Aussie Newbie Intro

[Katagal]

Hi Chikorita

It's a bit of a roller coaster when the diagnosis hits you! I have learned a lot from this forum since being diagnosed last August, and learnedI got stung badly with a hugely overpriced machine but you live and learn and know what not to do nex time!

I live in Brisbane and am surprised by the amount of family and friends and colleagues who are now using CPAP machines for improved health and better sleeping!

This forum is a wonderful source of information and support and I consult their collective wisdom regularly

Cheers Katagal

[Gerald?]

Plenty of Aussies around.

A few people have mentioned the benefits of not buying your equipment locally. For masks, tubes and other parts I'd agree. However for your actual machine there are some advantages to buying in Australia.

The biggest advantage is that if something goes wrong its much easier to deal with the warranty. Some machines have 5 year warranties. If you buy from the US you have to send it back (at your cost) and wait and wait. With most of the decent suppliers here it is fairly easy to drop it in and they will usually give you a loaner while it is getting fixed. I've had to send mind back under warranty twice. Having said that if you are regularly flying to the US it may not be an issue for you.

The other thing is that if you have private health insurance with extras you can usually get a rebate on the machine if it is bought here. They generally won't give a rebate on machines bought overseas. Having said that the rebate is usually not enough to make up for the difference in price between here and the US.

You can do a bit of haggling and price matching to help bring the cost down. Don't pay the first asking price. Sometimes they won't drop the price but throw in masks, extra hoses, filters etc. I saved a fair bit in shopping around. However even with haggling and insurance it will still probably cost around $300 more to buy locally.

Make sure you get a full data capable machine. Check with people here before you buy. Don't worry about the machine salesperson sales tactics about how they will get the data of your machine for your doctor. If you have a computer with card reader and a printer you will be able to do this for yourself.

[sol]

secondwindcpap is popular place to shop for your S9 AutoSet (new or used) and masks also you can get cheap masks on ebay too
http://www.secondwindcpap.com/

[glenj]

We are coming out of the woodwork now.....Melbourne here

As of this coming Saturday I will have been using my cpap for one year, 'Happy' anniversary I guess! Well I am DEFINITELY happier than I was pre-cpap.

Come here often and read, read, read. It is you that will be living with this condition day-in day-out. It may seem a little too much to learn all at once but take your time, you'll come to appreciate knowing when and how to make adjustments as required, maybe it is just the control-freak diabetic in me coming out

Welcome to the community and ask about anything and everything you want to know about(in regards to cpap, etc at least).

[-tim]

Plenty of Aussies around.
You can do a bit of haggling and price matching to help bring the cost down. Don't pay the first asking price. Sometimes they won't drop the price but throw in masks, extra hoses, filters etc. I saved a fair bit in shopping around. However even with haggling and insurance it will still probably cost around $300 more to buy locally.

The best price I could get was $1000 or so more.

My US DME will send me a replacement that can be here in two days before I ship my unit back to them. My local DME can get me filters nearly a month after I order them.

Resmed has been sued by the government twice and lost for price fixing.

I bought a resmed because both my parents have them. I'm not impressed with the company ethics and I would not have bought their product if my parents didn't have them. I bought it because I needed to know how they work when I get a call at at 4 am when theirs stop working.

The S9 is not fixable in the long run. Its snap together with plastic that won't be flexible in 3 years which means it is unserviceable. Their new "made in singapore" systems have odd noises that they shouldn't have and they have a noise reducing sponge that invites disaster should it ever get wet. And its not trivial to replace even if you could order the replacement parts.

While I like to support locals, these guys are taking advantage and I can't recommend them.