Very bad NIPT experience and difficult company to communicate with
Very bad NIPT experience and difficult company to communicate with. I ordered a home post kit for an NIPT test from them as I foolishly thought that I would get through the test faster than attending a London based lab in person (based on limited availability I could find around my job). Their site offers a free genetic consultation to identify the best test for each individual, unfortunately it was very hard to get through their lines and at the end I ordered a kit without any specialist’s advice. Even though they promise same day shipping, the kit was ordered on 5th of January and arrived on 10th of January. The kit included very poor instructions on how to use and the fact that I’d need to secure my own medical professional to draw the blood should have been stressed out clearly. Instead, it was never communicated to me since the day I ordered the test, so that I could be prepared. I also never received a confirmation email or track your package link by them. After numerous unanswered phonecalls to their two offices, I managed to get hold of someone through facebook messanger to help with the next steps. The person was not sympathetic at all and kept referring me back to the “small letters” of their website, blaming me for not having read their information through sufficiently. Their site advised indeed that a private phlebotomist would be needed to draw the blood and a small fee might apply, which understatably many people would have missed. The company their customer service employee recommended for this gave me a quote of nearly £200 for a blood draw which is nowhere near a small fee! I was already infuriated by then. By the time the sample was taken and needed to be collected, another nightmare of unanswered phonecalls and email by both me and my husband started. If we hadn’t insisted, we could have easily lost another day. After the courier collected the sample, again no confirmation/track your pack emails whatsoever. The disappointment increased further when I got a phonecall 10 days later to say the lab couldn’t examine my blood sample and a re draw is needed! After I discussed with my baby company that both vessels were full and I followed the instructions correctly for packaging etc. they confirmed there’s nothing I should do differently with the second kit, instead they said the first sample was probably damaged in transit due to the cold weather in the UK. I was told this is a very rare occurrence but reading further reviews since it doesn’t seem like it’s that rare and it’s probably due to them working with a lab so far away.I thought blaming the weather was a joke and I was very worried this might happen the second time as well as it was still winter! Furthermore, even though both times I got my blood draw first thing in the morning, I had to wait untill after 4-5pm for the courier to arrive, so another day was probably lost in transit. This could have easily been prevented and reduce risk of contamination by better planning of their courier service. Overall, I ordered the NIPT test on 5th of January and received results exactly a month after, with a lot of chasing on my end. In the last few days, my experience improved as I got a few updates from a helpful employee. However when the results were sent to me, the report was not particularly comprehensive and wasn’t offering the possibility of risk like the free NHS test, and it was again obvious that there wasn’t anyone with any training involved to talk me through the 1 page report apart from the receptionist. This might be a good company to use if you live locally to their boutique but their home post NIPT tests is not something that I’d recomment to anyone! It was a stressful time for me and I wish I had read the reviews more thoroughly before spending hundreds of pounds!
