Wits End

Tyra was at her wits end. 

She was planning to bring her mom back from the nursing facility and have her live in a granny flat. She had already made commitments with home health, oxygen, and additional improvements to the granny flat to make the move a comfortable and easy adjustment for her mom. The little house was cozy, with a washer and dryer, heat and air window unit, a refrigerator and all the medical equipment she needed.

Now Tyra thought of the final touch. She still wanted something so her mom could feel free to contact her at all times. 

Tyra still had to go outside of the building to do chores around the house occasionally, but ninety per cent of the time, she would be by her mom’s side. Whenever Tyra did have to go somewhere, the home health agency had sitters for adults.

Tyra contacted a medical alert company. They wanted her to sign a contract which they mailed immediately. But there was a delay because of her mom’s health problems, plus issues with the nursing home.

“My mom can’t sign,” Tyra responded over the phone, “she’s taking too many medications.”

“You can sign it,” a representative for the company said.

“I don’t know enough about the services you provide.” Tyra was not ready to sign with them, even though time was running short regarding her mom’s release. “I’m looking for something like a device in which my mom could contact me anytime she needed or wanted to.”

“We do that! We can patch the calls through to you,” the sales rep said.

“You can?”

“Oh yes! Just sign the contract. We’ve got to have that signed contract before we get things started.”

Tyra’s mom, Cindy, couldn’t sign the document, she was too medicated. So Tyra did.

The sales representative of the company notified Tyra that he did receive the signed contract.

“So to confirm, my mom can contact me through you anytime she wants to, right?,” Tyra asked.

Then he wryly answered, “It really doesn’t do that.”

Soon Tyra’s mom passed also. Her mom never got to use the service.

“What do you mean you won’t release me from the contract? My mom is dead!”

“We would release it if your mom signed it, but since you’re the one that signed it, the contract is still in effect.”

Tyra would be paying this for months. 

Tyra tried to make the best of the situation. She took the device outside with her at night when she needed to, and at first they did a good job staying on the phone until she got back inside her house.

However, within a few weeks, Tyra couldn’t contact anyone on their end quickly. She told someone that answered the calls that, “It doesn’t take long for anyone to render someone unconscious, so how would you be of any benefit to the victim then?”

Toward the end of the contract, Tyra contacted them to find out what to do with the equipment that went with the service.

The company representative that was investigating the inventory noticed that the company had sent an extra device that was meant to hang from the user’s neck. 

Tyra explained that one of the original devices did not work after three weeks. They sent her a different one.

“You have to pay for that device.”

Tyra explained to the rep that customer service had told her not to send the defective device back. “It probably got thrown away. Why keep something that doesn’t work when they said your company didn’t require it to be returned.”  

Guess what? Tyra had to pay for the non-functioning device, plus return the other two devices she still had. 

Tyra asked what to do with the in-home bedside device.

“We don’t want it back.”

Tyra thought, ‘They’re pulling that again and then they will say I have to pay for it later.’

“You don’t want it back?”

“No!,” the representative said.

“Should I throw it away?,” Tyra asked.

“No…recycle it.”

The problems didn’t stop there. 

When Tyra signed up for the service, she had to give several references for the service to contact if she needed help of any kind. By the end of the contract, some of the individuals mentioned were deceased, in prison, etc.

Those that remained on the list didn’t appreciate being pestered by the company, especially when there was nothing wrong with their friend.

The company told these individuals on the reference list that Tyra wasn’t returning their calls. 

The company did not make random calls for no reason until about a month or less before the  contract’s end.

Tyra called them to quit calling her friends because her friends didn’t appreciate it.

Tyra demanded that the company send a statement to her that the contract was over and no further payments were expected.

They complied.