the user, not the purchaser. (But of course they didn't tell me that until I called). So she had to resubmit that ticket under his name. Several days go by, still no response to that. And btw, most stores only give refunds or do customer service with the original purchaser. How would anyone know that Stelo/Dexcom requires someone else (user) to create the support ticket? If my kid uses my car and it breaks down on them, does my kid file the warranty claim? No. So this line of thinking by Stelo wasted at least a week of time waiting for their response -- in which time, I threw away the old dysfunctional devices! In the meantime, my second device (#4) also failed after a few days ("ended session early"). So 3 out of 4 were defective. I called customer service immediately to get help with both issues. She looked up "my husband's claim" which the first girl had resubmitted, and said, "Yes, yes, I see what happened." And she resubmitted it again. Again, only got a message: "thank you, we'll be back in touch in 1-2 days." On my second device that failed (#4), she asked for the serial number and the exact day it was installed. I said I didn't have the device any more, and couldn't remember the exact day, but it was over the weekend. She said you're supposed to hang onto them for the full two weeks, in case they fail! That's how confident of their own devices they are, people! Why wouldn't they have a record of the serial numbers they sent me? And why wouldn't their app have a record of the serial number of the device, and the date I installed it? There has to be a record of it somewhere! But they won't replace them unless YOU give them the number and the date installed. The Stelo agent said the person reviewing the claim might be able to see the info, so she submitted the claim for me anyway. But now I've received a message: "sorry, the info you submitted is incomplete and we're not replacing your device." And they STILL have not responded AT ALL to my husband's original device (#2) that never connected from the first minute. I paid for 4 devices (about $200), and only one of them is working. They've replaced only one (#5 - which I've now inserted). I am owed two more devices, which they are either ignoring or refusing. I'm not confident they would even work if I received them, but they should at least replace them and let me try to get some value out of it. Overall, their devices are hit-or-miss. Their customer service is terrible. If they truly don't keep records on who has what devices, that is an egregious lack of data on their customer base, in an era where keeping that kind of data is a simple programming thing. And if 3 out of 4 don't work - and if they refuse to replace them, based on said lack of data - they actually cost about $200 each. And the company is going to go bankrupt anyway. So good luck to everyone is this endeavor!


