Hey Jazz99
Yes Nick Gitzai is the owner. I assumed his name was Nicholas but it is Nick. Nina, I believe Is tired of fielding our emails and not having anyone up in higher management hear her. No matter who we send the email to if it regards a complaint it will be bumped to her without upper management seeing it at all. Snail Mail is the only way to ensure it makes it to the desk of the owner Nick.
I also Received a few boxes that while the material wasn’t different, either the filter or the leak along the seam had been improved. The adhesive that attaches the 2 piece bags to the wafer is still so weak that I will have an odor leak regardless because of the adhesive pulling away from the barrier. I have been very afraid to reorder from Edgepark for the exact reason you stated of getting the older terrible bags.

When I presented the idea to Nina about meeting with the owner she didn’t encourage or discourage she just said, “you have his information call and see if you can meet with him”
From our previous conversations I was hoping she would seem a little more encouraging about the prospect of me meeting with them. I havent Reached out just yet but plan to by weeks end.

I feel for you sis, this whole thing just makes life harder.

Urostomy -  Cymed  we all know is not the quality it was.  After trying other products I did read in this forum about the Coloplast Sensura Mio one-piece.  My husband says it feels slightly longer however the drain is much softer and easier to empty.  I know most of the people in here are ostomy users so I can't help many of you.  The Sensura Mio is now going on 3 days of wear and has been very comfortable, has not leaked or loosened yet.  By following the correct cleaning preparation (which was the same he had been using with the Cymed as directed by a nurse years ago) we did not have to use the additional safety outside ring that we were supplied for free.  He does not care for the little paper slip that is used to grab hold of to remove the bag but he says it is not a real bother just seems unnecessary.  We can breathe a little easier as it was nip and tuck on running out of his old Cymed bags to finding something else. The coloplast person I spoke to was so happy to share tips, suggestions etc that I was blown away by her.  She even offered to send some things we did not need to use.  Bless her heart.  I could tell she really cared about helping me, help hubby, who was kind of trying to ignor what was going to happenvery soon. Finally he accepted he had to try something and he is feeling much better now that he has chosen a product that fits his needs comfortably.

@Momof3boys, i'm going to call UUOA (www.ostomy.org/advocacy/) tomorrow and ask what they know about distribution of European ostomy products in the states, to see if there are systemic barriers that might be addressed... Will also see if the Cymed debacle is on their radar, although that may not be a broad enough issue for their agenda... Don't we all have better things to do than this? :-| 

Yes @Jazz99 yes we have SO MANY better things to do!!! 

Thank you for your support, please keep me posted

really guys, what ostomy products are made here to begin with? coloplast is not, doesn't look like covatec is either

back in spring I posted on UOAA about  cymed's problems,  no one replied, few to none use cymed on that site.   some replies were, cymed difficult to put on.

i'd like to see cymed go under and coloplast purchase the rights to use the microskin flange.

this snail mail option is 1980's ish. they will know soon enough when re-orders for their products drop substantially.  I've tried to lead horses to water before.......... 

here's a list of ostomy manufacturers I found in a  bloombergs investment article.

The major manufacturers covered in this report
Coloplast
ConvaTec
Hollister
B. Braun
Medline Industries
Securi-T USA
Dansac
Welland Medical
Flexicare Medical
Marlen Manufacturing & Development
Peak Medical
Cymed

I recall talking to marlen years ago, they seemed like I small company that didn't produce what I was use to using, velcro closures. i looked at a couple more, they appear to be pretty small based on their web sites and what they offered.

If salts is not a very big company, they may not be able to make enough product to have suppliers in US. 

I have just recently been having with my cymed puchess.  They are pulling away from my skin and causing an awful mess.  May I ask what produce you switched to after using Cymed?  I have used ostomy products for over 30 years; and up until this past week, swore by Cymed. 

Flumuxed!

Hi. I'm using Convatec Active Life Drainable Pre-Cut Pouches as an alternative.

I did reorder more Cymed Platinum Microskin last month and they seem to have redesigned them half way back to the way they were, and they also seem to have purchased a ruler because now their 11" pouches are closer to 10" instead of 9". Using these newer Cymeds they're more reliable, but, the plastic is still the lower quality thus the potato chips bag type of crinkling when moving around.

So lately I've been alternating, using the Cymed (as the adhesive disk seems better for the skin around the stoma) and the Convatec back and forth (Convatec when traveling).

Oh and I use the closure clip that comes with the Convatecs (instead of the ridiculous metal/plastic tie wrap type of glue on's that come with the Cymeds) for both appliance types. These last well thru 30 days of use and keep the mess to a minimum on the Cymeds when emptying them. 

Hope you find this helpful.

Ken

Welcome to the newbies here...krphillip the newest I believe. If I may, I have a few suggestions about things that worked for me and would like to share them.  I want to be clear that I do not use the bag or company your are all discussing. I have learned to take about 5-10 min. after a bag change to rest, with a warm hot water bottle covering that area of the base plate of my bag. Protect the stoma from the heat. I lay a washcloth over the area first. It works almost too good when I used a hotter temp. bottle, but when I found that spending the time to get that seal to my skin it made a huge difference. Now, I realize you all are likely talking about a change in the product ingredients, but in the mean time, taking this time makes a huge difference in the success of my wear time. I also started taking the time to make sure that the area around the hole in the bag where the stoma is, I give extra attention by pressing and rubbing it against my skin and then moving out to the edges and then back to the center for a final hurrah. I have been doing this ever since I tried it, good bag or not, and I am happy with the wear time I get from the bags. Product ingredient changes can be a whole other story, but I wanted to encourage you to try this if you have not already. I also make sure that my stoma is dry when I put the bag over it. Any moisture can mess with a seal. Sometimes, after the lower half of my stoma is in place, I will take a Q-tip and pull off the cotton, and wind a strip of toilet paper to it instead. No fuzzies this way. Then I dry the top half of the stoma and slip the bag over it. For the noisey bag may I suggest trying to quiet it some by placing packing tape over the bag before wearing it. 

As for product cost, and being unsure if your going to get a refund or not...I recently had an issue with  a Hollister bag closure, and the company was more then willing to replace the bags I had to go thru so quickly.  However, my bags are covered by insurance and because I had put on 20 new Osto EZ Vents to 20 bags, going thru bag in two days was unacceptable cost wise for me.  So, because my bags were covered, they replaced the cost of the vents with M9 liquid deodorant to make up the cost difference. I was thrilled with this to say the least. They went above and beyond I thought, but it makes total sense to expect a company to replace the cost of what you put out on it's product with other of their products that you use and like, otherwise a complete refund is acceptable. If you ask for them to help in this way, offer to send back the bags you can not use once you get the replacement value product. Also ask if they would recover the shipping costs as well. 

Momof3boys...Have you taken this trip to give a face to face with the owner or manager? Talk about going above and beyond on your part. I have not read anything that says you did, and I am wondering how it went if you got the chance to go.  

Snail mail or not, it can make a difference in the out come. Maybe you can write a letter on the computer and print it off and send it with your hand written signature. If the company ignores these pleas for change it will be their loss if the business fails, but continuing to use products that fail only encourages them further. Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Also has anyone filed a complaint with the Ombudsman or a whistle Blower thru the news media. No company likes the issue of being made responsible for a product publicly. It can ruin them or give them a great big headache!  Think about it this way...a 1 cent product, sold for 2 cents, times 1000 unhappy consumers, that make a 1000 pennies in the companies pockets. If the bag is $10.00, and made for 3, that is a lot of money. Let me encourage you to bring this out in the open and help make the people aware of a faulty product, and a company taking advantage of you. If they have investors, they soon will not. Good luck to you all. I do not envy you the work or the time, money and energy this is taking from you.  

Linda

Hey guys, 

I wanted to post an update I received by a non-form member by email regarding some of their recent experiences with Cymed's "improved" products. 

Here is a brief (edited and redacted) summary of their findings after using 4+ boxes of supplies:

•  "The bag material itself became a thin crinkly cellophane material that was noisy and became noisier the longer you wore it. "
• "... if you used a standard clip instead of stick-on bread ties CYMED still provides, the bag film would begin to crimp and fold over on itself making clean-up and closing the clip a challenge. "
• "Of the 20 items in the first two replacement boxes, I had no wafer to appliance failures. .. In the next 2 1/2 boxes, I had two failures in the first, three in the next and two in the first five of the third. "

It's important to note that Cymed doesn't seem to be having many complaints about their "improved" product, so if you have been using any (since, lets say, June 2019 and afterward), please provide Cymed with your feedback (good or bad) so they can either continue to make improvements or settle on the current product. 

not sure what the standard clip is referring to ? if you are referring the the potato chip bag clip, I haven't used one in 11yrs and never would again. thats as old as NO power steering or power brakes. 

23,830 views since my last comment, that suggests many people are not happy.  by the post above, I surely would NOT waste my money on tying these bags again..   Its really sad, I found the best sealing bag and 1 year later they are at the bottom of the list.

Posted by: @dogtalkerer

not sure what the standard clip is referring to ?

Cymed offers two types: https://cymed.us/accessories.html

One is that "potato chip bag clip" style. LOL

My husband uses a urostomy but was having similar problems as the other posters.  We are happy to say that the last 3 boxes we got were improved - Finally and are working for him again without the leaks, the crinkling.  I would recommend  this product again.

@mermaidspla2

Thank you for sharing that! Do you mind letting us know what product #'s your husband uses? It may be helpful for other users to identify what's been improved. 

@veganostomy

Hey all, it’s been a minute. Thank you @veganostomy for resurrecting this thread. I if you remember wear a 2 piece colostomy bag. The wafers have now changed. Yay. ? Not sure if it just happened or, I finally got through my older stock and am now caught up with the continued subpar products. With all of this said, I emailed Nina Vollmer to discuss changes AGAIN, there was no reply. I then called Cymed and spoke with the NEW Nina, I cannot remember his name, I told him my continued frustrations and got him up to speed on the previous problems we were having a year ago. He said he had heard about the problems. I told him that while the bags were still subpar they were “working” if you want to call it that. I think we can all agree that when you have a product you’ve loved, changing the entire brand (when it feels like our lives are beholden to our bags) is overwhelming and frustrating. Which is why I’ve stayed with Cymed. I’ve got products from other companies but as I’ve said before Cymeds products are very low profile which is very important to me. The wafers are terrible and the bags, while they don’t leak, they don’t hold all that well either. I did have one bag, that while I was having a few looser bowel movements, did not even seal at the bottom, I wasn’t aware of it until, I I became embarrassingly aware of it. (again 2 piece bags, so the bottom is supposed to be sealed) that was an unfortunate sight for my 12yr old son to see. I was assured that the company wasn’t going “under” but the assurances weren’t strong. There were no promises made and no discussions toward change.

@momof3boys can you share the email for the "new Nina"? I had emailed her a few times over the past year for replacements with no response, and wondered...  Meanwhile I gave up on CyMed (sadly!!) and have been using a Holister product that is supposed to be easier on the skin than their usual. It's been working pretty well, but nowhere near as good as the old Cymed. The Holister has a larger "footprint" (wafer and tape attachment to abdomen) and is not nearly as flexible (or water-friendly) as the MicroSkin. :/

@jazz99

I don’t have the email of the NEW Nina, I got the phone number from the 10+ yr old website and asked for Nina, they told me she no longer worked there and gave me to the man who was the new Nina, I wish I remembered his name, if I do, I’ll post it. Edgepark medical was running low on supplies and needed to go to many different warehouses to get my 3 month order. This problem led me to my questions regarding the future of the company. He told me that when and if I need more product but can’t get it to order it directly from him, because I was ordering outside my amount allowed by insurance so I payed Edgepark’s retail price. 

Hi Momof3boys, 

Have you ever tried Coloplast's SenSura Mio? The barrier is smaller, flexible and helps to prevent problems around the stoma. If you haven't already, check out Eric's video on this product. Also, as with most companies, you can order free samples. Good luck on all accounts.

Stella

I am replying to myself because my husband informed that the last two boxes he received every other pouch was leaking just like the bad ones he was getting before so I guess we are not out of the woods yet. We have the lot number but I don't think anyone at Cymed cares anymore.

@mermaidspla2

That is so disappointing to hear. Thank you for letting us know. 

I would still suggest letting Cymed know. If they don't hear from real users, then they may assume everything is fine.