Tests4You - Bad experience

Hopefully the Day 2 Lateral flow tests will soon be a thing of the past.  Last time, November 21, we went through this procedure it was fine - but the nominated testing company is no longer on the government approved list, so we were obliged to use another and made a bad choice - Tests4You.

Initially Tests4You seemed OK, they have an almost excessive procedure to demonstrate that they've delivered the test kit to your UK address (but that might be part of their ploy).  The directions/procedure to actually complete the task is impossible.  A combination of instructions that are absurdly excessive, part of which is ambiguous and makes no sense.

So in effect their costs are just sending out the kit, which another company has designed - no doubt a nice little earner.

The whole concept is a farce, even more so by the latest publicised stupidity from Boris.  But if the Day 2 test is still in place next time we fly into UK I certainly won't use these guys.

 

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A friend who is a chemist, and very well educated, doesn't do the tests and sends of the same testing kit numbers every time, back and forth to Spain, never had any problems.

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Finally managed to submit the Lateral Flow Test, despite the barriers imposed by Tests4You.  Some of the of questions seem absurd - NHS Number, Ethnicity, Flight & Seat numbers of flight, URL, test package booking ref, dates of first and second jabs - these were just the ones I recall when I filled in their second form with the test, which was in addition to the first set.

A lot of people, chemists and tennis players will no doubt just use the number they provide to complete the Locator form and not bother with rest, which is rather selfish and defeats the object of the exercise - so the £150,000 plus deaths in UK will increase.  All a bit crazy.  Covid will be around for a while so we need to be a darn sight more realistic.

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There may be some profiteering going on for home DIY rapid lateral flow tests, in the UK they range from £7.99 to £38.00. In Spain, the government has now capped them at €2.94.

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That's good to hear.

I understand that there's now a mandatory 3 year guarantee that has to be provided on all new electrical goods sold by retailers in Spain.  Up until now the "guarantee" has been wrongly used as a limitation of consumer rights.  This might make it more difficult for retailers to walk away from their responsibilities.

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Will this apply to the China shops who refuse to give a refund on faulty goods?

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A lot of people, chemists and tennis players will no doubt just use the number they provide to complete the Locator form and not bother with rest, which is rather selfish and defeats the object of the exercise - so the £150,000 plus deaths in UK will increase. All a bit crazy. Covid will be around for a while so we need to be a darn sight more realistic.......Sorry acer nothing selfish about it at all, no more then all the crap the UK has had to go through over the past nearly two years, as for the deaths from covid perhaps try and learn the facts, most died with 'Covid' not from it, big difference, and go into any UK hospital with any illness and you have a more then better chance of catching covid in hospital then outside, these are honest facts, and I do know some who died in hospital from the illness they went in for but death certificate said 'Death from covid'.

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Kavanagh,

I reckon the Chinese shops would go bust if they were to have such a policy.  I invariably regret using them, but still do.   In fairness I use one on Camposol occasionally who have been reasonable.  For the others the magic word seems to "Denuncia".

I believe the new legislation is intended to apply to domestic electrical goods.  Manufacturers must provide a 3 year warranty foc.

In practice it's probably wider than UK and removes the hassle.

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Acer, I fully agree. Many Chinese shops have a prominent notice on the entrance door ‘’No refunds given, exchange or credit note only’’ not sure if that is legal. Anyway, I have heard on the grapevine that they are going to start selling home DIY rapid lateral flow tests at half price and they are guaranteed to test negative.

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Kavanagh, Yeah - I reckon they pinched the idea from some of the test centres in Spain.  On one occasion I was given the certificate literally within a few seconds of having the stick poked towards my nose.

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We all know the symptoms of the yearly flu, someone I know, not a tennis player or chemist, but a scientist, works in a testing centre, they are struggling to get a correct positive or negative covid test result because the tests can't tell the flu virus apart from the covid virus, she said the results are so close it's worrying, she would wouldn't commit when I asked her...'So which way do you go with the results then?'

This message was last edited by baz1946 on 1/20/2022.
This message was last edited by baz1946 on 1/20/2022.

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Much comes down to individuals' bodies immune systems .....presumably if patients go into hospital with their immune system already under stress for whatever reason and then catch Covid, this could well further exacerbate their natural immunity and increase their risk of major compications, so in a pandemic of this nature it becomes esssential that everyone take precautions to minimise transference of Covid.

Trouble is that a-symptomatic transference ( where you have no symptoms but can still have Covid) has been difficult to assess without PCR testing. But vaccination uptake has thankfully in the interim proved an effective means of curtailing those instances of immune systems being over stressed (thus limiting the deaths).

There is now significant research looking at immune systems and some surprising results have shown that the gut plays an important part in impacting immunity, such that for instance deficiency in B12 can also play its part. Likewise with obesity or ethnicity ...fascinating stuff.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/excess-weight-can-increase-risk-of-serious-illness-and-death-from-covid-19

Maybe this is why emphasis is being placed on evidence based science and why some companies are trying to ascertain a wider spectrum of detail from the testing processes. 
 

Anyway Covid has certainly identified other factors to everyday lifestyles that can impact virus transmission in general and if the scientists can be assisted in the process of curtailing major health problems through evidence gathering then presumably perhaps this is in everyone's best interests going forward, especially when health systems around the world are being challenged with this horrible pandemic.

There's an amazing guy in the UK ( Professor Tim Spector) who developed an app, the ZOE app, for people to highlight their symptoms and he issues ongoing scientific findings. For those interested see 

https://covid.joinzoe.com/data

https://joinzoe.com/

 

He's now also following through on this link to the gut ...watch this space as they say! Obviously with an educative intent to improve gut health and general well-being. Self help if you will... each to their own of course but interesting nevertheless. It is UK based however but the research gathering is hopefully proving of help to all nations.

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