ebay for test strips????

[Teacher]

I see that ebay has boxes of Hemosense INRatio PT/INR strips for sale. The expiration date is 9/08 with a cost of $217.50 and shipping charges of $9.84. Do you think its safe to purchase these? The price is good and I haven't met my insurance deductible yet.

Thanks. Roberta

 

[Ross]

Anything on Ebay I'm hesistent to deal with, but people have and so far, no problems have been reported. Make sure the seller has a high reputation otherwise, forget it.

 

[Karlynn]

And make sure they're selling similar items, such as medical things. I'd be suspicious if you checked their other items and found teapots and hub caps.

 

[geebee]

The only concern I would have is what happens if you get a bad batch? Does the seller know enough to refund your money or would you just be out the $200+?

 

[Bina]

I don't know if those strips come in sealed packaging......I would be concerned about them being opened and exposed to air or humidity for too long.

 

[MikeHeim]

I would check both their feedback level and other items available from the seller. I would also click the "ask the seller a question" and find out how they came across them, how they've been stored, etc. There may be a perfectly good reason they are for sale and there's probably no reason you shouldn't go for it.

I posted on this mainly because I'm a huge proponent of ebay. I personally have spent a few thousand dollars on various items over the years, including a TV that was well over $1000 and dozens of sets of concert tickets, the last of which were $650 for a pair of 3-day passes (not meant to brag or anything, just to show how confident I am in the site). Everyone I know that has had some sort of issue with an ebay transaction has made mistakes themselves and weren't careful about what they were doing. Don't EVER buy from someone who doesn't have any feedback as often these are people who just created a new identity and are trying to hide negative feedback from another username. Always look at other items the seller has sold (and their feedback) and try to understand their history on the site. If the person has 50 or less feedbacks, I like them to have been both a buyer and a seller in a transaction and also has transactions that go at least several months back (proves they are human and use the site occasionally - people committing fraud usually don't stick around very long). If they have more the 50 feedbacks, the person is probably running some sort of business, in which case I like to see that they have many similar sales of the same item with positive results.

I personally would also feel pretty good about the fact that these are PT/INR strips. I doubt that an item such as this is something that your average fraud perpitrator knows about or understands the value of. If you were buying Hannah Montana tickets, I would have a different answer.

Regardless - good luck with your research and happy bidding.

 

[Karlynn]

Roberta, I don't know which seller you are looking at, but I found this item
http://cgi.ebay.com/HEMOSENSE-INRAT...oryZ3193QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
for a box of 48, exp. 9/08 $192.95, $7 shipping. Feedback was 100% and it appears that the INRatio machine and strips were all they sold.


This seller also had the INRatio machine, with 48 strips, lancets, video and power supply (which I don't have for mine) for $895. For anyone who's insurance company won't cover a machine - this is a great price.

I haven't purchased anything as serious as test strips, but we've purchased a lot through Ebay, from Harley parts to guitars to makeup. If the seller has a good rating and they answer any questions you have, you are pretty safe in the transaction.

 

[cirrider]

Just to weight in on the Ebay & test strips question: I have always bought the strips from Coaguchek S machine from Ebay sellers. They have always checked out being within correct limits. I think I have purchased 3 boxes over the 3 years that I have been home testing. But as has been said by others, check out the source of the strips & ask a question or two from the seller. Reputable sellers don't have a problem answering valid questions. Just by 2 cents worth.

 

[Blanche]

THis is good to know.

THis is good to know.

Thank you for posting. Appreciate knowing your experiences here with the strips.

Blanche

 

[Teacher]

Thanks for all your advice. I asked one seller about the return policy if the strips were from a bad batch. The reply was that they are the same strips he sells to doctors and they were not from a bad batch. He also sells lots of other medical supplies.

Roberta

 

[HemoSense-Brendan]

Having been in the medical device industry for most of my career I have come to understand the sensitive matter of affordability of quality healthcare.

HemoSense distributes their products through a network of authorized distributors. We choose this path for a number of reasons.

1) The patient market has several barriers set up by way of FDA regulations, such as requiring a prescription and conducting patient training. Additionally, there are unique aspects associated with Medicare billing that don’t exist for other medical devices such as blood glucose monitors. Anyone selling an INRatio monitor MUST be a licensed distributor of prescription products. They must comply with all the rules and regulations surrounding our products. This is true whether they are selling the monitors or just the strips.

2) In many cases the monitors that are being auctioned on eBay are monitors that can only be sold to licenced medical professionals. Meaning they are NOT labeled for sale to a patient. To distribute a professional monitor to a patient whose intention is to self test is a violation of law.

3) HemoSense does not support monitors that are purchased through unauthorized or illegal channels. Please see our FAQ’s that have been on the HemoSense web site for almost 2 years. http://www.hemosense.com/patient/faqs_pst.shtml#q5

4) eBay has a policy that prohibits the auctioning of prescription items. However, despite our efforts to work with eBay to enforce their policy we’ve made little progress to reduce these auctions.

So, you may be asking why is the patient monitor more than the professional monitor? The MSRP for a professional INRatio is $1,595 compared to an MSRP of $1,995 for a patient monitor. Keep in mind that a physician may test several patients in a single day compared to a patient who tests once per week. Thus, like many industries, volume of the testing drives a lower pricing for the monitor in the professional markets. Additionally, our authorized patient partners have a lot of costs associated with helping customers get reimbursement via their insurance provider as well as staffing a customer service department. In the end, you are considering spending a significant amount of money even if it is less than what you would spend through an authorized channel. I would strongly encourage anyone to ONLY purchase through authorized channels.