Medela Reviews 91

My pump had a broken piece (my fault). I ordered through insurance but I called Medela and their customer service was amazing! I sent a receipt and they had a new one shipped within 24 hours for free!

Got the Medala motion pumps. Whoever designed these things needs sacking to be honest.

First time ever using it - Accidentally left the electric unit attached when pouring the milk out (very easily done after you take the backing off to pour). Only to find after pouring the milk there is a hole which leads directly into the electric pumping unit filling it up with milk all around the electric board. It seems that is the correct pouring hole to use, but unfortunately really is not clear. The top of the unit also looks like it has a pouring feature, which is what I used and worked, but a lot of the milk travelled over the other hole to reach this point which is when it filled up the power source.

Not sure how that even got passed off as a sellable idea. To then be selling at premium prices, it should be expected that this sort of thing would never happen, especially so easily.

Do not recommend.

The most shocking customer service I have ever experienced in all my years. I actually had to throw the book at them for MONTHS, go to Fair Trading and have so many unpleasant, time consuming rants with different reps before they finally reluctantly sent me a PART of the partial refund I was asking for (I was asking for a refund just on the faulty motor, not the parts or accessories - to put it into perspective, I was asking for 59% back on the price I paid).

Oh, and did I mention they left me hanging with a broken pump for 2+ months for a ‘solution’, which was an ‘offer’ for me to buy a new motor for $xxx (no I’m not kidding), and then had the audacity to ask me why I went ahead and bought a new motor from a different company in the meantime… ummmmmm maybe because I’m exclusively pumping milk for my baby and I can’t just stop for months, feed her formula and then still have breast milk to pump when you finally decide to offer me a ‘solution’ for a fee over two months later?? I’m wondering how this simple biological fact was overlooked by the company that proudly boasts “science of care”.

The pump itself (new freestyle model) is far too expensive to become faulty a couple months into use. When it was working, it wasn’t even anything worth writing home about… the cycle speeds go down as the suction goes up - *eye roll*. Any generic pump can do that, where’s the quality that we’re paying the big, innovative, market leading name brand for? Also super loud and vibrates like crazy, needs to be put onto a piece of cloth so it doesn’t vibrate itself off the table. Did I mention the screen randomly freezes sometimes and you just have to switch it off and on again - and that’s not just with my faulty unit, there are entire forum threads dedicated to discussing this defect.

So many better options out there at a much better price point with more customisable settings and real customer support. Medela isn’t even trying anymore.

Same as everyone else.

Returned pump but kept being charged regardless.

Customer support do not answer phones or emails.

Had to tell bank to blacklist company.

I have bought two medela pumps after being impressed with the hospital pump.

The freestyle flex motor touchscreen freezes every use so settings cannot be adjusted until this is reset (this is the second to do exactly the same) and the tubing has several weak points and snaps at the connection point.

The magic Inbra is the worst pump I have used. Incredible painful to use when it actually works. Most of the time the pump shuts off after a few seconds due to errors like nipple position or how the pump and been built (never an issue with either of these things…) and the app is terrible. Also, there are 7 parts each cup to wash, sterilise and dry which is very impractical.

Additionally, customer service is absolutely woeful. Avoid.

Horible company, with an absolutly non working costumer support. Stay clear they will send you invoices even after you return their devise. and once you complain to them they simply dont answer and send the invoice to collection.

Was treat to a Medela pump for the birth of my twins due to positive recommendations. It was used very minimally and was saved to use for the birth of my daughter. It no longer works as handsfree and must be plugged into mains. Not ideal for busy mum. Customer service terrible for a pump this cost I would not recommend

Went with their very high end product, it was a total scam. One of those things that really did the same as any other brand but they marked the price up to 3k USD to make you think it's special. This is predatory behaviour because mothers who are desperate to produce milk may think it will help them but it's just draining their wallets.

They suck, dont buy their stuff.

They don’t appear to have any genuine customer service department, or if they do they do not answer the phone and take days to reply to emails. I’ve had a very poor experience trying to return my breast pump as the UPS drop lockers did not work, and 2 weeks later I am still awaiting collection that was apparently organised by Medela 8 days ago. There has been response to my chase emails and the phone line goes to voicemail. I would not recommend hiring from this company.

I emailed this company 2 weeks ago about one of the products that advertises Bluetooth compatibility with their app on the App Store asking for help on how to connect it with the app as the instructions that come with the product are very vague.

No response from the company at all even though it says they’d respond within 48 hours.

Very poor customer support. I wouldn’t recommend buying their products as there’s no support for them.

Stole my money, charged me for a second month when I had already returned the pump in plenty of time. There is NO customer service. You call a number which always goes through to voicemail, and no one ever calls you back in response to the voicemails. I also sent an email, you get an automatic response saying we will come back within 72 hours but no one did. Absolute rubbish, a midwife recommended this pump but I wil inform her not to recommend to anyone else in future.

Shocking customer service. Rented a pump and a faulty one turned up. Medela sent a working one but then charged a second month’s rent only a week after we had the working pump, after we had stated we didn’t want to continue with the rental. There is no way we could have returned the working one in time to avoid this charge and their response is that ‘there is nothing we can do’. Obviously they could have not charged us a second month, so ‘there is nothing we are willing to do’ would be more accurate.

I bought the medela harmony via Amazon, I had a house fire the day I’d received it which burnt two parts of my pump which I hadn’t even used yet! I could not buy spares for this online, however I contacted medela customer services and was put in touch with ‘Kyle Marshall’ who sent out the two parts I needed via next day delivery! Super impressed with them and their service.

Beware! They blocked my review on their website because it wasn’t positive.

‘I used one of these in 2020 and had a great experience. This time it has been a nightmare. I ordered a rental pump to help me wind down my supply to transition to formula feeding after travelling from New Zealand with a 12h time zone change. I ordered it to arrive the day before I got back so it was ready to go when I landed so I didn’t get blockage problems as the baby’s feeding was all over the place after the journey (been through this before). When the pump arrived it was faulty and did not work at all. This meant I was getting pain from oversupply with no working pump to help relieve the problem. I called first thing the next morning and they said they would exchange the pump for a working one but couldn’t get it to me until the next day so was struggling with over supply for 48h by then. I don’t understand why they don’t just plug in the machines and check they work before shipping them to a customer!? I then asked them to extend the return date before the rollover charge to recognise it was almost a week of the 14day period by the time I had a working machines and they refused! I am now having to return it less than a week after it arrived and get hold of a different pump to finish winding down my supply. It’s just been a headache from start to finish…’

The product is defective.
They do not issue refunds.
They won't give a replacement.
They will send a part they think may be the reason their device is faulty.
The customer service agent wasn't a bit sorry for the hassle.

I am never buying any Medela device again

16 day old swing flex pump developed a crack on the click cap which is part of the breast milk collector and they told me "purchase a new lid for £18"...

Clearly a faulty product, will be raising the matter through PayPal if a resolution isn't met.

22/04/24 - Response received from Medela that this is unusual and that they will be sending replacement connectors out to me and apologising for any distress and inconvenience caused. Shouldn't have to have this arguement as a parent of a newborn, but hopefully this will solve my issue.

I am on my second pump which is not working and I have no replacement for either of the pumps. One pump was out of the 12 month warranty, but do you really pay that much money and the pump to not work after 12 months. The other pump was bought in November and has malfunctioned. I am getting the run around and being told to go to Amazon, Amazon states to go directly to the manufacturer. I need to feed my child and I am massively out of pocket.

1st pump we had gifted to us the battery became faulty in 3-months and Medela would not replace (it was bought with cash by relative and receipt was lost). 2nd pump was bought as urgent replacement and arrived faulty. 3rd emergency replacement pump was bought (single pump) and the pump strength is abysmal. Medela is obviously suffering from quality issues and I would highly recommend looking elsewhere.

We purchased a Freestyle Flex pump and used it for around 10 months when our son was born, and all was well. We began to use it again when our daughter was born and it stopped working shortly thereafter. I contacted support and was told that there was no remedy for this issue, and even though the pump had only been used for about 11 months, it was out of the 1 year warranty since it was purchased so no replacement was offered.

Because we have all Medela accessories, we're now faced with the unpleasant experience of needing to buy a new Medela pump, which is essentially a disposable piece of garbage that's not made to last.

They take around 2 weeks to answer their emails and have the gall to state in their auto-reply to inbound emails that their customer service is "award winning." I'll advise all my friends and family to avoid Medela products.

Clearly more interested in squeezing as much money out of new parents as possible than helping out.

Awful customer service. Next day delivery took 5 days to arrive. Delivery company said my address didn’t exist so I replied to their email to change to a drop off point. This added 3 days on to the delivery and ended up going to their depot to get it. Medela said I was at fault for the delay for replying to the email asking me to change where it was sent to. They bill on calendar days but only offered a refund for 2 business days rather than the 4 we were without pump rental. They continued to bill based on the original date rather than the delivery date even though this meant we were paying for less days than we paid for.
Sent the pump back 4 days before the next billing cycle, but they took the next payment as it arrived back on the date of the next cycle. Complained to Customer Service but email has been ignored.