PCR TEST NOT RECEIVED IN TIME TO BOARD FLIGHT - SEEKING COMPENSATION FOR COST OF EXTRA FLIGHTS! 19 September 2021 at 4:59PM in Coronavirus travel help & info 19 replies 803 views

y3sitsm3

Sandtree said:

Dr_Crypto said:

They’d be mad to make such a guarantee. How can they be sure that the analyser won’t break down, the tech go off sick, or any of the thousands of perils that can befall a medical lab?

Same way a travel insurer covers your costs if the train taking you to the airport breaks down or has staff shortages causing it to be cancelled etc... its a numbers game and you just have to charge enough to cover the risks.

What the OP hasnt explained is why they left it so late to have the test done in the first place... you really want to be doing all testing at the earliest opportunity else you are running a risk. If you are doing it late you want to remove all possible sources of delay... do an in person test not postal; ideally do a test at or close to the lab; pay more for a quicker service so you have as many spare hours for chasing etc.

But doing this will mean putting prices up to cover the cost of those tests that they fail to get back on time, which will likely make them uncompetitive.   As it seems most people are rather annoyed at having to pay for tests at all, good luck getting them to fork out the extra needed for a guaranteed service.  Most people are looking for the cheapest they can possibly get.

The OP's service was guaranteed in the sense that they'll refund you for the test if they fail to get it back in time and it was reasonably pricey.  I can only imagine how much they'd charge if they were also covering the cost of flights + hotels.

Sandtree

y3sitsm3 said:
But doing this will mean putting prices up to cover the cost of those tests that they fail to get back on time, which will likely make them uncompetitive.   As it seems most people are rather annoyed at having to pay for tests at all, good luck getting them to fork out the extra needed for a guaranteed service.  Most people are looking for the cheapest they can possibly get.

The OP's service was guaranteed in the sense that they'll refund you for the test if they fail to get it back in time and it was reasonably pricey.  I can only imagine how much they'd charge if they were also covering the cost of flights + hotels.

Absolutely it would be a commercial decision and a judgement call on if the benefit outweighs the cost in peoples mind.

When we needed a PCR test in a short window of time we did pay extra to go with a reputable clinic who gave us confidence in their capabilities and indeed when we had a problem they solved it for us. 

It is a distress purchase, most will go with the cheapest option but there will be some willing to pay more for a better service... know how to target those people and what their pricing elasticity is would be the challenge.  Something probably better suited for a long term service and not what we hope is a year or two.

[Deleted User]

y3sitsm3 said:

EIGHTOF8 said:

Thanks for the advice and the correction. Vivo Clinic and Randox are ripping people off.
Lesson learnt!

Hardly ripping you off when you didn't pay anything for the test.

Nobody will absolutely 100%, swear on my mothers grave, guarantee you'll get the results in time (they can't do this) and I'm not aware of a single one who will pay your expenses if they fail to get the test back to you in time.  Most won't even refund you the cost of the test.

They were quite upfront that the guarantee covered the cost of the test, not anything else.

To summarise, the OP is told by the company they'll have the results by midnight the next day, the company fails to provide the results by midnight, the company fails to keep the OP informed about the delay which further exacerbates the situation, the OP loses £500 as a result and despite having travel insurance gets no compensation, and your response is to scoff at them for being annoyed and gleefully revel in the fact the company's self-serving terms and conditions protect them from any claims.

Honestly, what is the point in a comment like this? Is it just some weird thrill from getting to lord it over people who have got caught out or what?

rigolith

EIGHTOF8 said:

Thanks for the advice and the correction. Vivo Clinic and Randox are ripping people off.
Lesson learnt!

There bigger rip off seems to be your insurance which doesn't cover this.

Thrugelmir

Sandtree said:

Dr_Crypto said:

They’d be mad to make such a guarantee. How can they be sure that the analyser won’t break down, the tech go off sick, or any of the thousands of perils that can befall a medical lab?

Same way a travel insurer covers your costs if the train taking you to the airport breaks down or has staff shortages causing it to be cancelled etc... its a numbers game and you just have to charge enough to cover the risks.

Insurance risk is priced. Numbers are far from a game. Certainly not an area of expertise for the average business. In fact enough concerns for them not to even enter the market place. 

y3sitsm3

Deleted_User said:

y3sitsm3 said:

EIGHTOF8 said:

Thanks for the advice and the correction. Vivo Clinic and Randox are ripping people off.
Lesson learnt!

Hardly ripping you off when you didn't pay anything for the test.

Nobody will absolutely 100%, swear on my mothers grave, guarantee you'll get the results in time (they can't do this) and I'm not aware of a single one who will pay your expenses if they fail to get the test back to you in time.  Most won't even refund you the cost of the test.

They were quite upfront that the guarantee covered the cost of the test, not anything else.

To summarise, the OP is told by the company they'll have the results by midnight the next day, the company fails to provide the results by midnight, the company fails to keep the OP informed about the delay which further exacerbates the situation, the OP loses £500 as a result and despite having travel insurance gets no compensation, and your response is to scoff at them for being annoyed and gleefully revel in the fact the company's self-serving terms and conditions protect them from any claims.

Honestly, what is the point in a comment like this? Is it just some weird thrill from getting to lord it over people who have got caught out or what?

Except they weren't told that were they?

They were told that there was a 24 hour turnaround, and that they'd get their money refunded if the company failed to do that.

The "guarantee" in itself was a massive red flag that the results may not be returned within the deadline.  And then there are the T&C's.

I'm sorry you live in a world where you deliberately ignore all the red flags when it suits you but plenty of us are still somewhat grounded in the real world.

Honestly, what is the point of a comment like YOURS that deliberately blows smoke up someone's backside for no reason other than giving false hope?

Sandtree

Thrugelmir said:

Sandtree said:

Dr_Crypto said:

They’d be mad to make such a guarantee. How can they be sure that the analyser won’t break down, the tech go off sick, or any of the thousands of perils that can befall a medical lab?

Same way a travel insurer covers your costs if the train taking you to the airport breaks down or has staff shortages causing it to be cancelled etc... its a numbers game and you just have to charge enough to cover the risks.

Insurance risk is priced. Numbers are far from a game. Certainly not an area of expertise for the average business. In fact enough concerns for them not to even enter the market place. 

Numbers are certainly a game... mass market insurance companies selling home and car insurance predominately hire statisticians for calculating their pricing whereas specialty insurers covering satellites etc use actuaries. This sort of thing is a numbers game, you need a volume of business to make it work as you'll be up £25 (or whatever the uplift) per unit on those that sell and timescales hit and down £500 on cases like the OP where you miss the timescales. 

Change the wording so you only cover actual losses rather than refunding if you miss the timescales but the customer doesnt lose anything and it may be less costly than the current offer. 

MoJoeGo

This situation is no different in principle to booking a flight and hotel separately, and then expecting the airline to compensate you for the cost of the hotel if they cancel the flight. 

Doesn't happen... but in that situation we do at least have the option of package holidays that tie the flight/accommodation/transport all together so one organisation is responsible for sorting everything out if one element of the package goes pear shaped. 

If pre-flight testing was really going to be a long term requirement (and hopefully it's not), then you would expect Travel Agents to start building it in to their packages - in fact don't TUI already do that?

But assuming it's something that is only going to be around for a short while longer, we will remain stuck with planning this ourselves and shouldering the risk if it goes wrong - although hopefully at least with insurance to back us up, and I think that looks to have been the major failing in this case...

Dr_Crypto

IME of the medical industry it is unusual to offer any guarantees especially when it comes to timings. 

There are some providers with onsite labs but these tend to be very expensive.