First, you have to realize that labs are overloaded because of Covid 19. And perhaps they cannot get more staff. But - I saw an internet ad placed by Quest for a part time lab tech! Part time?
Three visits with no bloodwork was my (absolutely wonderful!) experience here.
First try - I was a walk-in, which I have been doing there for years, and waits were reasonable. I waited an hour+, but the wait time screen always showed a wait time for me of 15 minutes or less. When I finally asked, I was told to make an appointment. So I left. Then, when I left, the screen still showed 15 minutes.
Second try - I made an 8:00 AM on-line appointment for a different Jupiter office. I showed up at 7:45 AM, where I was #7 in line. I waited patiently in the office until 8: 45 AM. At that time the office was full. A security guard was there in a lab coat to keep order. When I asked about the order of taking clients, at that time, I was sharply told to sit down and wait, with no answer. The security guard hovered nearby all the while. Of course, I left forthright.
I called Quest's 800 number, and waited maybe 15 minutes on hold ()reasonable for an overloaded staff). But then the agent treated me with indifference, answered questions I did not ask, and when I made repeated requests for a (non-existent) supervisor, I was promised a callback. I never got one.
Third try - I made a 9:00 AM appointment. Because of previous long waits, I saw no need to show up on time, so I came 12 minutes late. I was told that my appointment was canceled because I was 2 minutes late after previously waiting patiently for way too long. This was company policy, but nowhere does it say this when I made my appointments. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
I have no idea why the waits were so long, after the posted wait time with my name were reasonable (which kept me there). Posted times were a fraction of my actual wait time.
What I think is that if you make an appointment at Quest you are are more likely to wait longer, while walk-ins are more likely to leave, so walk-ins are taken before clients with appointments, while clients with appointments wait much longer. I was #7 in line, 15 minutes early, on my second try, and when I left 45 minutes later, considerably more than 7 clients had been taken care of.
It is US - YOU and ME - that pays their salaries. I refuse to be treated like a child, like a subordinate, like an object to be ignored. Their policies and attitude is absolutely impersonal, disrespectful and self serving and has no regard for us as people. Like shut up and sit down. GO ELSEWHERE!
This was in April. Now it's May, and I have an appointment for a small lab nearby (Bioreference Laboratories, Palm Beach Gardens, which has good local reviews, five stars from 12 patients). Quest got three stars and doesn't deserve even one star. We will see how Bioreference treats me. read more