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Using Vault Health for the COVID-19 Test for Travel to Hawaii? Be sure to have a backup plan. While we expected there to be snafus around the Christmas and New Year's holidays, when so many people were traveling to Hawaii and elsewhere, we've continued to receive decidedly mixed reviews on our original Review of the Vault Health COVID-19 test in recent weeks.
For some commenters, it's worked fine:
“Best experience ever. Due to bad weather UPS delivered our Covid tests late but Vault Health got us our results before our flight. So impressed and pleased it’s their service!!” (Wendy, 2/18/21 review)
“UPS pickup at 7 pm 1/4/21 for my wife and I. She got the “we received you sample at 10 am on 1/5. I got the “we received your sample” at 2:13 pm on 1/5. Wife got results at 8:33 pm on 1/5 (less then 24 hours from giving to UPS) and I got my results at 1:53 am on 1/6. Overall a very easy process.” (Mitch, 1/6/21 review)
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For others, however, it's been a nightmare:
“We did not have a positive experience with using Vault. It was more than likely the fault of UPS, however, either way… we did not get our results in time and had to cancel our trip to Hawaii last minute. We dutifully sent in our tests on Wednesday to get our results by Friday. My husband received his Saturday morning, two of my daughters and I received our results Saturday evening and my third daughter received hers Sunday morning. We were supposed to fly out our last leg to Hawaii on Saturday morning. Of course we all received negative results because we have been vaccinated (Hawaii does not accept that) and my children all had Covid less than 90 days ago.” (Stacey, 2/20/21)
“Im sitting here anxious, was supposed to board plane for honeymoon to Hawaii tomorrow at noon. I did exactly what Vault said, after taking test on zoom, I went to UPS on Thursday at 11:30am and dropped our packages for overnight shipping. My flight is tomorrow (Sunday), and guess what – the test is STILL NOT DELIVERED to Vault lab – UPS says it should have been there an hour ago TODAY and its not delivered. I had paid for expedited overnight shipping and it should have been their Friday. I live in Colorado. Vault has NO customer service number and they haven’t responded to me or my husbands emails from this morning. Looks like we will have to change flights last minute and go to Cancun.. DO NOT USE VAULT UNLESS YOU WANT TO HAVE TO CANCEL YOUR TRIP!” (Melissa, 2/13/21 review)
“This company is a scam. They didn’t have my travel pcr test done in 72 hrs… and 2 out of 3 of my colleagues were also left stranded in the airport. Do not use if you want reliable service. They just blame UPS and take your money” (Drew, 2/3/21 review)
“PSA: Vault labs has the WORST customer service! In my experience it was the most outrageous service I have ever received. My test results were not returned within the 72 hour time frame and when I complained to the agent, they handled the situation extremely unprofessionally.” (Alia, 1/30/21 review)
“Vault health is a terrible option. They have lost 4 of my tests sent to them. There is no number you can call and they respond occasionally to questions with no real help answers through their email. Its been over 1 month and still have no got results, a call or any answers. This is unacceptable.” (Mike, 1/24/21 review)
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Vault Health is one of the State of Hawaii's Travel Partners for COVID-19 testing, but if you have other approved testing partners in your area that provide faster turnaround, we recommend using them. That's because, even if Vault Health does everything perfectly (which it may not), the company is still reliant on UPS delivering your sample back to the lab quickly, and of course that doesn't always happen.
The two Hawaii partner options that seem to have worked best to date for our clients are Walgreens' Rapid Diagnostic Test (Abbott's ID Now COVID-19 test), which returns results back in minutes and may even be free in some areas, or XpresCheck, which has airport locations in Phoenix, Denver (after security), Boston, New York JFK, Newark EWR, and Salt Lake City (after security) and also offers the rapid molecular test, with results in minutes, for a cost of $200.
If you've traveled to Hawaii recently, which COVID-19 test partner did you use, and were you happy with the turnaround time?
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