XP Medical PSA

First off, I live with my parents, and I've managed to keep this secret from them for several years. I ordered a batch of Dry 24/7s from XP Medical. XP Medical has always been my go-to company in the past, but it had been a while since my last order, since I get in the mood very occasionally.

So, about a month ago, I placed my order, gave my home address and the address of the FedEx I wanted them shipped to, and requested to have it dropped off at the FedEx to pick up when it arrived and smuggle it home in my backpack. Nothing new.

What WAS new however, was that XP Medical has apparently started sending thank you cards to the home addresses given in the order, with the company and recipient names on it saying "Thank you for your order" and everything. It happened to come in our mail today, and, not wanting her to think I had an actual medical issue or somebody had stolen my financial information, I had no choice but to come clean to my Mom, which, thankfully, went surprisingly well. My stepdad did not see the card, thankfully, which is good because he would NOT have taken it well.

That being said, this is obviously the last time I'm ordering anything from XP Medical. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate good customer service, but a medical company sending a card with the customer's name on it to their home address - thereby incriminating them - along with the company name so anybody who happens to glance at it can look it up? Really?

So consider this a warning to any who do not have access to a private mailbox at home. I'd recommend not ordering from XP Medical, at least until this whole debacle gets sorted out.

When you order is there a "special request" or "message" area to tell them not to do that?

There is, actually, so that might be a viable option as well.

That is a very interesting business strategy. If I lived with my parents I would never order from them for that reason. Of course I'm sure my wife would get a kick out of that card if I got one now lol. I know they used to not do that though. I guess when they changed ownership they changed a few business policies as well.

That is totally unacceptable. I haven't ordered anything from XP Medical since the change of ownership and likely never will again. I've heard a lot of complaints about how they've been running the business. They got rid of several warehouses almost immediately and now ship everything from one centralized warehouse. Consequently, their shipping times have increased substantially for many customers, I used to be able to get products delivered from them the day with standard shipping. Now it would probably take closer to a week. I've switched to Northshore for all my non-ABDL diaper orders.

That's weird, I've never gotten anything like that from them, and I order from them almost every month. Have to keep an eye out for it. I honestly also have really missed Gary, while the prices are still the best in Medical diapers, and the service is still one of the best, it's the little things that are different. The new ownership is reaching for typical business strategies of typical businesses, and this is anything but a typical market.

This happened to me later last year. Fortunately, I have been living on my own for quite some time, so one of these cards arriving in the mail will not prove problematic for me. I also later got a discount code sent in the mail from the parent company, Live Anew.

INTrePid said:

That is totally unacceptable. I haven't ordered anything from XP Medical since the change of ownership and likely never will again. I've heard a lot of complaints about how they've been running the business. They got rid of several warehouses almost immediately and now ship everything from one centralized warehouse. Consequently, their shipping times have increased substantially for many customers, I used to be able to get products delivered from them the day with standard shipping. Now it would probably take closer to a week. I've switched to Northshore for all my non-ABDL diaper orders.

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Looking at the bigger picture in their main customer base, that may actually be a good move to make. Think about it... their typical IC customer is going to consider it a critical shortage to be down to one month of diapers. (I've heard that mentioned by several IC here in the past) So for them, 7-10 days shipping time is totally acceptable because they're usually ordering when they have well over a month's supply remaining. These are people that have to keep themselves stocked up in case there are problems. So if they can trade something they don't care about for a bit of savings, that's great, because many of them struggle financially due to related medical and disability issues.

It's easy to look at it from a "they shouldn't do that because it's bad for me" point of view and think they're making a mistake, when they have to look at the bigger picture of their core customer base.

I'd like to see a discussion/comparison between what the IC and the "recreational wearers" value most in their diaper retailers. I'd bet the typical IC user most valuess:
- product reliability
- stable / low cost
- product availability (never out-of-stock)
- consistent shipping time

I'd bet "fast turn around time between my order and the box at my door" places somewhere below those four for most IC. Multiple warehouses affect both average cost and consistency of shipping time. (warehouses cost money, and if it's out at one warehouse, it has to ship from a different one than usual)

This happened to me early last year. Luckily I was splitting an order with a friend and we'd shipped it to his house instead of mine. I'd already been hesitant about XP medical since the discreet shipping fails right after the ownership change, but seeing now that the thank you letters weren't just a one-off thing... I think they're now on my list of diaper companies I won't be doing business with anymore.

bambinod said:

Looking at the bigger picture in their main customer base, that may actually be a good move to make. Think about it... their typical IC customer is going to consider it a critical shortage to be down to one month of diapers. (I've heard that mentioned by several IC here in the past) So for them, 7-10 days shipping time is totally acceptable because they're usually ordering when they have well over a month's supply remaining. These are people that have to keep themselves stocked up in case there are problems. So if they can trade something they don't care about for a bit of savings, that's great, because many of them struggle financially due to related medical and disability issues.

It's easy to look at it from a "they shouldn't do that because it's bad for me" point of view and think they're making a mistake, when they have to look at the bigger picture of their core customer base.

I'd like to see a discussion/comparison between what the IC and the "recreational wearers" value most in their diaper retailers. I'd bet the typical IC user most valuess:
- product reliability
- stable / low cost
- product availability (never out-of-stock)
- consistent shipping time

I'd bet "fast turn around time between my order and the box at my door" places somewhere below those four for most IC. Multiple warehouses affect both average cost and consistency of shipping time. (warehouses cost money, and if it's out at one warehouse, it has to ship from a different one than usual)

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Well, being incontinent myself I have to admit this is pretty close to right. Unfortunately xpmedical doesn't carry a diaper that is really all that reliable. Their price increases haven't kept up with inflation though, so their quality had gone down to offset that loss. While it is true their diapers have never been unavailable, their shipping time has also fallen ever since the take over.

I used to be dedicated customer, but northshore has my business now. And for good reason.

bambinod said:

Looking at the bigger picture in their main customer base, that may actually be a good move to make. Think about it... their typical IC customer is going to consider it a critical shortage to be down to one month of diapers. (I've heard that mentioned by several IC here in the past) So for them, 7-10 days shipping time is totally acceptable because they're usually ordering when they have well over a month's supply remaining. These are people that have to keep themselves stocked up in case there are problems. So if they can trade something they don't care about for a bit of savings, that's great, because many of them struggle financially due to related medical and disability issues.

It's easy to look at it from a "they shouldn't do that because it's bad for me" point of view and think they're making a mistake, when they have to look at the bigger picture of their core customer base.

I'd like to see a discussion/comparison between what the IC and the "recreational wearers" value most in their diaper retailers. I'd bet the typical IC user most valuess:
- product reliability
- stable / low cost
- product availability (never out-of-stock)
- consistent shipping time

I'd bet "fast turn around time between my order and the box at my door" places somewhere below those four for most IC. Multiple warehouses affect both average cost and consistency of shipping time. (warehouses cost money, and if it's out at one warehouse, it has to ship from a different one than usual)

Click to expand...

This is definitely true, but weirdly enough, I think this has a lot to do with their warehouse move, they've gotten MUCH faster for me, like I get legit surprised that it gets here within like a day or two now from XPMedical. But I definitely follow this pattern nonetheless, the longer shipping times for ABU and Bambino are actually less of a problem for me because I order a monthly shipment that I have planned to bleed into the next month so I don't run out. Especially these days running out is a panic moment because there is literally nothing even remotely useable on store shelves anymore, not since Depends with Tabs started disappearing from them around here, which used to be my go-to for such emergencies.

But I've been ordering from XPMedical for so long that I actually haven't had to have that panic moment in a very long time.