MIRAGE SWIFT LT QUALITY POLL--THE RESMED CHARADE???

If I were Resmed, I would point everyone who have had problems with their Swift LT in the direction of their DME's. You guys/gals are wasting Resmed's and your time. I shake my head as I wade through this thread. Disgusted with Resmed? Huh? You don't have to be thankful, but everyone in this thread, complaining about their Swift LT, should consider themselves lucky that Resmed even listened or even attempted to entertain your complaints. 100% of large medical equipment and pharmaceutical companies won't even give you the time of day for liability and legal reasons. What Resmed did for you was beyond anything I've ever seen, and I work for a Fortune 200 pharmaceutical and medical equipment manufacturer. And no, I don't work for Resmed...it's not even in the Fortune 500.

Furthermore, why would some one make public the product manager's email address? Did she gave you permission to distribute her email address to the public? If she didn't, then you just broke etiquette. Posting her email address in a public forum hoping that everyone will email her of their complaints, in other words mail bomb her, won't resolve their issues. On the contrary, this will have the opposite effect. Now, when she receives emails regarding Swift LT issues from this group, she's just going to ignore it, or she'll do what I do and forward it to an employee. And that employee will reply with a scripted email and state that you need to talk to your DME and not to us. Period. And that's exactly what happened.

Huh? You don't have to be thankful, but everyone in this thread, complaining about their Swift LT, should consider themselves lucky that Resmed even listened or even attempted to entertain your complaints. 100% of large medical equipment and pharmaceutical companies won't even give you the time of day for liability and legal reasons. What Resmed did for you was beyond anything I've ever seen, and I work for a Fortune 200 pharmaceutical and medical equipment manufacturer. And no, I don't work for Resmed...it's not even in the Fortune 500.

F&P had a problem with collapsing pillows in the first version of the Opus. F&P redesigned the Opus; the pillow no longer collpase. Liabilty reasons are actually very good reasons to correct problems once you've heard of them.

What Resmed did for you was beyond anything I've ever seen.

Sending clients defective pillows of the same kind that have been reported to be defective seems legally irresponsible to me... I wonder of Resmed PR consulted the company's legal department before doing that.

O.

Well, my new nasal pillow mask from another company is here and the Swift LT goes into the garbage pail this week. I will keep the headgear in hopes that someday Resmed will wake up and smell the roses, before their entire mask business is lost.

I've got that mask & am on the original pillow. I've had it for 4 months or so. It's deffo a milky color. Y'all have me worrying about it. BOOOO!

BiPappy wrote:If I were Resmed, I would point everyone who have had problems with their Swift LT in the direction of their DME's. You guys/gals are wasting Resmed's and your time. I shake my head as I wade through this thread. Disgusted with Resmed? Huh? You don't have to be thankful, but everyone in this thread, complaining about their Swift LT, should consider themselves lucky that Resmed even listened or even attempted to entertain your complaints. 100% of large medical equipment and pharmaceutical companies won't even give you the time of day for liability and legal reasons. What Resmed did for you was beyond anything I've ever seen, and I work for a Fortune 200 pharmaceutical and medical equipment manufacturer. And no, I don't work for Resmed...it's not even in the Fortune 500.

What a load of horse-hockey pucks!

A company that has any desire to stay on top of its competition always should be interested in hearing about defective products. That goes for Fortune 100, Fortune 500, and Fortune 10000000 companies. Damage to a company's reputation is far easier to prevent than it is to undo. Companies spend lots of money on consumer marketing. To throw away an inexpensive resource such as direct customer feedback is to throw away $millions.

BiPappy wrote: Furthermore, why would some one make public the product manager's email address? Did she gave you permission to distribute her email address to the public? If she didn't, then you just broke etiquette. Posting her email address in a public forum hoping that everyone will email her of their complaints, in other words mail bomb her, won't resolve their issues. On the contrary, this will have the opposite effect. Now, when she receives emails regarding Swift LT issues from this group, she's just going to ignore it, or she'll do what I do and forward it to an employee. And that employee will reply with a scripted email and state that you need to talk to your DME and not to us. Period. And that's exactly what happened.

If it was an attempt to encourage people to email bomb her, then it clearly appears to have failed. From the posts on this board, only a few have sent emails.

She can ignore the posts if she wishes. But that's just demonstrative of a company employee that really doesn't care. If you were the company owner, would you want your product manager to do that?

Yes, DME's need to step up to the plate on this issue. However, if there's a common theme on cpaptalk, it's that DME's rarely have any interest in anything other than getting as much money as possible out of your pocket and then hustling you out the door so that they can fleece the next sheep. Is there any wonder why people are trying to circumvent them?

It seems that the best we might hope for is that Resmed is quietly working in the background, perhaps with their customers - the DMEs - to find out the source of the problem and to engineer a fix. With luck, this fix will be the quick release of a new mask with improved pillows. They mustn't wait too long, though, because permanent damage to their company's reputation has been done. Those affected likely won't allow it to be forgotten.

BiPappy wrote:If I were Resmed, I would point everyone who have had problems with their Swift LT in the direction of their DME's. You guys/gals are wasting Resmed's and your time. I shake my head as I wade through this thread. Disgusted with Resmed? Huh? You don't have to be thankful, but everyone in this thread, complaining about their Swift LT, should consider themselves lucky that Resmed even listened or even attempted to entertain your complaints. 100% of large medical equipment and pharmaceutical companies won't even give you the time of day for liability and legal reasons. What Resmed did for you was beyond anything I've ever seen, and I work for a Fortune 200 pharmaceutical and medical equipment manufacturer. And no, I don't work for Resmed...it's not even in the Fortune 500.

Furthermore, why would some one make public the product manager's email address? Did she gave you permission to distribute her email address to the public? If she didn't, then you just broke etiquette. Posting her email address in a public forum hoping that everyone will email her of their complaints, in other words mail bomb her, won't resolve their issues. On the contrary, this will have the opposite effect. Now, when she receives emails regarding Swift LT issues from this group, she's just going to ignore it, or she'll do what I do and forward it to an employee. And that employee will reply with a scripted email and state that you need to talk to your DME and not to us. Period. And that's exactly what happened.

BiPappy, I understand your opinion but respectfully disagree. I guess that's obvious. And your response reminds me of a DME I know.

Consumers should be informed of quality issues in order to make educated choices which help them avoid throwing money into a black hole. One of the reasons I have continued to post to this thread (which was initially started to provide feedback to ResMed from a sophisticated and educated bunch of folks who truly care about optimizing their therapy)--is to keep as many people as possible aware of the ResMed response, so they can make decisions about where they put their $$$ for masks.

If a company chooses to ignore valuable but negative feedback, they will suffer in the long-run by losing business. If the company does not have the integrity to replace faulty & inferior product, and consumers roll over and play dead without actively responding in their own behalf...then the company will continue to assume that status quo will get 'em by. But if educating consumers helps them make other choices with their $$$, the company may slowly wake up to the fact that they are suffering substantial consequences of losing reputation, and bottom line.

DME's will not and cannot help with this issue. If I cannot get a single quality-improved pillow directly from ResMed after all this, then it ain't happenin! But I guess you may have skipped that part of this very long thread.

I guess it's important to point out yet again, that "what ResMed did for me" is totally irrelevant since a quality issue was acknowledged and no attempt has been made to actually correct the issue satisfactorily, nor has anyone been issued an improved replacement--and several have not even been directly responded to.

I see no need to change the email address I posted for the ResMed US Product Manager, and I have received no request from Jennifer to edit that out. Regardless of whether she chooses to ignore received email complaints or to pass them on to someone else, the lack of active response reveals level of integrity of the company, IMO, and should be made public rather than encouraging continuation of the problem by silence. That seems to me to be a function of open communication & education.

I loved this mask. To blame me for ResMed's failure to respond to loyal consumers is ludicrous.

I wanted to chime in here and mention that I brought it up to my DME, who is a great guy and very interested in my feedback and my therapy. He spoke with a rep. at ResMed (I don't know what department) and he brought it up to them. According to him, they know about this quality control issue on the nasal pillows but don't want to change anything because, "Patients are allowed new nasal pillows every month anyway."

Well, I made sure to let him know that, as a patient, that answer is not acceptable. By the time I am able to get new pillows mailed to me, the old ones have broken down to the point where I either get some leaks or they pop out of my nose (unusual unless the pillow is very broken in). At least make it stiff enough (not too much) where it lasts 2-3 months.

I'm gladder that ever that when this issue cropped up I decided to buy an Opus.

And the ResMed Rep apparently assume all patients belong to the insurance system in the USA. Perhaps the majority in the world indeed are. And ResMed's approach sounds like planned obsolecence. Of course, ResMed make more money by selling more pillows.

O.

Boo ResMed!

I tried the Opus 360 but it leaked something awful. I do need that rotating barrel on the Swift LT to minimize leaks and improve the fit.

I was just wondering last night if anyone had heard back from ResMed after we had the second round of complaining about the pillows. No one has contacted me.

Also, the poor pillow quality is not simply a matter of the pillows not lasting as long. The flimsy ones don't fit as well and leak more.

It's terrible that ResMed doesn't care about this issue "because (we) can get new pillows each month." My insurance gets billed $50 for one of those, and they're $22 each at online DMEs. Yes, we can get them from cpapauction for about $10 plus shipping, but it's still a rip-off IMNSHO. ... I only buy some supplies out of pocket. What about those who don't have any insurance?

Boo ResMed indeed!

Am I the only one who is not having problems with their pillows? I'm on the same ones I started with back in March. Sometimes I flip to the small from the medium for a few days but the mediums have gotten the most milage.

They are still the same as when I got them. No leaks, no issues. (good thing too because I only am allowed new pillows once a year/mask)

I guess I got lucky too with the SwiftLT pillows too. I bought a bundle of 6 new ones on Ebay (very reasonable price) way back in the early Spring and they were all good ones. I still have 4 of those (they all have the same number 6 on the back of them - I can see it with a magnifying glass) that I have not used yet. The other 2, and the original 2 (in my size) that came with the 2 masks I bought are still going strong - no leaks and not getting flimsy. I rotate them out so that I don't have to wash them except every 4 days.

The set of pillows I got in January is still going strong but everything since only lasts 6 weeks.

tattooyu wrote:spoke with a rep. at ResMed (I don't know what department) and he brought it up to them. According to him, they know about this quality control issue on the nasal pillows but don't want to change anything because, "Patients are allowed new nasal pillows every month anyway."

Well, I made sure to let him know that, as a patient, that answer is not acceptable. By the time I am able to get new pillows mailed to me, the old ones have broken down to the point where I either get some leaks or they pop out of my nose (unusual unless the pillow is very broken in)

That pretty much nails the ResMed philosophy, doesn't it?

ozij wrote:...And ResMed's approach sounds like planned obsolecence. Of course, ResMed make more money by selling more pillows. O.

Yup. I think I remember writing a tongue in cheek remark at the very beginning of this saga, joking that ResMed would lose sales if they actually seriously responded to correcting this quality issue. Well lo & behold.....

twokatmew wrote:Boo ResMed!
I was just wondering last night if anyone had heard back from ResMed after we had the second round of complaining about the pillows. No one has contacted me.

Also, the poor pillow quality is not simply a matter of the pillows not lasting as long. The flimsy ones don't fit as well and leak more.

It's terrible that ResMed doesn't care about this issue "because (we) can get new pillows each month."
Boo ResMed indeed!

I have heard of no one who has had a constructive response from ResMed.

Hawthorne wrote:I guess I got lucky too with the SwiftLT pillows too. I bought a bundle of 6 new ones on Ebay (very reasonable price) way back in the early Spring and they were all good ones. I still have 4 of those (they all have the same number 6 on the back of them

Hawthorne, you are so lucky, indeed. The pillow that I had that was the exemplary quality, was a #6. ResMed sure won't do those anymore since people don't have to replace them for 6-9 months!! Hence, "The Charade." Why would they improve the sleezy quality they now produce when they can get DME's to make more money and ResMed to make more money by selling garbage every month instead?!! HELLO?

I have one "good' #6 pillow which I only use occasionally. I have three others that I rotate. (With the flimsy pillows, I must wash them with soap and water after wearing once, which Jennifer(at ResMed) said would wear them out faster. If I don't wash them after each use, I have terrible leaks and don't get much sleep, because I spend all night adjusting the pillow! I used my good #6 pillow last night, and of course, I had 0.0 leaks! I can usually wipe it with a citrus CPAP wipe for a couple days and then wash it every third day. Not so with the flimsy pillows....

twokatmew wrote: I was just wondering last night if anyone had heard back from ResMed after we had the second round of complaining about the pillows. No one has contacted me.

Not a peep here, either.