Medical Guardian

I live by myself and I have very bad sleep habits. But for three nights, strange things had been going on around my house. When you live in the woods by yourself, even though you got neighbors, it's still scary. The first two nights, I called my daughter's son-in-law and they came over. This time, I thought they were in my house. I have a big house and it sounded like they were in my garage. I couldn't remember if I locked the door between the hallway and the garage.

I pushed the button and I told the lady, "I don't need an ambulance, but I think I need the sheriff." They were here within two minutes. The rep stayed on that thing. That was another good thing. I might've had a heart attack had she not been on there calming me down. She talked me through a very bad panic attack. That's as scary as having a heart attack. I thought my oxygen wasn't working. I kept checking my oxygen level and making sure the oxygen concentrator was on. Suddenly, I just pushed the button, 'cause my heart rate was up to 135 and my oxygen level was dropping. I know what to do when that happens. But when you're having a panic attack, you can't think. Everything goes crazy.

But I guarantee I wouldn't trade my Medical Guardian for anything because the rep stayed on there and she was like the nerves talking to me. She told me to sit down and to get away from the door. It was just like having her in the room with me. By the time they got here, she had me calmed down. She was very comforting. They checked the property and inside and they made sure I was all right before they left. I've already recommended Medical Guardian to my friend out in California.

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.

When the rep tried to talk to me, just see if I was all right, there was no electricity so I didn't hear a voice. Medical Guardian put in that I needed help, which was perfectly appropriate. They were work like gangbusters and were terrific. They did exactly what was supposed to be and the firemen used the lockbox and came in. I'm not going to wear the device in bed anymore. I'm going to put it right alongside the bed. Because I'm not a false alarm person, and it's annoying that I had to have all these three young, handsome firemen come and rescue me, who did not need to be rescued. I'm a fairly active person despite my age. One false alarm is plenty. But the firemen were very efficient.

And then after the three firemen left, I said to myself, “Oh, let me call you guys and let you know that I'm okay.” But I couldn't find any number to call. I tried two or three, but they all were daytime business numbers. It works fine when you're not out of electricity, especially for a whole week. I was wondering if they should have a 24-hour number. But I only gave my house number, never dreaming that in those couple of weeks that we would have this huge power outage. I have now given one of my cell phones. I'm most satisfied with Medical Guardian.

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.

It’s a little difficult to getting used to having a string around my neck because I’ve never been able to wear necklaces comfortably. I’m a former nurse and it took me years to get reconciled with the fact I had to wear a wristwatch. But I was always conscious of that, at first, hanging on me. I’m not having trouble with this alert device. It’s a soft cord. It’s not metal. It’s not glass. So, I’m doing okay.

Not long ago, I checked it to make sure it’s working first and talked to an agent. But then, a week before last week, I was putting clothes in the washing machine and had pulled a sweatshirt over my head and threw it in the washing machine, and without my knowing it, I threw the device in the washing machine also. It went through all the cycles of the washing machine. I was scared to death I had ruined the device. So, I called my son and said, “What do you think I should do?” He said, “Just punch the button and see if it works.” It works. It went through every cycle of my washing machine in warm water, and it still works great. I knew it was supposed to be semi-waterproof, but I didn’t know you could run one through all the cycles of the washing machine, and it still would work, but it does. I’m satisfied with it. It’s stood up to what it claimed that it was waterproof. It didn’t say it was washing machine-proof, so that’s a plus.

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.