Hero Reviews 

I have had my Hero Health machine for almost 5 years now and until just recently, have had very few problems with the machine. I am considered a "Legacy" customer by Hero Health due to the fact that I was one of the original owners of the machine. In the beginning, Hero Health offered the machine at approximately $400 to it's customers and with it, they covered the monthly membership fee which included the software (accessed through wifi) that identified/dispensed the medications. Recently however, my machine started showing errors, before the machine actually attempted to disburse the medications, and the error message stated that I had to call Technical Support to clear. When speaking with Technical Support, they explained that I owned the machine longer than the 2-year warranty on the product and that they no longer supported the machine. I responded that I noticed that their ads were still advertising the same model that I owned and they changed their response to say that they were no longer repairing their machines and that I could not pay to repair any "mechanical" problems the machine may be experiencing. Their answer was for me to dispose of the machine and pay them $45/month to lease another machine (only the "Legacy" customers were allowed to purchase the machine - they quickly changed their program after the machine started generating interest to a lease program that included the cost of the membership). I started monitoring my machine and found that it didn't matter what the size or shape of the pill being dispensed, it generated the error after the first pill that was dispensed, and it also didn't matter which cell, of the 9 cells, the medication was being dispensed from, only solidifying my suspicion that the problem was not mechanical, but software related. Being software related, it would be the company, Hero Health, that would be the only one at issue, not the machine, leaving me to wonder if the company was attempting to discontinue my use of the machine I actually owned, not one that I was paying a monthly lease for. I sent an email to Customer Support at Hero Health, explaining my disappointment in their response, with them considering me a "Legacy" customer and not even providing a discount/incentive to go ahead and keep using a new machine by paying the monthly $45 lease. They sent me a response, requesting that I give them additional time to answer my email but then I never heard back. Although I might understand that they no longer wanted to have units with customers that paid more than $400 up front for their units, the method they have used to pursue getting rid of their long-time customers was anything but decent and honest. They could have easily said that I would need to start paying the $8.99/monthly for the membership fee and have me pay to fix any "mechanical" problems with the unit, but then they would lose the $45/month they are now charging for the lease of the unit. Unfortunately, Hero Health was the one who designated customers like myself as "Legacy" customers because we took the chance to put down more than $400 in the beginning to basically test a new product on the market - only to be thrown away when that product became popular. Not very honest or in the very least, decent.

Customer service is pretty atrocious. Email sent, no response in 9 days so I went to their website and opened a chat session. Only response they'd give me was they'd notify the "relevant department."

The dispenser itself is limited in the type of medication it can hold (which they don't tell you on the website), is very noisy dispensing, has trouble dispensing (some pills it won't dispense, some it gives more than it should). The alerts are loud, even at their lowest setting, and wake up my partner. The app to set up the pills needs a lot of work. If you want to change a dosage time (instead of same time 7 days a week, move the weekend later), instead of moving that whole list of medications, you need to adjust every single medication.

The device is defective, the few times before I gave up were fixable. This last issue I could not fix. It is impossible to get help from their customer service. You call you have to leave a voice-mail. So sent an online inquiry. A few days later they get back to me and the service rep Nina will not listen to the issue.

Problem with the machine, it keeps saying I pre-dispense my meds when I didn't. So I have to manually get my pills via on-demand. With Nina, instead of looking into it, she assumed I changed the settings. And keeps saying I deleted my schedule and changed to on-demand. I still show a schedule, the device recognized the schedule, I did not dispense manually with on-demand until the issue came up, and my settings literally say "Max on-demand pills per day ## in addition to a schedule" (meaning it does both and has been until this point).

But Nina will not listen but made an assumption.

For the most part the HERO medication dispenser, does it job well, it dispenses medication, but if you’re like me and don’t necessarily care about the adherence percentage, but it bothers you to see the numbers are off because the machine has made errors that you can’t fix is a bit frustrating.
One of my primary reasons for getting HERO was the medication count. When I setup the machine I sat on the floor with a letter opener and colored and white paper (to offset the medication colors) to count medication. I felt like a real pharmacist. I input the numbers into the app and put the pills in the machine when it was time. Two weeks later, there is no count. Its count is ‘estimating’, medium, low, or high. To fix this, I must recount the medication and re-input the numbers in the machine. Here’s to hoping it’s that easy and I don’t have delete medications entirely, again.
Secondly, I wanted to be able to “remotely” give a medication away from home. Their use of remote is a misnomer at best. You should probably think of ‘a remote,’ versus “remote” dispensing. My son uses a PRN (as needed) medication and this feature excited me, then real life. The feature only tells the main unit to release any medications that you have previously scheduled. PRN medications can be added and dispensed through HERO, but they can only be accessed through the main unit. Which is weird because it defies what remote has come to mean and there are many elderly people who use PRN medications. As a care giver or parent; whatever one’s role. I would think this should be desired as an option. HERO, “remotes,” into its machines all the time. I would think they would appreciate, “remoting.” LOL
1. The “remote” dispense does not always dispense.
2. Medication(s) taken outside of HERO aren’t always recorded as taken.
3. You can’t schedule once a month medication.
4. The unit does not always record dispensed/scheduled medication accurately.
5. You cannot fix, manage, or change any inaccurate information once it is posted.
6. The functionality of the app and manger-user’s ability to function in it is extremely limited.
7. Often you must completely delete a medication to resolve minor issues.
As stated, the HERO serves its main function well. However, if seeing pie charts with percentages, receiving insight-based adherence or lack thereof along with limited app functionality and the inability to correct machine errors you may want to look for a different option.
My advice to HERO would be to offer different levels of management. Not everybody is technically unsavvy. There are many older persons who have kept-up and are quite astute and there are many potential customers who don’t like limitations or inaccurate information. Hence the suggestion for an app with different management levels so that you can reach a broader customer base.