I paid £480 for three sets of day two and day eight Covid PCR tests from Boots to be sent to our quarantine address. They didn’t arrive and each time I called I was assured they were on their way. I am currently on day five of quarantine and we have received nothing. I asked for my money back and was told it was non-refundable. I’ve now had to shell out £500 for tests from another provider.
KH, London
Travellers arriving in the UK from amber-list countries face a fine of up to £2,000 if they fail to take a PCR test on the second and eighth day of the mandatory 10-day quarantine. The kits have to be ordered before leaving the country and there have been grim headlines about companies on the government-approved list of providers failing to deliver. You chose Boots because you assumed a high-street name would be more reliable.
So did AR of Reading, who paid £160 for day two and day eight tests. The kits arrived, but Boots website showed an error message when the barcode was entered. It took two days for Boots to acknowledge that there was a problem, whereupon it promised a replacement that didn’t show up. He, too, was refused a refund. Boots tells me that it’s usually “timely and reliable” service fell short on these two occasions and that it’s investigating with its delivery partners. It says it has now authorised refunds as a “goodwill gesture”. But it is a requirement under the Consumer Rights Act to reimburse customers for goods and services that have not been delivered.
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