know your body food allergy testing (groupon deal)

ali-t

Did anyone else take out the know your body food allergy testing deal on groupon back in August?

I bought the enhanced version and received the questionnaire and request for a hair sample a few weeks letter. I sent this back completed and with the requisite chunk of hair :mad: and have heard nowt back.

The phone numbers on their website and with the groupon voucher are mobiles, neither of which are switched on and there is no voicemail facility. The contact them form on the website goes unanswered and groupon haven't got back to me either.

A warning for MSE users to avoid their site and I am wondering if anyone took the deal and they kept to their side of it?

I will go back to groupon again and hopefully get a refund (£79) but I am not hopeful of getting the results of the testing.

becski

I was just wondering if you managed to get the money back from Groupon?
I had exactly the same problem, bought the voucher in July and by the time I received the questionnaire and sent it back with a hair sample in was September. Messaged them through their website in December (I was away for a couple of months) and have never heard anything back. I remembered about this a few weeks ago when I received a Groupon email for the same voucher, so they are still selling it, I'm going to try ringing the numbers on Monday and if not get in touch with Groupon.

ali-t

Becski, I e-mailed groupon a couple of times and tried phoning too without much success but then contacted them again, they apologised for not acting sooner and refunded my money which was good of them. My only gripe was that I had to hack a chunk out of my hair and didn't even get the feedback from the company.

RachaelLeeds

Hi there, I had the same experience from the January offer. Sent off my details and chunk of hair, no response. I got through to someone by phone but they said I would be emailed, having taken all my details again.
I contacted Groupon who have offered to refund, with the following comment:
"I have forwarded your comments to all involved parties, in the hope that such scenarios will not occur again. Your query has been flagged in our deal database - for us as a young company, it is crucial that the feedback loop is pro-actively implemented. I am confident that the contents of your query will help us improve our service fast enough so that it will reflect in your next purchase."

Which makes me wonder if they had to refund from a previous offer, why it was run again in January.

Also, I'm just a little concerned about how this company now has my full name, contact details, medical history (DNA in the form of my hair!) and I have no idea whether it is a simple scam, or something more sinister?
Am I overreacting?

becski

A quick update - I've just received an email back from Know Your Body saying:

Apologies for the delay getting back to you, we have been revamping customer services and this has affected performance, but we are better for the changes.
Our records show that a test kit was sent out to you and that we never received it back. Sorry if they went missing somehow along the way, but we will re-send one immediately. The address we have for you is,

????????

please confirm this is the correct address.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your time.

Yours,

Know Your Body

I suppose the only thing to do is let them send another sample kit and send it back by recorded delivery and see what happens next.

I'll keep updating - at least we know there is someone at the other end which is progress.

ali-t

That's strange. I don't know if I would trust them now after all the messing around. good luck whatever you decide to do.

een2jah

I had exactly the same. Bought a Groupon last August, received the letter asking for a sample and got nothing back.

Emails are not answered. The "office" address is a mailbox company in Leeds. I rang the mailbox company and there are definitely no offices for "know your body" there but they knew the company and said the owner, Richard Etches, comes in every day to get his mail.

The phone is answered by a company called First Response who answer calls for other companies and pretend to be employed by that company. Just ask if they are First Response and they drop the act. They can't do anything other than take messages. I informed the manager of First Response about the issues.

This definitely seems like a scam and lots of sites including the US have had the same experiences.

Groupon eventually gave me a full refund which I was very grateful for. Hopefully they now have enough to remove this company.

I later received another form from "know your body" requesting a hair sample which I tore up and sent back in their pre-paid envelope.

Kite2010

Most likely "Know your body" is a genuine company whom has been flooded with hair samples from people from Groupon getting their deal. The office/lab might only be just a portacabin on an industrial park so they hide behind Mailboxes and "first response" to hide their true address for security.

malkie76

The entire thing is a scam - there is no scientific evidence supporting allergy diagnosis from hair samples. It's utter nonsense. http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/physical_health/conditions/in_depth/allergies/allergicmedical_testing.shtml

fluffnutter

I know this isn't really the issue, but this kind of thing is rubbish. Allergy diagnosis is pretty specialised (not to mention that genuine food allergies are rare). This sounds like nothing more than a gimmick designed to get you to spend further on 'special diets' once your 'allergies' have been 'diagnosed'.

With regard to getting your money back, OP, keep on at Groupon.

wary

Kite2010 wrote: »

Most likely "Know your body" is a genuine company whom has been flooded with hair samples from people from Groupon getting their deal.

More likely they're a wig company trying to minimise their spend on hair :rotfl: