Blood tests + Customer Care - a small saga!

[Moore-23]

Hello everyone,

I thought that I would put up this post to highlight that it is worth persevering with a certain thyroid blood test supplier.

Last summer I bought 2 thyroid blood tests on special offer on a thyroid discount day.

For various reasons I only got around to using one of the blood tests last week.

I took the test and sent it off. I then tried to update my details on my blood test profile online but found that the blood tests had expired!!!

I rang the blood test company Customer Care helpline to see what the solution might be (considering that I had spent £150 on the 2 tests) but the customer care lady said I had to buy brand new ones as the others had expired after 6 months. Needless to say I was absolutely fuming. (She had refused to do anything about the situation.) At no point had I seen anything about using the blood tests within 6 months.

I went online and looked at their Google reviews and found one person had renewed an expired blood test for £25. I phoned them up again and spoke to another lovely lady who renewed both my tests for a £25 flat fee and she sent out a new blood test kit to me. (This was to replace the other expired test that I had not used.)

I think it is naughty of the blood test company to say that the blood tests are only valid for 6 months whereas on the blood test packet, itself, it stated that it was valid for almost a year.

Please be aware of this anomaly and please do not end up paying more than you should. Some of the blood test company's Customer Care team are more experienced than others. A further two ladies, who I dealt with , were absolutely fabulous but the initial lady I talked to was dire. The blood test company very nearly lost me as a customer.

Please do persevere to get the response and care that you deserve. It is worth it in the end.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

If it's Medichecks (which I think it is) then you now only have 120 days to send your test back! This is now included in their email to inform you of "Order Complete":

Please note that you have 120 days to complete testing from the date of purchase. Please see our terms and conditions for further information.

Blue Horizon is 12 months.

MonitorMyHealth is whatever the expiry date on the box says.

[Moore-23 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Hi @SeasideSusie yes, it is. If it is in their small print then I really did not see this. On the blood test packet...it says expiry June 2021. I was really, really cross.

Anyway a £25 fee seems reasonable I guess to get it sorted. I just wish they had said that from the off.

I have checked my Regenerus saliva adrenals test kit is still valid so I must use it PDQ.

Thanks for the info and update.

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Moore-23]

They didn't used to put the amount of time to use the test in the email, it was buried in their Ts and Cs. Maybe they had some complaints and realise they should make it clearer, it's quite a recent addition to include this in the email.

I'm glad you got it sorted and £25 is much better than buying two new tests 😊

[LadyLovely84]

I think they must have different policies for different people as I’ve had the opposite experience to you this week - I was really impressed by their CS. It should be like this across the board. I had a £189 blood test expire due to the fact there were no places to get bloods done anymore nearby. The place I always used was shut. I explained as soon as I found out (while the kit was still “active”) and they did try and make me travel out of my county. I explained this was against rules and they suggested I wait and see if labs closer to me opened up. This was last November. Recently a new lab has opened but the kit expired. I contacted them and within a few hours they’d reactivated and sent a new kit at no extra cost. No problem whatsoever. It seems totally unfair that your experience was not as straightforward! I emailed...maybe that’s the difference? Although the lady on the phone in November said “if it expires in the meantime just ring up and we will reinstate it no problem”.

[Moore-23 in reply to LadyLovely84]

Many thanks LadyLovely84 for telling me about your experience. I guess it may depend on the training of the staff. One person I spoke to did admit that she was new but she said that she would check things and get back to me.

On the whole - the experience I had was good but I did have to keep hanging on in there. I was just so flabbergasted by the first lady who did not try to remedy the situation at all. It is basically bad business sense to do this. I am pretty stubborn so I kept on.

I am glad your experience was a lot different and worked out fine.

I have been concentrating on running my own businesses that is why I had left the tests so long.

[LadyLovely84 in reply to Moore-23]

It’s good it was resolved for you eventually but wrong it wasn’t as quick and easy for you as it was for me! Hopefully staff training might improve a bit so these things are standard across the whole company.

[Hedgeree]

This is something that I've been concerned with recently as I bought private blood tests then typically my gp decides to do my blood tests after all!

So I contacted Thriva and they said it's fine to delay doing your test and if the tubes expire they will send out a new test kit free of charge so hopefully it'll be the same rules by the time I do them.

[Moore-23]

That is lovely of Thriva. How wonderful! Good customer service. 🙂