A Happy Camper I Am Not

As a dialysis patient, I need to order and get shipments of my dialysis supplies every so often. In a previous post I spoke about my dismay for an unnamed dialysis supplies company.

A quick recap of what happened there: The company called me the morning of the delivery and told me that they’d deliver my stuff between 1pm-2pm, so I went out in the morning. At 11:30am, a lady from the company called my cell phone and told me that several attempts had been made t0 make the delivery and I wasn’t there. She asked if I’d like the order delivered the next day so I agreed.

Then, the next morning, the lady called me and told me that when a shipment delivery is made and is unsuccessful because nobody was there to accept the shipment, the hospital gets charged $100+, which usually gets passed on to the patient. Needless to say, I complained and nobody got charged $100+.

I placed an order for my new shipment on Thursday. I explained that I work on Wednesdays, which was the proposed day of delivery. The lady told me she wasn’t sure if that could be switched so she called me back. When she called me back, she mentioned that the hospital might be charged $100 because the delivery could not be accepted on Wednesday. My jaw hit the ground. How can I be told that the hospital would be charged $100 when I’m telling her a week in advance that I won’t be there to accept the shipment? You mean to tell me that that company only delivers products once a week?? I basically told her what I thought, and that such a policy is not only stupid but just plain silly. They can’t deliver it on Thursday? Friday? Monday?? I explained to her that many people choose to do home dialysis because they have jobs, go to school, and participate in other activites that would require them to be out of the house. Just like her, I had a job that I had to go to. She told me that she “understood”, but she’d still have to talk to Rose (my nurse) about charging $100.

Not in so many words, I told her that she was crazy. How can you say you’re going to charge $100?? Does that mean that even though I told them I’d be at work, that they’re still going to show up, knock on my door, nobody answers….and then bill the hospital? I know that there is the option of having a lock box as well, but I’m simply not comfortable with that idea either. This is all quite dumb.

I’m just waiting to see what happens and how this pans out…because this is absolutely idiotic in my mind.