23andMe is one of those biotech companies that sells health and ancestry dna tests. I was not interested in ancestry test because my family tree is well documented and I hear these ancestry tests kinda sucks for minority groups. I wish 23andMe provided a standalone health test but they don’t and I guess that makes sense from a business standpoint.
Anyway, I had bought 23andMe health & ancestry kit on Amazon because it was like $10 cheaper than the alternatives. The kit timely made it to me, I registered the kit online, spit on the tube as instructed, and dropped the kit off on a USPS pickup box. A few days later I got an email from 23andMe stating that they had closed my account.
Dear [retracted],Your 23andMe account associated with the email address [retracted] has been closed.Sincerely,The 23andMe Team
I am reaching out to you regarding the sample kit registered to your 23andMe account. We have determined that your sample kit is associated with purchases from the 23andMe online store placed using stolen credit card information.
As a result, we have invalidated your sample kit and closed the demo account associated with this email address (retracted), effective immediately. You will receive an automated message confirming this action.
Thank you for providing us with this information. This sample kit was purchased from 23andMe’s online store using a stolen credit card. From the information you’ve provided, it sounds like the Amazon seller you purchased from (name likely visible from your Amazon order history page) resold this kit to you on Amazon.com.
I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and frustration you have experienced. Unfortunately, we cannot reverse the invalidation of your kit as it is associated with stolen credit card information. I recommend you discard of this kit to prevent future confusion.
I would be happy to provide you with a discount link through which you can order a new kit. However, can you write a negative review on the Amazon seller’s page to ensure other potential buyers are aware of their purchase behavior? You can find a link directly to the seller from your Amazon order history page, linked next to “Sold by:”.
I’ll await your reply confirming whether you are interested in taking advantage of the free kit discount link I described earlier.
seller profile bombarded with negative reviews
Anyway, I took 23andMe on the free kit offer and to my surprise their express shipping, which turned out to be one day delivery, was free of charge as well.
A day or two later I received an email from amazon seller
Message from 3rd party seller:Dear our customer,We’re really sorry for the problems. We will contact our business partner to resolve it soon. However we’re going to send you a refund now, please check later and contact us if there are any other problems.Again, we’re really sorry and hop that you can forgive us.Thank you!
We have closed your A-to-z Guarantee claim for order [retracted]. We took this action because the seller has refunded the order.
Summary
I ended up getting a free 23andMe Health + Ancestry kit and all I had to do was spit in a tube twice.
