How I spent my morning!

It is so hard to conduct business by phone any more! Customer service is a forgotten concept, it seems.

I found out (not through the manufacturer, distributer or prescriber) through my Facebook support group for CPAP users that my machine was probably being recalled due to an issue that can POSSIBLY CAUSE CANCER. So I went to the manufacturer's website to try to find out what to do and finally found a way to check to see if my machine is affected by entering its serial number. It told me that it was NOT included in the recall, so I didn’t do anything else.

About a week ago, I responded to a question in my support group about the recall. Another member informed me that if my machine was built before a certain date (which it was), then it WAS affected. So I decided this morning to take care of it. I called my doctor. They told me to call the medical supply company through which I purchased the machine. I called the office in Weatherford (I thought) and got stuck in an automated circle. I finally chose the option to be called back when it was my turn, which the automated service said would be less than 5 minutes. About 45 minutes later, I did receive a call back. I was told that I needed to call the manufacturer or go on their website. Since I’d already done the website thing, I decided to call. The automated service told me that due to a large call volume, to go to the website. SO, I did. After looking around the website for several minutes, trying to find SOME information about the recall, I finally found the right page. I entered a different serial number (there were 2 different serial numbers on my machine!) and learned that my machine was indeed affected. I continued on to the page to register my device for the recall and couldn’t get it to work. After multiple attempts, I FINALLY was able to enter my info and get my CPAP registered for the recall. (My machine was already registered with the company, but that doesn’t do anything as far as the recall is concerned!) The site said that due to high volume, it may be a while before they contact me about my machine. The instruction given is to discontinue use of your machine until it can be replaced. For someone like me, who had over 60 episodes per hour when I was tested, that just isn’t feasible! (With my CPAP, I usually have less than 2 episodes per hour.) So I will continue to use my machine until they finally get around to doing something about it, and hope there is no long term problem that develops! (I have read that as long as you aren’t seeing black specks in your hose, it is probably ok.)

It is really sad when a corporation has such little concern for the wellbeing of their customers that they make it so difficult to resolve an issue like this. If any of you use a Philips CPAP or BiPAP machine, please begin the arduous process to register your machine for the recall…and good luck!