Medical Guardian

I called Medical Guardian a couple of times because there were a few questions on it. One was the water. The brochure says, it can take the water slightly. Somebody said, "No, don't shower with it." When my friend bought it, they said, "You can shower with it," which is one of the selling spiels that she went by. And then they told me I can't shower with it. Then they told me yes again when I ordered one for my friend's husband who just fell down the stairs. But he doesn't want it. He said he's gonna return it. He's 84 and has Parkinson's. He goes in his workshop for four hours. His wife never hears about him. He was doing some work himself, and he slid down the stairs.

He's a machinist. He's retired but still works on these big machines. His comment was, "I can't hang anything like that around my neck working on these machines." I said, "No, no, no. You put it in your pocket." It's a smaller black one. I bought the fall device, too. If he falls, it kinda had a comment in there that it will always recognize when you fall. When I ordered it, it's $10 for a month. He said it works, but he was concerned about it. We're at the yacht club Friday and he said, "It doesn't say anything. One little brochure doesn't say anything about falling." I said, "It's there, little left hand corner. Not much is said but it's there. You gotta pay extra for it." So, I paid extra for it. I said, "If you fall, it'll be in there."

I find that I'm charging my device more than I expected. When you're charging it, you don't have it on. I have to schedule the charging. I'll put the charging dock next to my recliner where I sleep. Overall, it was so comforting to have my Medical Guardian device the first time living through the virus, not being able to breathe and being alone. I didn't have it when I was in the worst state. But then when I had it, it was like, "Wow," what a nice feeling to have this.

The main reason I have a Medical Guardian device is that my wife has dementia and her dentist who’s a good friend of ours said that I needed the button because I have her full time. I do all service for her 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It's just me and her in the house and our friend said that if I fell or something and couldn't get in touch with anybody, my wife wouldn’t be able to shout. She doesn't know how to call out or anything like that and I’d have to do it myself. If I could mash the button, I could get help that way. I haven't had to use the button yet and I look at this like a do life insurance. I don't look to collect on it, but if I have to get the button, I got my daughter as the number one person to contact, and my granddaughter as the second person to contact.

I got two keys in the box on the front door, so that nobody has a problem. However, I need to have a note made some way to make sure that somebody will take my place because if they take me out of the house, my wife would be here unattended. I want to let somebody know that they wouldn't be just contacting my daughter. If she had to be the one to come out, then I'd have to have my granddaughter too. In case they had to take me to the hospital, my wife has to have my granddaughter with her 'cause of the dementia. You couldn’t take my wife with me to the hospital ‘cause everywhere I go, she has to go. If you asked her anything, she wouldn’t know. She wouldn’t answer.

My daughter is the one that worries the most. Like if I was going downstairs, she would hold my hand or my belt. When I went to the doctors, she went to all of the appointments because she says that I don't listen to what the doctor says. It's not a big deal. But the kids notice that I mix them up. I had to do a test. My daughter takes care of all my meds and takes care of me. She told the surgeon what was happening. And then, he said, "That's not something you want to fool around with. That's in your brain." He and then his associate talked me into getting a stent put into my head. And they explained what it is and that I had too much pressure in the brain and my spinal cord wasn't able to handle all of the liquids. So, they had to bypass it. I had the surgery, and it worked out fine. It's going pretty good.

One time, I was home alone and I was looking for a magnifying glass that I knew I had near my sofa, and I figured it must have fallen behind it. So, I laid on the rug and I looked underneath the sofa, but I could not see it. But when I tried to get up, I couldn't lift my head. I couldn't move. So, I said, "Oh, I got a phone right over there." I usually try to carry a cell phone with me. I was in the house and it's handy. I just took the cell phone and said I would call my eldest son. He's the closest. His office is five minutes up the road. I would have him come help me up.

In the meantime, the gentleman from Medical Guardian that I talked to on the phone was very nice. The people are nice to do business with. It was the first time I actually heard the alarm going off so I didn't know what it would sound like. But I was down, and all of a sudden somebody said, "Joseph, are you all right?" I just told her I was laying down and I couldn't get up. She wanted to know if I needed any help, and I said no because I have four children all within five minutes of me. My eldest son came in, turned around and got behind me. I couldn't sit up. I couldn't move my head. So, he reached underneath my armpits and picked me up. And as soon as I was standing, I was fine.

One problem that we had right at the beginning was I did not see anything in the set-up instructions that said we had to call Medical Guardian to set it up. We had to call in and give them more information. A lot of information was taken when I ordered the product. And then when we got it, we plugged it in and we ran through the operating instructions. But they needed to include in there, “You must call when you first set this up.” What happened was, he fell and it didn’t work because we haven’t called in. It’s really important that they need to add that in those instructions when you first open it up. I went back and checked the instructions, and it’s not in there. It needs to be in red or something, “You must call in,” otherwise even though it seems like it’s working, all the lights are working and everything, but it’s not. You’re not connected and Medical Guardian doesn’t know who you are.

I voiced my concerns to them when we realized it wasn’t setup. It’s really important that people knew that, especially when you’re getting this, you have someone who is impaired, in one way or another so you’re doing this for their safety and probably they’re coming out of the hospital or whatever, their mind is deteriorating. You can be under a lot of stress and worries and upset. It’s really important for Medical Guardian to really stress that. That’s just the only thing that really bothers me and that needs to be changed. It’s a very good product, it’s reasonably priced and it does work, but they just need to include those instructions.

The only objection I have is that the strap on the device that you wear around your wrist is horrible. I would like to know if Medical Guardian has a different band that I can purchase from them to replace. I don't know whether my arms are too thin. It's just horrible. It slides around or it falls. It’s not going to be a problem for somebody who has heavy arms because it won't slide down over their hand. But I’ve had it slide down over my hand several times. One time, I lost it and had to look all over. I found it under a sheet on the bed and when I was making the bed, it slid off and it was under the sheet. So, you can tell how loose it was.

I have been looking for something I can buy and put on that watch instead of the strap that's on it. We get all these catalogs now because there's no in-store shopping. And a couple of them have a strap that goes in the two slots on the watch. And they have them available in catalogs but I am not able to drive. I walk with a cane so it's inconvenient in many ways. But I'm concerned that this watch could slide off and you'd never know. It would be gone.

I live in a gated community and they've been notified up at the gate, so Medical Guardian has all the information in the event that I would need assistance. I have the lock on the door and I have the security people here. I am very grateful for all of the assistance but I don't want to lose the equipment that makes all these things possible. I would strongly recommend that Medical Guardian look at the problem with the medallion or whatever they call it, sliding back and forth. But other than that, I've had no need to use the services.

I was able to test the system and talk to the operator when I pushed the help button. The Tech suggested I power it off and try setting it up at my mother's home. Upon arriving to my mother's I called the Tech back and powered up the watch. Now there is NO signal. The person I was talking to was very nice and easy to work with. She told me the watch is only 3G and lots of areas are weeding this out for the faster 4 and 5G. There is also a "VERY small antenna in the watch that limits its range." Her words. She then told me I was by a lake and around a lot of trees which can also block the signal - really! Well the GPS is working. I asked if they were upgrading this watch and this was a no. I think this could be a great product if they pick a better phone carries and stronger antenna. I'm so sad but I am returning this product. I feel the technology already exists - Guardian please team up with Apple watch and make this work for our seniors.

What about calling emergency contacts? None were called (including myself who is first in the list to be called). The customer service rep said that there were none in the system and that's why no one was called. I told him to pull up the scanned signed doc of the system agreement which he did, and he admitted that yes there were four emergency contacts listed. He could not explain why the info was not in the system. To summarize: The system -- when needed -- only came through for summoning the ambulance, but failed on providing lockbox code, and failed on calling emergency contacts.

On 10/21/2020, I called and talked with Barbara who told me that Medical Guardian hadn't been able to refund my money because of the refund dispute, even though the transaction had been reversed TEN DAYS prior. She said I would be credited within 72 hours. What malarkey. I told her that if the refund weren't posted in that time, I would go ahead and work through my state's district attorney. She said, "OK" without any apology for this poor service.

The additional call boxes were not synced with the base unit, nor could I get them to sync. We had issues getting the base unit to work with the cable based phone system, which I was assured would not be problem when I placed the order. When we called to get assistance the call center was either closed (not open on Sundays, but the website said it was when I was researching), too busy to help at that point in time, or the person was completely incompetent and couldn't help at all. We called 4 or 5 times trying to get this system to work.

I decided to return the system, so I packed everything up and paid out of my own pocket for the return shipping and insurance. When I finally received my refund about 6 weeks later, it was $50 short. I called to find out why, and was told the warranty was only 15 days therefore I was being charged for shipping and the 1st month of services. What it comes down to is this company charged me $50 for nothing but lies, deceit, and frustration.

I was going to file a complaint with my State Attorney General's office, but once the pandemic hit I felt there were bigger problems in the world. If this is how they are treating me, I have serious concerns about they are treating the disabled and elderly consumers this service is designed for. I spent hours online doing research on different companies and felt this was the best service for the price. Remember, you get what you pay for, and Medical Guardian will rip you off. Take your business elsewhere.