Randox forced to changes its business practices by the Competition & Markets Authority

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• Scott says:

  3 Dec3 December 12:48

  I’ve got a walk in, results before 11:59pm, PCR test with Randox on Thursday. Might do an allergen test as well as back-up.

  My Collinson allergen and PCR tests were in house at St. Pancras so no issues there.

  SimplyTestMe were fine sending me my day 2 lateral flow kit that’s no use now for the US.

  Need another test on the 16th Dec (was going to do one for the US etc. on the 15th after landing, but that’s now too early for my flights on the 17th).
  Depending on how Randox works out, I’ll then decide who to book with.

  Some don’t seem very flexible in my opinion. Make a date mistake, miss your time etc. and need to change and it’s a case of “Tough. Book a new test”.

  • John says:

    3 Dec3 December 13:32

    Allergen tests are very different from what you presumably meant (antigen)

• TimM says:

  3 Dec3 December 12:52

  Covid testing should be part of the NHS, streamlined, efficient and with a consistent delivery service model. Farming out contracts worth billions collectively to those well-connected with the Conservative Party and making, by law, the citizen pay through the nose, is the biggest swindle of our time made possible only by a huge Government majority, an ineffective opposition, an undemocratic political system and voters either too apathetic to care or disenfranchised by electoral law changes. Daylight robbery.

  • Will says:

    3 Dec3 December 13:09

    Without wishing to get into a health service debate, and while I’m in agreement that it’s been a joke the way they have organised the testing, I’m certainly not as confident as you that the NHS has a good track record of being streamlined, efficient and consistent.

    Usually though the money will go to lots of regular salary people with the NHS, rather than concentrating billions in the hands of a few connected Cronys.

  • Anuj says:

    3 Dec3 December 13:09

    Exactly, it angers me that we spent all this money on NHS test and trace and then they didn’t bother using the capacity. If they made a small profit on each test for travel, it could have helped fund the continued test and trace service. There wouldn’t be any issues with the post etc.

    • Dubious says:

      3 Dec3 December 13:11

      This is a good idea!

  • Dubious says:

    3 Dec3 December 13:09

    I’m not sure that having tests on the NHS would change much.
    The tests would still be contracted out in some manner, but with less transparency, less choice and less ability for agencies such as the CMA to scrutinise decisions publicly – and with all tax payers funding it rather than those who choose to travel.

    • John says:

      3 Dec3 December 13:35

      Make a £20 charge on the PLF then no need for all this confusing nonsense. Imagine if your English isn’t great, how would you choose which provider to use?

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    3 Dec3 December 13:11

    “streamlined, efficient and with a consistent delivery service model” I can only assume you have no experience of NHS commissioning, organisation or service delivery 😀

    • Andrew says:

      3 Dec3 December 13:28

      We haven’t had a working extractor fan in the toilets for 10 years as none of the 15 budget holders, whose staff use the toilets, is prepared to stump up the cost of the replacment + fitting.

      That’s how the NHS works.

      Oh, or. Place an order with NHS Procurement. A fortnight later you realise that stocks are critically low. On checking, you find that the order was cancelled, without notification, because NHS procurement were out of stock – but they are in stock again so if you reorder they’ll be there within a week.

      But most important of all.

      Don’t forget that neither Labour controlled NHS Wales nor SNP controlled NHS Scotland set up their own labs for their residents either. It’s far too high risk for Nicola, Mark or Boris to be directly responsible for upsets to people’s holidays.

  • JDB says:

    3 Dec3 December 14:03

    The NHS covid testing is largely contracted out, much of it to Randox. The NHS really doesn’t want to get involved in the selling, admin and logistics etc. of travel testing. You refer to the government ‘swindle’ but the opposition (that your post suggests you support) want you to pay for a whole lot more tests, including pre-return to the UK and day 8 tests as well as 10 day quarantine! You also say, by law, making the citizen pay (for travel tests) – well nobody is being forced into leisure travel. I think that most people reading this site are higher rate tax payers, so amongst the top 10% of income earners; paying for tests is just part of the already expensive holiday cost.

    • J says:

      4 Dec4 December 11:22

      Luxury Holidays aren’t the only reason people fly. Hundreds of thousands of UK residents are being priced out of visiting family abroad because of the test costs. In many cases the tests cost more than the flights. The constant stream of asinine comments belittling flights as unnecessary ‘holidays’ is ridiculous.

• Speedbird676 says:

  3 Dec3 December 13:37

  Randox has been our go to provider and have found them to be very reliable, despite these flaws in their small print.

  The CMA should be focussing on the raft of providers offering 95p and £1 tests on gov.uk!

  • Sam says:

    3 Dec3 December 14:18

    I have seen complaints about someone being refused refund/amendment of a wrong order despite the kit I was not despatched, which now seems illegal as I just knew the 14 day cooling off side apply to them.

    I used their service in Sep without any issue either but, just because I had an okay experience it doesn’t dismiss their poor service record. I took it as I was lucky, not that Randox knows what they are doing.

  • Harry T says:

    3 Dec3 December 16:59

    Randox have been very reliable and efficient the two times we used them for day 2 PCRs.

    • Mrs Lorraine Norman says:

      3 Dec3 December 17:22

      Ditto used twice now no problem whatsoever.

    • Speedbird676 says:

      3 Dec3 December 17:38

      Second that – used them five times now and never an issue.

• ankomonkey says:

  3 Dec3 December 14:48

  In my experience, Eurofins have been the worst, followed by Biograd Diagnostics. I’d like to see these two get their comeuppance…

  • Sandgrounder says:

    3 Dec3 December 15:22

    What was your problem with Biograd ankomonkey? They are providing a great price point at the moment for in person tests, but me and mine have had a few admin issues over the last 18 months.

• Phil G says:

  3 Dec3 December 17:59

  Personally never had an issue with Randox. Used both walk in and at home services and had results back well within quoted timescales.

• Jerry says:

  3 Dec3 December 19:18

  Picked up a click and collect Day 2 Randox PCR test for £34.99 2 days ago (travelling next Monday) in Norwich. Norwich was the only pick up place for literally miles. The C+C headline price is misleading for many. Also the drop off points are very limited – many of them clinics only open working hours 9-5. I was also concerned Randox disn’t guarantee the results by 23:59 next working day. The govt should have been all over this before they listed these companies on the .gov.uk website. I chose Randox because at least I believed I would actually get a result.

• SPW says:

  3 Dec3 December 20:18

  Thanks for making us aware of this Rob.

  If anyone has some legal advice for me this would be awesome!
  We recently used Randox before going away to Mauritius (on points of course!) and they did not meet their SLA’s. We ended up having to rush to Heathrow to do the 3 hour test (at the cost of £120 or so each!) on the day of our flight. Thank god we had a night flight!

  We complained to Randox (who had no clue what status our tests were when we asked) but they say they are only liable for the amount they have charged us for the tests (£50 or so) but not the additional we had to spend because they didn’t meet their SLA’s.

  Does anyone know if this is the case or not? Thank you all.

  • Nick says:

    3 Dec3 December 22:49

    They are not responsible for consequential loss, only the amount you gave them originally. S75 would help if the product cost over £100 as you could claim from your bank instead.

• HH says:

  3 Dec3 December 20:29

  Had a positive experience with Randox every time.

  • Aeronaut says:

    3 Dec3 December 23:29

    Good for you, Owen Patterson!

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