Dexcom G6

If you need assistance, you will be placed on hold for almost ever, stuck listening to commercial after commercial prior to being able to make a choice for the next round of choices and the next hundred commercials. The people are great but the phone option menu lengths and commercials are horrifically long and never-ending.

Length of Use: 2+ years

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

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

I am a Medicare/Tricare for Life customer of Dexcom. I use the G6 sensors and transmitter. They are wonderful products. Using the call center that Dexcom routes its calls to is absolutely useless. I tried reordering my supplies, I called Dexcom, was routed overseas, the agent said I did not have a valid Medicare number and to call my doctor's office and get one. The next said I needed a four-day investigation to determine benefits although Dexcom used my Medicare account the month before. My sensor expires in 8 days after that I’ll move to another CGM with USA-based customer service.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I have been dealing with Dexcom for over a year now. I filled out the information required to have a representative contact me about ordering the Dexcom G6. I first waited until Medicare-approved paying their part for this apparatus. When I called I was asked to pay cash then try to get my money back from Medicare. Are you kidding me? I know this wouldn't go too easy if I ever got my money back from Medicare. I told him I couldn't afford this. He then told me to call back in 3 to 4 months and maybe they would have some machines available to Medicare Insurance clients then. I waited again and called back with the same runaround. I think Medicare should check into the practices of this company. Am I not being discriminated against by Dexcom for only having Medicare insurance along with my supplementary insurance instead of having the cash needed to purchase this Dexcom G6.

Needless to say, I am still sitting here with no Dexcom G6. I am in my 70's and type 1 diabetic but who cares? Certainly not Dexcom. In my opinion, I call this company a rip-off and disgraceful company to do business with. I don't know how they get anyone to work for them and most involved with this company will account for their actions some day. If you can go with another CGM system then I would advise it as that is what I am going to do myself.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

My frustration with this company and also US MED (once you are assigned a medicare supplier you are stuck) can not be described in language suitable to be printed!

I am out of supplies and US MED says they don't have any but when I call Dexcom they say they have plenty (G6 system).

Don't get sucked up and depending on these people as I was.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

Have been a freestyle Libre user for 18 months with a Miao Miao and thought I would try a Dexcom.

Insertion is OK and it is compact, etc. Software interface is easy enough, however...

Signal loss issues. I can't tell you how annoying it is to wait up to 30 minutes to reconnect it to my phone if I walk to the other end of the house or just go into the next room without my phone.

I went for a run this morning and when I got back I did a few things in the next room, you guessed it, signal loss, been waiting 20+ minutes for it to reconnect all the time wondering about my levels after my run. So off to do blood pricks.

With the Libre and Miao Miao, the range is much much larger and when it drops out it instantly reconnects. I mean how hard can it be?

In all, it is a NO from me. I will spend my cash on the Libre Miao Miao combo.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

The Dex product is good. However, Dex customer service will be the worst you have ever experienced. If you call CS, you will be on hold for at least 20 minutes EVERY time (with what may be the worst hold music ever - it's all I can do to not hang up!). Worse is trying to reorder supplies. It is next to impossible to get Dex to send supply reorders on time. They let reorders sit, and they don't email or call with updates.

My advice? Though a great product, avoid Dex because of the horrific customer experience.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I’ve contacted Dexcom multiple times and started the process to get set up to get a Dexcom CGM. After weeks of this process, I have not received any follow-up phone calls to get processed and approved for use of a CGM. Dexcom service is awful and it’s ridiculous how difficult it is to get their product.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

Worst customer service imaginable. No follow-up. If you place an order for supplies, be prepared for (i) lengthy delays, often with no order shipped often until your 2nd, 3rd or 4th call; (ii) broken promises regarding shipment dates, and (iii) totally non-responsive customer service. FYI…even the SUPERVISOR’S promise (my FOURTH call) to ship "by tomorrow" was broken. Long-standing backlog on inventory causes lengthy delays between order and shipment, but the company has done nothing to come up with a solution. A billion-dollar company like Dexcom could increase manufacturing if it cared, but it obviously does not. It sells all it can make and has no competition. This is what happens when consumers have no real choice and is a perfect example of the ugly side of patent protection. Unless you have hypoglycemic insensitivity (like most potential Dexcom users) go with Libre instead of Dexcom!

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

When the CGM works it’s a great product. When it doesn’t work it’s frustrating and potentially dangerous.

Way too many communication failures. Sometimes wait 30-45 minutes, sometimes it’s a sensor failure. I had 2 sensor failures yesterday.

Also, frequent inaccurate readings. Sometimes up to 100 points higher than from an actual finger stick. My CGM showed a reading of over 180 the other night. The actual bg count was 88. If I actually trusted the CG5 I would either be in the hospital or dead. No excuse for this.

Other than shipping out replacement sensors, customer support is basically useless. Lots of time asking questions but no resolution to problems other than sending additional sensors.

To make things worse, my transmitter has about 1 more week to go and my distributor told me that they have not received any shipments. So it won’t matter if the senors are inaccurate since the transmitter won’t work.

There are other CGM systems. I recommend you investigate them before ordering from Dexcom.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I actually love my CGM. It has changed my life. However, getting in touch with customer service, ordering supplies or getting your supplies from the company is horrible and disastrous. They do not allow you to order online. You can't reach a live person ever and they always have to call you back. I have not received my order for this month and have been without supplies for almost two weeks. I have been hung up on twice since Monday and they still have not "approved" my order with their internal documentation department even though my insurance company has already approved it. My provider has called and tried to contact the local rep to no avail. If I could use another company I would, but they are the contracted company for my insurance.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend