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Month: April 2010

How Do You Explain Diabetes to a 4 Year Old?

Chris Stocker 7 Comments

Last week when I was home, one of the most important things that I wanted to do was spend time with my 4 “nieces” and also my niece.  Let me explain that in detail quickly.  My “nieces” are actually my cousins, but my aunt was more like a sister to me because of our closeness in age so her 4 daughters have always called me uncle.  My actual niece is almost 6 months and she is my brother’s daughter.  Ok, that is clarified.  My “nieces” are 10, 8 and the twins are 4.  The 10 year old knows that I have diabetes, but doesn’t totally get it (but I’m 25 and I don’t either).  The 8 year old knows I have something, but not really sure, she used to just say that “Uncle Chris is sick.”

Well one day that I was there I took my pump out to bolus and one of the twins saw it and she said, “what is that?”  So I thought, should I say, “it’s an insulin pump” or should I say something that it is medication for me. I decided to tell her that it was an insulin pump for my diabetes and that it keeps me healthy.  I didn’t know exactly how to explain it that it would make sense.  I thought about coming up with a way to use a Disney movie or something that she liked to have it make more sense for her, but the question never came back up again while I was home.

How do you explain it?  I know there are mothers out there that read the blog, and fathers as well.  How are you able to explain diabetes to small children, especially your children that are not diabetic.

Thank you in advance.

Guest Post Week and Press Contact Info

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

Let’s first start off with the press contact info portion of this post.  We all get those e-mails from different PR companies or diabetes companies that are looking to have us write a review or give us free products.  That is all fine and dandy with me and I don’t mind doing it, but just know a few things.  By you giving me free product, I am not going to automatically write a good review, so don’t send me an e-mail after I told you what is wrong with the product and tell me that you don’t appreciate it when you sent it to me for free.  Yeah, I actually received that e-mail.  If you need to contact me, just use the contact form on this blog or send me an e-mail cstocker at chrisstockerinc dot com.  Now, moving on.

Starting the week of May 10 I will be doing a guest post week.  The length of the guest posting will depend on how many posts that I receive from all of you.  If you would like to submit a guest post, please just send me an e-mail or use the contact form and @ reply me on Twitter.  You know how to get a hold of me.  Guest posting is fun.  I love doing it.  I don’t do it as much with this blog, but I guest post a lot on other small business / social media business sites from my other blog.

Quick post today, but just wanted to let you all know about the guest post opportunities.  No specific post, you come up with the post and I post it, simple as that.

Aetna RX Home Delivery Major Failure!

Chris Stocker 16 Comments

My test strips woes of the last month or so have been well documented between my blog and Twitter.  The CVS fiasco being the worst part of it.  The chapter has ended, but it seems that the book is continuing.  Let me explain.

I contacted Aetna RX Home Delivery because I have to use them because of the insurance that I have.  I contacted them on Tuesday April 13 and gave them my credit card number to ship my testing strips.  I explained that I would need them by Friday, so I will pay the additional $20 to ship them overnight to me.  I hear nothing on Wednesday, nothing on Thursday and nothing on Friday.  I called them back and asked if the supplies had shipped yet, and they said no, the order hasn’t even processed.  Well that right now makes me feel good that I needed them rushed and 3 days later the order hasn’t processed.

Since I was leaving to go up north, I had the address changed to my PA address.  Well Thursday of the next week, after I came home from New York, my strips still weren’t there so I called Aetna once again.  They proceeded to tell me that the strips were already delivered, to my Florida address.  By this time I am pissed because I explained that I needed them in PA.  The customer service rep agreed with me that it was Aetna’s fault because she saw the notes in the system.  I asked them to overnight the strips to me in PA and when I got to Florida I would send back the other box.  She said that I couldn’t return them and if they did reship them since it was their fault,  that I would still have to pay the copay of $90 for them.  That is when I lost it.  Why would I have to pay for a whole other shipment and not be able to return something because you made a mistake?  That makes no sense to me what so ever!

I didn’t hear anything back from them on Friday or Saturday, so I had to call them again this morning.  They still haven’t shipped out the re-order they said they were still reviewing the case.  I told them that there is no reason to review the case because I am no longer in PA, so that rush delivery is no longer needed, but I’m glad that my emergency means 4 days to them.  I finally received my strips, but I wanted my $20 refunded back for the overnight shipping because they shipped them to the wrong address and they just sat in my FL mailbox for a week, so why should I pay for overnight shipping?

I was told that customer service can’t do anything about it, but document it, and it is up to the reship department to make the decision on whether I will receive my $20 back for overnight shipping.  I don’t know what kind of investigation is needed, you charged me for something that you did not provide, so give me my damn money back!

Aetna RX Home Delivery, you have just made the list.  You can join CVS in customer service hell!

Vacation Over Means Back to Blogging

Chris Stocker 3 Comments

What is this thing called a WordPress dashboard that I just logged into?  Luckily my password was saved in Firefox or I may have not remembered what the password was.  Hello everybody again.  It has been a while since my last blog post and that was a decision that I made several weeks ago.  I was beginning to spread myself too thin between a million different projects that I had going on, plus my personal life was very busy as well.  I just got back from a nice trip back north and have some good things to talk about.

First, I had decided to go to the 140 Conference in New York, so since I was going up there I may as well make a trip out of it and visit family.  I flew into Allentown on Saturday and spent 2 days in PA with my family before taking the bus up to NYC for a few days.  NYC was awesome!  I have been there before, but only stayed over night there one time.  This was Amanda’s second time in NYC and first time staying over night, so she was beyond excited.  I think the million photos and over 20 minutes of Flip cam video we have proves that.  I just finished editing the video last night to make a 15 minute movie, so I will cut down some of that into clips and post online soon.

I went to NYC with only 3 testing strips, more on that in tomorrow’s post.  On Wednesday, we took a bus back home and it was more time with the family until this past Saturday when we had to fly back home.  Anytime I go up north and see family, it really puts things into a totally different perspective for me.  Down here in Florida I am constantly on the go, whether it is writing 5 blog posts right after each other, then jumping into Photoshop, then heading to Starbucks for a meeting, then desiging a new web page and before you know it, it’s 2:00 a.m.  Up there, everything slows down.  I only check mail a few times throughout the day on my phone, if it’s not an emergency, then it can wait.  Seeing my 5-month old niece for only the 2nd time since she was born is a bittersweet moment as well.  It’s great to see her, but also realize how much you miss by living down here.

Then comes the diabetes part.  Every family member that I visit is asking me about my diabetes and sometimes I wish I just had a recorder to give the same answer to everybody.  But all in all, it is good to be back, mainly because I don’t receive paychecks up north, ha.  And I’m back to getting up at 7 and starting my new diet (going to beach in July with parents and brother’s family, so I can’t weigh more than my brother!).

Have a great Monday everybody and I look forward to talking with you all on Twitter again.

I’m Still Alive, Just Away

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

I haven’t been  blogging lately or have I been on Twitter.  I’ve been really busy around here with camping last weekend, traveling up north next week, losing my dog, and purchasing my first ever Mac.

I just wanted to post quickly, this is my first post using my Mac and I absolutely love it.  I am now trying to get this thing ready to be my full time machine by switching over a lot of stuff.  The number one thing that I am missing is my Adobe CS4, which I might just have to get the full CS5 package!

Well, until next time, have a great day.

Non-Diabetic Post – More Info about my career

Chris Stocker

This post is a little less on the diabetic side and more on the business side of things.  So if you don’t want to hear about marketing then today’s post is not for you, come back tomorrow for Fired Up Friday.  My career is internet marketing.  That is just the general aspect of it, but there is a lot more detailed things I do, but that is a good generalization.  One of the things that I do is affiliate management.  Here is a quick explanation of affiliate marketing.  You have a blog or website.  You put a banner or ad on your website.  If somebody clicks on that ad and then proceeds to buy something from the company, you receive a commission for it.  That is one form, the other form is being paid every time somebody clicks on the ad, like Google Ad Sense.

Why am I talking about this?  Because there has been a new online community that has come about over the past few months that I am part of and think it is an excellent idea for anybody who wants to start making money from their current website or websites that they have always thought about building.  I know a lot of people in the diabetes community don’t want to put ads on their sites and that is perfectly fine.  I think that having ads on your site is a great thing.  As long as you are staying true to yourself and not just promoting things because it makes you money, then you are doing it right.  For example, if you use Freestyle Lite test strips and would never use any other because you think they are the best, why not put a Freestyle ad on your site?

Or maybe you own another site.  I own over 30 domains, some active, some are not.  I write 3 blogs, some daily and some weekly.  I make a lot of money off of those sites.  Why?  Because I am straight forward from the very beginning.  I don’t hide things, I don’t write reviews I don’t believe.  I don’t talk about products if I don’t truly believe in what I am saying about them.  It is called transparency (link to post about transparency on another blog I write).

Anyway, onto the community.  It is called Third Tribe Marketing.  It is not free, there is a monthly membership.  If you are interested in making money off of a blog or website, then trust me, you will quickly make your money back from the things that you learn on this site.  That link that I have put there is an affiliate link.  So like I said earlier, I am always up front.  By you clicking on that link and you signing up as a member I will receive a commission for it.  I am a member of this community as well and paying for it, so obviously I believe in it.

If you would like more information about it before you sign up, feel free to e-mail me.

MMM Insulin

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

There is nothing better than opening up a box full of insulin.  It’s a huge relief when you open it and you see 16 boxes of vials of insulin.  This is the earliest that I re-ordered my insulin, because I am going to be travel a lot over the next few weeks, so I wanted to make sure that I had it before I started to travel.

This upcoming weekend I am going to the Keys to go camping.  I have only been camping once or twice since I’ve had diabetes.  It is a lot different of a vacation to be camping than it is to be at a hotel or visiting home because you are constantly outside.  We aren’t doing the “camping” where you have running water and electricity, and fans and all the stuff that you shouldn’t have when you are camping.  We have a tent, a small grill, fishing poles, sleeping bags, lanterns and some fire wood.

I am taking 3 vials of insulin, a whole box of infusion sets, 3 reservoirs, 2 site injectors and 50 test strips.  I think that should be enough for Friday-Sunday.

The following Saturday I am leaving to fly home to PA for a few days and then I am going to NYC for a conference on the 19-21.  Anytime that I go to a conference somewhere up north, I like to try and take a trip to PA as well to visit family, especially since I have a new little niece up there as well.

Well, this is a short post, but I am trying to get a lot of things done in the next few days before I go on the camping trip.  I hope I don’t run into any pythons or Gambian pouch rats, if you don’t know what they are, read this!

Caring Diabetic Online Community

Chris Stocker 8 Comments

Over the last few days, even months if we go back a little further, it has really dawned on me how caring and how awesome the diabetic online community is.  I have been dealing with an issue with CVS pharmacy this past week and so many of you on Twitter and commenting on my blog were really helpful and gave some great advice.  The advice was great, but what was even more awesome was how willing everybody was to send me strips because I was in a bad situation with not having any.  Several people sent me e-mails and asked if I needed them to send me strips.  You know who are you for those that did.

I am part of a few other online communities and we help each other with information about how to do something in WordPress or some new social media tips or affiliate tax information, but I haven’t had anybody ever ask me if I needed them to send me testing strips or something else to help me manage my diabetes or my business, anything.

I just want to take this time quickly and say thank you.  Thank you to all of you.  And that is it.

Thanks.

CVS – You Are a Failure Part 2

Chris Stocker 6 Comments

I don’t want to sound like I am trying to take CVS out of business or anything, but they need to be held accountable.  For so many years, companies could do whatever they wanted and pretty much get away with it.  Now with blogs and Twitter and Facebook, companies are held responsible for mistakes that they make.  You can read about what happened last week at CVS and their misleading ads.

On Friday, I was supposed to pick up the test strips that were ordered for me.  Well when I got there, there were not any boxes of 50 strips on the shelf, so I’m thinking, here we go again.  I asked the lady behind the counter for 2 boxes of 50 and explained to her that they had ordered them for me on Tuesday.  I was told to come in after 12:00, so I strolled in around 2:00 p.m.  The shipment still was not unpacked so the lady said she would just go into the shipment and pull them out.  Well the head pharmacist said no, she could not do that and told me to come back after 5:00 p.m. tonight.  That really irritated me that the head pharmacist, who should know the importance of strips, told me I still had to wait.

I was not able to make it back to CVS that night, so I decided to go the next morning.  When I walked in on Saturday morning, once again I didn’t see any boxes of 50 counts on the wall.  It was all new people working that day, so I had to explain the whole thing over.  They told me that none were ordered so I would have to wait until Friday.  I nicely explained to them, that no I am not waiting until Friday and they were selling me the 2 boxes of 25 for $9.99, since the box of 50 was $9.99.  She said no.  I kind of disagreed.  When I asked for the store manager, luckily he was extremely busy and just said ok do it, without even really listening, she finally rang them up.

They wanted to give me a rain check for Friday again, but I just told them to keep it because I would rather pay an extra $20 then to step foot into that store again.  I am done with CVS; they no longer exist in my life.  This was an example of some of the worst customer service that I have ever seen.  Do people understand that they are messing with people’s lives?  If you work in a pharmacy, should you not be required to understand diabetes in the most simple forms?  Understand what testing strips are for and how important they are and that it’s not a game of oops sorry.

CVS – you are a failure!

Fired Up Friday – CVS Pharmacy Misleading Ads

Chris Stocker 6 Comments

I am picking back up Fired Up Friday again.  I did not post anything last week because I decided to take a few days off from blogging and being on the computer constantly.  This week, my post was brought on from something that I tweeted about Sunday afternoon, if you didn’t see it, this is what I said:

Basically, this is what happened.  At about 3-4 a.m. I woke up and had to go to the bathroom for the second time in the middle of the night.  I had Taco Bell for dinner that night, so I thought that maybe my sugar could be pretty high, so I decided to test, which I never do at that time because I hate waking p and testing my sugar.  When I pulled out a strip, the vial slipped out of my hands and the strips fell out, normally I would just pick them up.  However, this time they decided they wanted to take a swim in the glass of water I had sitting right next to me.

That was my last vial of testing strips until my Freestyle Lite ones came in on either Tuesday or Wednesday.  Sunday morning I decided that I would look through the ads in the paper to see who had a better sale that weekend, CVS, Walgreens, Target or Wal-Mart.  CVS was the winner with having boxes of 50 strips of the TrueTest (which are the exact ones I was looking for) for $9.99.  I went out to the CVS right across the street to buy about 3-4 boxes because you can’t beat that price for back up strips.

The pharmacy only had 2 boxes of 25 and 1 box of 100.  So I said, well can you sell me the 2 boxes of 25 for $10, or the box of 100 for $20?  I knew that they couldn’t do this, but it was worth a shot, so I wasn’t upset about that.  I was a little concerned how they could have sold out that quickly, since that sales price was valid that day.  The next closest CVS was a few miles away, so I decided to call and they were out of stock also.  So I called the 2nd closest, and they were out of stock of the 50’s as well.  By this time, I am really irritated, so just for fun, I decide to call 10 of the closest CVS pharmacies to see if they had them in stock, to my surprise, not a single one had a box of 50 in stock.

So, what does that tell you?  Tells me a couple of things are possible.  First, maybe all 10 of those stores sold out so quickly that by the time I went there at 1:00 p.m. they were all sold out already.  Second option is that it was a simple oversight by an inventory manager for not having a sales product in stock.  The third and final option is that they had a special like that, a “too good to be true” special and did not stock their stores properly on purpose in order to drive traffic into their stores.  It wouldn’t be the first time I have seen this done by these type of stores.  That’s why milk is always so cheap in CVS and Walgreen’s just to get you into the store and by other stuff that’s overpriced.

This irritates the heck out of me.  I am in marketing, so I know the whole marketing side of this, but it’s not good marketing.  You are preying on people with a disease that need these testing strips to help manage their diabetes to get them into your store and then not have any of the product in that they came in for.  This is just unacceptable to me.  This is also the second time this year that I have had a bad experience with CVS Pharmacy, the other was their walk-in “clinic” where I had to teach the nurse about stuff instead of her helping me.

If you are going to advertise a product, please have it in stock.  You may think that you are creating this great marketing plan, but in reality, you are losing customers.  You have lost me, maybe nobody else, but I won’t ever walk into the store again.  Sometimes diabetics need some extra strips for emergencies that their insurance isn’t going to cover.  We all know how over-priced testing strips are already, so when you have a sale or deal like that, you are about to make the life of a diabetic a lot happier.  However, you used my illness to draw me into your store, congratulations.

Am I just over reacting?