I Hate Baxter

[Lillupie]

First of all, I would like to thank all of those who supported me on my birthday last Friday.
 
I am sorry to be complaining. I really hate that company Baxter. First all, I end up getting into an argument with the delivery guy every month because he doesnt want to put my new boxes where I want them.  He doesnt seem to understand the word rotate!
 alright, lets say I have 2 rows of the green 2.5 or 2 stacks of 6 boxes each. When he comes I am suspose to get 12 more boxes of the same thing. Well I want him to move what was there first (because those expire before the new ones) and put the new ones in the back, put the old ones in front of the new ones so that the old ones get used first. Well he does not want to do that! He wants to put the new ones right beside the old ones. And to me that takes up too much room. He even yelled at me not to order any more of the 2.5 because i only use a handful in a month's time. But I like to have enough 2.5 available so that i will have the option to use 2.5 everyday if i needed to. I mean when he leaves I make sure I do not have any less then 25 boxes, and i am sure my center would rather I had 30 or 33 boxes when he left. I think i am good at 25, since i use so many 1.5s.

Now the most recent discovery. Ok, on my cycler, I have 2 bags that are 5000ml (5L), and I have a 3rd bag, a last bag fill. I oredered only solutions for the cycler. This last order came to my house on November 2. I remember telling the chick representative on the phone that i wanted 6 boxes of the 2000ml of the 2.5, for the cycler. Well I am finally needing to use the bags that came on the 2nd, and I open one up and i notice that they are all 2.5, for manuals! I cant believe it. I have not oredered manuals in over a year since the cycler. Even when I went on my trip across the counrty I didnt have to order manuals, because i had enough from before! Ugh!

 I swear I wish i could go to Fresenius!

Lisa

[billybags]

I always find ordering a pain. I get rung about 2 weeks before delivery and now I am more confident about what I need, I tell them what I want and don't want and guess what, they send me what they want to send me any way. I think its all about money.The more they send, the more they can charge the health provider. My husband has gone back to CAPD well he has when the thing gets sorted out. We had a whole months lot of cycler stuff and Baxter's picked it up as a return because we need CAPD stuff and there was no room for both. He only had room on his lorry for half of it so we have ended up throwing the rest down the drain to get rid of it. I can not believe that stuff you send back gets destroyed. Your Baxter's man should rotate your stock, I have never had any problems with any of the delivery men.

[jennyc]

Hi, if you get stuck, the baxter twin bags fit on the cycler as well. Just clamp the drain bag closed. Works the same. I know out here the Baxter drivers are paid extra to rotate and put away your stock.

Good luck with sorting it out!

[willowtreewren]

Lisa, this is such a bummer!

No wonder you are frustrated.

One of the things we do before a delivery is move our older stock out from the wall so the new stock can be put on the bottom. Then the delivery personnel do not need to keep track of which is new and which is older. After the delivery, we put the older stock on top of the newer so we use it up first.

That works for us. Storage is always a problem isn't it? So many boxes!

I hope this improves for you.

Aleta

[Darthvadar]

Oh this is a nuisence for you.... You're right, you MUST rotate your stock... So much gets wasted if you don't... And besides, who has space to be storing stock that you don't need!...

We're very luck with our Baxter man... He knows us by now, and is fantastic... Comes in the door, moves the older stock, Puts the boxes in EXACTLY the order we need them (Mum does manual, three times a day, one yellow, one green, and one purple)... We call the office on the Monday, tell them what we have left, and they calculate what we need... Means that we don't build up too much stock (we keep an extra ten days emergency supplies)... Then the delivery arrives between 9 and 10am the following Monday morning...

Hope you get this sorted...

Darth....

[KICKSTART]

I never had any trouble with my drivers , i used to have 2 regular ones , who were both fantastic ! They would even move stuff for me if i was stuck ! One even went and carried a load of growbags in from my car for me , to save me making loads of trips ! Mind you a good cup of tea goes a long way !!! 

[looneytunes]

Hi Lisa.  We also use Baxter and have been fortunate to have a great delivery guy.  He is always willing to do whatever I need done with the boxes.  We used to have a problem when hubby was on manuals with the order people sending things I did not ask for and our delivery guy told me to call and ask for the quality control manager to let them know.  I did this one time and have not had the problem since.   You might try it too. 

Keep smilin'....maybe next month you will get what you ordered for last month 

[djgaryb11]

Sorry to hear about your problems with Baxter and your delivery man.  I have been getting deliveries from Baxter for over a year now and have never had any problems with my order or my driver.  My delivery man always rotates my stock for me, and have never had any issues.....Hope you can work things out with Baxter and your driver.

[sico]

Does sound like the driver ain't doing he's job Lisa.

My delivery dude is good and the lady i deal with on the phone is helpful too.

[Brightsky69]

Lisa, Do you have the same Baxter delivery guy that I do???

I swear he doesn't listen to anything I say. He always puts the new stuff in front of the old stuff. The other day i needed a red bag and I had to take down a wall of green just to get to the reds.
I said someting one time and about pull the old stuff out front and he said OH that doesn't matter exp dates are all the same. And preceded to put the new stuff in front of the old stuff. I even moved the old stuff out of his way and he STILL put it all back where it was and stacked the new stuff in front of the old.
He sucks.

[Lillupie]

THat same things has happened to me before. lol The thing is it is not like i live in a 10,000 spuare foot mansion to have a separate wall/space to have new stuff and then a nother wall to have the old stuff!

Lisa

Lisa, Do you have the same Baxter delivery guy that I do???

I swear he doesn't listen to anything I say. He always puts the new stuff in front of the old stuff. The other day i needed a red bag and I had to take down a wall of green just to get to the reds.
I said someting one time and about pull the old stuff out front and he said OH that doesn't matter exp dates are all the same. And preceded to put the new stuff in front of the old stuff. I even moved the old stuff out of his way and he STILL put it all back where it was and stacked the new stuff in front of the old.
He sucks.

[Savemeimdtba]

Wow, that sounds awful!  How dare he tell you how much to have on hand... I have never had anything but excellent drivers from Fresenius, always nice and courteous and they rotate the boxes without being asked to.  They always ask me which way I would like the boxes set up and everything. 

[Jie]

Lisa, I feel for you, but we also need to be considerable to the guy.  We don't need to rotate every month, period.  The solution will not be expired for more than 1 year. In fact, I have done PD for 9 months, I have not found any need to rotate. We should know what to order. I heard that some patients died, with more than 90 boxes of solutions unused.  What a waste! Even the Medicare or health insurance pays for it, we should not be such a wasteful. 

My delivery men are not Baxter guys. Baxter contrats them to do the shipping and delivery. At the beginning, a guy left my supplies at the front of my garage when it was raining. After a big complaint, I have not had any problems with them since.  I do not ask any more work than moving the boxes up stair for me.

[bevvy5]

Pure laziness.  I'm sure it's the same in the US as in Canada but here, our driver told us they're paid to basically do whatever the patient needs them to do.  We've been fortunate with our two.  They always ask if there's anything we need moved, etc.  I'm pretty organized to keep hubby's stuff rotated, but they're great.

Again, this could be a difference between Canada and the US, but our home nurse and centre nurses have said if they send stuff you don't need and haven't ordered, you're not obliged to take it.  It will be a hassle as the driver has to phone in, but they will have to sort that out.
Up here when we were having a problem with the actual Baxter rep on the phone, a call to the dialysis centre got things straightened out pretty quickly.  Of course, everything runs through provincial medical here so the health authority is a pretty big client to them!!

[Hanify]

Same in NZ.  We are told repeatedly that the delivery person is paid extra to do whatever the patient wants.  I don't know if it's different in the US, but I have nothing but praise for Baxter here.  They are so on the ball, and really helpful.  Maybe talk to your renal team about the expectation they have of Baxter - but I do also agree with Jie in that I think you could probably relax a bit about the shuffling.  As he says there's a long life on those bags.

[paul.karen]

This may or may not be helpful.
I know you have limited space. 

For me the solution i use the most or always is the 1.5.  I line them up on one wall six wide and and stacked six high.
I use them from left to right one month.  When new delivery comes he places stuff on the left where there is open space.   Once i am done with a months supply i start pulling boxs from the right side and when he comes again the right side is open for him to place new boxs.  This seems to eliminate the need for him or me to rotate any boxs since i pick from opposite sides every month which leaves him room for new stock. This only takes up from the wall  out about 2 feet and about 6feet left to right. On a separate wall i have a few reds and greens which i dont use (yet).

As for him not doing (his job) tell him if you dont get satisfaction you have no recourse other then to report him.

[*kana*]

Sorry I missed your birthday! 

I'm sorry that the Baxter man is ticking you off.  I am a Fresenius "customer" and I have nothing but good things to say about the company and the people that work for them.  Why can't you switch to Fresenius? 

I hope things get better for you!

[Brightsky69]

That's funny....the guy who delivers my Baxter supplies drives a Baxter truck.
Plus I've had Baxter people tell me they are gonna send me whatever the computer says. Even if I tell them I have 10 extra days already.

[billybags]

As you say , tell them what you want, and you get what they want you to have. I now have 10 days extra of yellow and 7 days short of green. I have enough hand wash for six months,  The delivery guy is nice, he always nods in the right places when I moan.

[BigSteve]

My Baxter delivery person is excellent. He brings the boxes upstairs and puts them where I ask him too.
I always get exactly what I orderer. The Baxter telephone people were great on my cruise. They got the
boxes to the hotel the night before, and they called us 15 minutes after the boxes were received at the dock.

[looneytunes]

Has anyone else had trouble with the Baxter bags not being completely full and thus causing alarms when the machine says there is not enough fluid left to fill for the last cycle? 

It's very troubling because in order to correct it properly, one would need to reset up the machine in the wee hours of the morning in order to get the final fill and drain cycle.  I called Baxter and they say there is no other way.