Forward - Primary Care For You Reviews

Waste of money, poor customer service, limited appts available….

When I tried to login to my first virtual baseline appt, I was having some technical issues. The person who was on the other end (customer service rep?) got frustrated, raised her voice with irritation and hung up on me after I suggested I will just reschedule (I could not focus on getting the camera and microphone to work on my laptop with her impatience, rude tone and unsupportive behavior). I figured the issue after disconnected and when I went to Forward to reschedule received error “can’t find appointments now” so I had to email. A rep called me back to reschedule and said we need to get you in 1-2 days so your blood work won’t old but we don’t have any virtual or office appts available in the next two days so you can go to the office to get blood drawn then book a virtual. I asked if I could just have an in office appt and she said none available (but they could take my blood).They wanted me to drive out to the office location for blood and then do a virtual appt, but there were no spots available for virtual appts for the next 2 days. This is a joke and I feel scammed! I thought this would be a cool thing to help me with managing my health better but I am completely embarrassed for signing up and getting stuck in $100 per month commitment now. I don’t even want to be a part of them anymore. It’s just horrible.

this app is the absolute biggest scam on the internet. I joined 5 months ago. Mind you, check if the location their ads are targeting you for are even open yet cause I signed up and was told AFTER that I’d have to wait for the location to open. Then I finally was able to schedule my initial consultation in December. That went well, ofc the doctors aren’t at fault. I was expecting to receive the biometrics kit that same week. It is now March and I never received it. I asked for first week of December after it did’t arrive and they said they would send me a tracking number.. didn’t receive one til late January only to see it had been lost in the mail. Okay fine, I asked for a new one. They said they’d “expedite my request.” One week later they ask for my address. Okay. By March 2nd I still had not received anything AND was not told that the location had already opened (what about all the symptoms I had requested I wanted checked all those months ago??). Well anyway I messaged them on March 2nd that I still have not received my biometrics kit. They said they’d “expedite my request” again. It is now March 15th. I’ve received absolutely nothing and have received 0 value from this app. This is absolutely the biggest scam on the internet. They’re not even trying.

Ugly, non-functional app. Freezes a lot, crashes. So many bugs. You’d think paying a team of enginerds 170k a year, they’d be able to craft something simple and elegant. Instead, develop an app based on “ux research” (which usually involves asking questions to complete morons to guide your design process).. As a designer that wasn’t just trained to be a photoshop slave, I find most apps to be ugly, and poorly function for the needs of the user—this one takes the cake.

In addition, the whole concept of this service is so San Francisco. Pay a monthly fee and have all this shiny data in your face, with the additional added entitlement to now see a doctor every single day if you wanted, for whatever, because they don’t charge per visit. Everything about the tech world in this city that is wrong is clearly highlighted with an app like this that further exacerbates the American ideal that we deserve every service person to bow to our whim, serve us when needed, and answer questions for us. Entitlement in app format for the upper-class, while people haven’t crafted an affordable app for people with little access to health insurance, mental health help, or more.

Plus, the guy that owns this cr-app is sitting back making bank off of a subscription fee based health service. Who would even support this?!

I’ve been a member for over a year. I’ve gone to get my baseline and occasional follow ups where I check my vitals about 7-8 times in total. I realized that paying a costly membership fee for not a lot gained was stupid of me. NYU Langone has a better app with more functionality and it’s free.

Also if you want to cancel, you can’t do it via Forward . You have to message someone and they try to keep you as a member by saying they will process the cancellation but taking days to do so and will offer you deals to keep you on. They should have simply lowered their fees in the first place to retain their membership.

Forward isn’t great and it’s hard to read their graphs so it’s difficult to tell - is my cholesterol reading at 190 or 200? Also after you make an appointment, Forward will still tell you to make an appointment after you do so which is irritating bc you think the notification is for something your doctor is telling you.

Unsure why I have all of my data on here if no one cares to read it before responding. Even when cancelling, they offered me a discounted rate of... the exact same rate I was paying. Twice. Want a covid test? Good news, you can schedule one. But it’ll be for 18 days from now. When my wife cancelled her membership, they immediately suspended her service even though she was paid until a month from now and had just paid the monthly membership fee. She lost 27 days of membership she paid for. Want to talk to someone on the phone? Good luck. You’ll call, talk to a robot, leave a voicemail, and wait for them to call you back eventually. Look at his many negative reviews there are and how they don’t respond to any of them. Save your money there are so many other services to use.

Negative rating if possible. For as much money as they charge per month and what they’ve put into marketing, office space, and onsite technology - you would expect the patient interface to at least be functional. I don’t have an ax grind and I really want them to succeed. But scheduling is crap. Good luck get a receipt or invoice. Navigation is going to make your eyes bleed. And the alerts are constant - but then it’s impossible to figure out why it’s alerting you. They need to burn Forward down and start from scratch. I spend all my time using it to message their customer care team for simple things that should be available in a sister website - which BTW, doesn’t exist. Website only exists to get you to buy a membership. Their whole angle is technology interfacing with health - but if you can’t get Forward right, your whole premise is doomed for failure

This is a review of Forward , not the actual service provided by this app.

I think Forward has a long way to go, especially since they’re marketing themselves as a tech heavy doctors office.

All of your data is more or less organized in a scrollable layout. Convenient, but there doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason as to how it’s organized. You’ve got my vaccines history, then my lipid panel then my flu shot. It would make sense to segment things - have a lab section. have an immunizations section, etc...

Scheduling is labor intensive. One Medical has a great scheduling system and I think this app should adopt from them. With OM, you select the reason for your visit, then you can see availability to their schedule and pick out what works best for you. With this app, you have to chat on... and go back and forth with scheduling. Not very efficient.

I do like that you can track trends in your data like weight and blood pressure. I also really appreciate that they collect my previous medical records from past providers and I actually get visibility to it! Very empowering!

No glitches, no bugs that I’ve noticed. App is pleasant to look at.

What’s the use of booking appointments in Forward if they can’t be added or forwarded to your calendar? Even the email confirmations aren’t recognized as appointments to add to your calendar. The text confirmations don’t have a calendar link. I’ve forwarded it to a different email platform and still it’s not picked up as a calendar event. You’ve got all sorts of interesting integrations in Forward but the simplest and most useful and effective one has been completely overlooked.

For me, a member for about six months or so, I have found it to be the most comprehensive and ‘reassuring’ medical care I have ever received. I come from a medical family; grew up in a town in Connecticut, where my physician father, with his medical office in our home, my nurse mother an associate in the practice and our eldest
Brother following him into medicine to be, today, a Professor of Medicine, at UCSF in the veterans hospital and both younger sisters becoming nurses as well.
That gave me quite a perspective; but this app, aptly named, brings the feel of the ‘family’ doc in the neighborhood with the most current in technology to treat patients.
Keep going this app.

I’ve had this app for about a year and I’ve always been happy with the service I have been getting. It’s fast, convenient and a nice office atmosphere. I am prone to UTIs as well and I’ve been able to sometimes get a prescription without having to go into the office if it’s not that bad yet. I just answer their questions and my history shows so that’s super convenient for me. I like I can message on Forward 24/7 and can ask about anything as well. I like being able to see my test results in Forward .

I’ve been a member for over two years. Forward has improved and become now organized. Being able to access my labs, historical data, medications and medical history is very convenient and easy. On occasion there have been glitches with updating a lab, which still hasn’t been updated, but overall it’s easy to book appointments and access info when needed. I love that they link my genetics to my medical tendencies. The in-office experience is wonderful - 5 stars on that! I recommend this app to all our friends.

App hangs so often that I have to kill it and restart it more than once in each usage session.

The text is truly tiny. On my iPhone Mini, it is one of very few apps that do not respect iOS’s text re-sizing, nor provide their own. Forward does not have a corresponding web site to solve this problem, nor does it support iPad, like many other iPhone-only apps do. They could easily do so, at least for the functionality that does not require Health Kit on the iPhone.

Forward is essential to benefit from a good medical health service, which is the only reason I give it more than zero stars. If not, I would never use it, with the such severe issues as the above.

Their website says they will give you test results in minutes, but you go to the office and they say hours. Hours isn’t too bad for test results if they could actually deliver on that, it actually took eight days to get test results. That’s OK too, if they would just tell you it’s eight days to get results. I drive 100 miles to see my doctor, who doesn’t even show up for the appointment that was made weeks in advance. Tried to cancel my membership, can’t get anyone on the phone and as soon as you say you want to cancel on Forward they stop talking to you. My next step is to file a complaint with the state of California. Don’t use this service.

Holy GOD this was an awful experience from start to finish. Multiple appointments rescheduled, eventually everything was cancelled due to covid. Tried to get help in the meantime and they could not have cared less. Literally lied to me about it being illegal to treat me not even 45 minutes after the exact service I was inquiring about was announced on twitter. Had all of my preferences RE name ignored and was given excuses instead of just an apology. They’ll keep offering you a free month every time you ask for your money back to hide the truth: you’re never gonna see a doctor. I low key don’t believe that ANYONE has been treated at a this app facility after my experience. They’re just trying to get everyone’s money before they realize it’s a sham.

I haven’t had an app with a past doctor that had this much functionality. I appreciate having all of my health data in one place, and tracking key indicators over time (like cholesterol, weight, blood pressure, etc). I also like that I can chat with a care team 24/7. Forward is improving and I know it will only get better. I should note that while I do use the this app app and service regularly, I also work at this app.

My partner a friend and I just signed up with this app. We downloaded the appt and tried to schedule an appointment but to find out that it’ll take about a month for an in person appointment. Then we tried to have the in home service, saw available time in 3 weeks from today but when click on it, it says no available time. The process of getting into your office seems just like another medical office. You also advertise yourself as heavily tech medical office but yet your app is less than par to browse and to use. What sets you apart if We have to deal with the same bureaucracy to get into your office?
I’m canceling as soon as I talk to the rest of my family members.

I’ve been member almost a month & couldnt book my baseline until 2 payments were made, this makes me a lil worried.
But Forward is horrible. It’s been frozen on same page & I cannot even get to another page to find out when my apt is, tried calling, seems like everything has to be done through App, even the payments. I called several times to explain & they keep sending a link to their App.
I have horrible Drs& I’m praying this will work.
The person to person contact is great, but if I have to do everything through Forward? I’m bit concerned

Only way to communicate is by messaging, via email, outside of Forward . No phone number anywhere to be found.

First baseline visit scheduling is great, but if you want to see if a better time is available, one has to actually cancel the existing appointment before seeing the remaining schedule. So, you have no way of knowing if the decision to cancel results in the next available appointment being a month out.

Why reschedule? Because it is only after scheduling that you are notified that you have to fast for 12 hours prior to the appointment. So, a late afternoon appointment is brutal.

Not a review in the service, as I have yet to experience it. After signing up for a membership and filling in required info, there is no way to access information in Forward . I was informed at a physical location that Forward opens up once you’ve had your baseline health assessment, but the process of scheduling that through Forward leaves a lot to be desired. I showed up (after believing I had booked an appointment) and was told nothing had been scheduled. Worst part: no way to contact the health team to confirm appointment. Very poor start to a very expensive service.

I first heard of this during (incessant!!!) adverts on TV. The idea of paying a set monthly fee and then be able to get appts and not have to worry about other costs seemed... interesting.

I downloaded Forward, and after answering a lot of questions, I finally got the 'brick wall';

It asked 'which state am I in'.

There's 50 States in the US. this app lists ONE; California

That's why I say this isn't ready for the big time.

Until they can get their act together and offer something nationally, this is nothing more than a local thing, and - I say this but just about this, but I've run across this before; Forward should tell you RIGHT UP FRONT that it's only available in ONE STATE.

No one needs to waste their time to find out that this isn't available ANYWHERE BUT California after answering a bunch of questions!

Who knows what the future will bring for this thing, but right now, it's extremely (EXTREMELY!) restricted.

I love the medical staff and doctors but have become so frustrated with the care team. It’s like connecting with ask Jeeves vs. someone who actually looks to your info and has true medical experience. Ultimately, I find myself asking for doctor review of what I send in more often than not. The overall experience with this app is great but the headaches the care team give me may ultimately be enough to drive me away since 80% of my interactions as a patient are via Forward .

At 1st it seems really cool. Once you start interacting with Forward , its not so cool anymore. The Drs office puts in most of the info. The chat feature connects u to a difference person every time and each of them either don't see or don't care to look at the rest of the conversation. And the DO lie. They will tell you anything to appease you. Oh your results are coming, someone will follow up with you shortly, we are getting started on that right away, in some cases it was 3 weeks before they could get me any info. The experince is cool, but not worth the money 😢.

This makes One Medical look like a bit of a joke to be honest. I’ve been a FWD member for a month now and they’ve been more proactive and helpful than OM have been in 5+ years. If you want to own and make meaningful progress with your health, habits and fitness, FWD is the way to go!

Need more medical understanding of the diagnosis and treatment from the chat staff ... they are polite but do not answer questions easily ...
Still have to give overall marks of Four Stars getting five will require improved script delivery to the providers ..
All in all the service is a plus ...
Alan DDS

There’s quite a number of bugs on Forward and it’s super difficult to see your statistics on the phone, and when I try to download on the iPad I can’t even download it, you guys really need to get your act together and fast, to keep your members.
There should be web page, iPad, and iPhone all 3....not just iPhone apps

Forward works well when it works, but I CANNOT open Forward . It keeps crashing.

I’ve emailed this app multiple times and they keep telling me they will email the engineering team. I have not had access for all of December. Please reach out to me

Bugs seem to emerge, vanish, and re-appear with little attention to end-users. No one seems to provide support for app. Too bad since the service of the care team is excellent. Management should work on getting their operations act together.

Sadly I cannot do anything with my app but stare at my appt screen. I cannot chat, cannot get covid assessment...nothing.

Trying to get troubleshooted and still waiting on emails back and forth. Both the convenience I had hoped for. Will be cancelling.

I was told the genetic testing was compliant with hipAa privacy - it is not. It’s a 23 and me and sells your data. Also Forward keeps saying offline - or not on server when you try to chat with the care team. There is no other way to reach them.

Keeps crashing on IPhone XS iOS 13

1. When I click “Contact Us” for help, Forward immediately assumes that I’m using the native Apple Mail App - I don’t have Forward downloaded so I’m redirected to Forward Store. It would be great if there were more options for receiving support from within Forward - either the ability to select a default mail client or even make the contact email available to copy and paste.

2. The only way to upload insurance card info is by taking a picture of the card. It would be great if there were other ways to upload one’s insurance information - even if it where just a manual entry option.

It's amazing that my doctor can see the data from my wearables to make a tailored care plan just for me! I love that I can see everything we talked about during my doctors appointment so I don't have to remember everything!! The BEST part is having access to my care team 24/7 for questions or concerns because I always forget to ask everything in person!