On Hold With Apria...

I'm in the process of getting some nasal pillows and a humidifier tank.

43 minutes so far, most of which has been on hold.

And counting.

45 minutes and 21 seconds.

I could have had a pedicure in that length of time.

Drowsy Dancer wrote:45 minutes and 21 seconds.

I could have had a pedicure in that length of time.

you should have gone for a pedicure and THEN called

I must be the only apnea patient hereabouts that is happy w Apria. (Mostly happy, anyhoo.)

I fired them. It was only a matter of time before the helpful,
competent local people would fall in line with the bozos at the corporate level.

I called my local office to order supplies, in fact, and learned that I no longer call the local office to do so. I get routed to a toll-free number must surely serve all of North America based on my call waiting time.

It is still cheaper to buy nasal pillows and humidifier tanks through Apria than privately, but I long ago gave up trying to buy filters from them.

Hmmmm. It's beginning to sound like Apria's recent switch to a national phone order line is a big dud. I've noticed that my national 'on hold' waits are now twice as long as they were with my San Jose regional order line. Plus I really don't like the 'hurry up' attitudes I've gotten from the phone reps the last few times I've called. I haven't gotten any orders fouled up in the year I've used them, but I consistently make them repeat the order to be sure its correct.

I'm having Apria issues as well. I need a mask refit and I called the number that was given to me at the local office and was routed to the corporate line. I still have not spoken to an actual human in the area about getting a new mask. How did you "fire" them, do you just call your MD and get your prescription and go somewhere else, or did you have to turn your machine back to them?

Yesterday I had my first visit with Apria to get my first-ever CPAP machine. I had trouble finding the location and called to get directions . . . but found myself talking to someone halfway across the country.

I just hung up and figured it out myself.

Doesn't bode well, I'm thinking . . .

I'm a little dubious about what will happen, because they have me on record as using a 550P, and I ordered a humidifier tank for a 560P. He repeated that order twice, but I'm still afraid someone will think it is a typo and "helpfully" change the order to send me a 550P tank.

Drowsy Dancer wrote:I called my local office to order supplies, in fact, and learned that I no longer call the local office to do so. I get routed to a toll-free number must surely serve all of North America based on my call waiting time.

It is still cheaper to buy nasal pillows and humidifier tanks through Apria than privately, but I long ago gave up trying to buy filters from them.

If you do any searching (on the forum or Google), you'll see posts and links that the Blackstone Group bought out Apria back in 2008......and things have gone downhill since then (many thought they couldn't get worse, but apparently they did).
I believe I remember some discussions that the calls were being routed to some "offshore" (not in the USA) facility.


Den

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Wulfman... wrote:

Drowsy Dancer wrote:I called my local office to order supplies, in fact, and learned that I no longer call the local office to do so. I get routed to a toll-free number must surely serve all of North America based on my call waiting time.

It is still cheaper to buy nasal pillows and humidifier tanks through Apria than privately, but I long ago gave up trying to buy filters from them.

If you do any searching (on the forum or Google), you'll see posts and links that the Blackstone Group bought out Apria back in 2008......and things have gone downhill since then (many thought they couldn't get worse, but apparently they did).
I believe I remember some discussions that the calls were being routed to some "offshore" (not in the USA) facility.


Den

.

I've only been dealing with them since 2011.

I hope they don't get any worse.

Their hold music is horrendous.

Well, this isn't good. I came home last night to find a message from them saying they needed to collect my copay before my supplies could be shippe d. Sounds routine, except I already paid the copay over the phone when I ordered the supplies. Not promising.

Captain_Midnight wrote:I must be the only apnea patient hereabouts that is happy w Apria. (Mostly happy, anyhoo.)

Capn, I'm the second. I don't deal with their telecenter. My local off icehas been excellent to deal with (it's not their fault that my PCP is serving as my sleep doc & won't prescribe a data enabled machine). They've gone out of their way to help (e.g.,, replaced the swift FX head straop when my puppy chewed mine up & sent me 2 extra P10 nasal pillows before I was scheduled to get them).

bv1800 wrote:

Captain_Midnight wrote:I must be the only apnea patient hereabouts that is happy w Apria. (Mostly happy, anyhoo.)

Capn, I'm the second. I don't deal with their telecenter. My local off icehas been excellent to deal with (it's not their fault that my PCP is serving as my sleep doc & won't prescribe a data enabled machine). They've gone out of their way to help (e.g.,, replaced the swift FX head straop when my puppy chewed mine up & sent me 2 extra P10 nasal pillows before I was scheduled to get them).

My experience with the people at my local office has been pretty good. However, when I tried to order supplies I got routed to the call center, which led to this thread. Well, one 45-minute phone call isn't the tragedy of tragedies, but if it takes them another 45-minute phone call to confirm they already have my copay, I'm not going to be happy.

ETA: 32 minutes so far on call #2.