Abbott BinaxNOW™ COVID-19 Ag Card Home Test - Important Lesson Learned

[Catclaws]

I learned an important lesson today that I wanted to share in hopes of helping someone to avoid our situation.  We are scheduled to sail on Monday, 3 January. Because today was a holiday there were no COVID testing facilities open in our area we planned to use the Abbott EMed service.  We bought kits 8 October, thinking we would use them for a trip in October but saved them for the January trip.  We followed the rules about not opening the kit and figured with the 3 month extension on the expiration dates we were good to go.  Unfortunately the kits we received had expired 21 September, which was even before we ordered them and we did not realize that until we were opening the kits with the EMed proctor.  Now we are scrambling to find a test location for tomorrow or Monday morning with hopes of still making the cruise Monday.

 

  If you are using the Abbott test kits sold through Celebrity/Optum Store be sure to check your expiration dates (it was under the outer sleeve packaging).  Also, you may want to order more than you need.  We had ordered 3 kits but they only sent 2 kits.  They refunded our money for the 3rd but we would have been out of luck if we needed three.

[cbfb]

4 minutes ago, Catclaws said:

I learned an important lesson today that I wanted to share in hopes of helping someone to avoid our situation.  We are scheduled to sail on Monday, 3 January. Because today was a holiday there were no COVID testing facilities open in our area we planned to use the Abbott EMed service.  We bought kits 8 October, thinking we would use them for a trip in October but saved them for the January trip.  We followed the rules about not opening the kit and figured with the 3 month extension on the expiration dates we were good to go.  Unfortunately the kits we received had expired 21 September, which was even before we ordered them and we did not realize that until we were opening the kits with the EMed proctor.  Now we are scrambling to find a test location for tomorrow or Monday morning with hopes of still making the cruise Monday.

 

  If you are using the Abbott test kits sold through Celebrity/Optum Store be sure to check your expiration dates (it was under the outer sleeve packaging).  Also, you may want to order more than you need.  We had ordered 3 kits but they only sent 2 kits.  They refunded our money for the 3rd but we would have been out of luck if we needed three.

FLL has testing if you are flying into that airport. 

[love to cruz]

I had exactly the same problem this month & returned the tests with a note. You would think they would be more careful since they potentially dealing with peoples lives.

[DogLover]

I have seen this place mentioned over on the Booking of Face - might be an option.

Lab Doctor – Ft. Lauderdale's most affordable blood testing center

 

[Homosassa]

29 minutes ago, Catclaws said:

IWe bought kits 8 October, thinking we would use them for a trip in October but saved them for the January trip.  We followed the rules about not opening the kit and figured with the 3 month extension on the expiration dates we were good to go.  Unfortunately the kits we received had expired 21 September, which was even before we ordered them and we did not realize that until we were opening the kits with the EMed proctor. 

Your test kits have the three month extension for the expiration date. They were good until December 21.

[abbydancer2003]

I got a two pack for both an 10/8 cruise and an 11/3 cruise and ended up not needing them.  (they were a back up).  We also had a September expiration with 3 month extension.  

 

I didn't need them for either of those, but we did just get back from a 12/17 Princess cruise.  We had about 5 days before the extended expiration, so we used them for that.  In the future, I'll buy a 3 pack or 5 pack from emed so that i have a backup.

 

[Catclaws]

45 minutes ago, DogLover said:

I have seen this place mentioned over on the Booking of Face - might be an option.

Lab Doctor – Ft. Lauderdale's most affordable blood testing center

 

Thanks.  That is the best deal I have seen so far.  I will definitely bring that info.

[jelayne]

We ordered tests from eMed on Wednesday which arrived Friday.  They have a 11/21/22 expiration date.  So we are set for our Feb, April and if needed October cruise.

[Arizona Wildcat]

1 hour ago, love to cruz said:

I had exactly the same problem this month & returned the tests with a note. You would think they would be more careful since they potentially dealing with peoples lives.

The tests they bought in October expired on December 21st.  I think you forgot to add 3 months to the date on the package.

Local pharmacy said tests sat on the shelves for months as there were and still are multiple free testing sites locally.  Then Covid exploded along with test kit demand.  Everything on backorder as US Government bought hundreds of millions of kits.  Thus the extension of the expiration date according to Walgreens. 

[Turtles06]

2 minutes ago, jelayne said:

We ordered tests from eMed on Wednesday which arrived Friday.  They have a 11/21/22 expiration date.  So we are set for our Feb, April and if needed October cruise.

The kits we recently ordered from eMed also have expiration dates in November 2022. The short-dated tests that folks like the OP received, including tests we ordered this fall, was the result of the mfr clearing out the inventory after a spring/summer of relatively little demand. Now that they’ve ramped up production, folks are getting tests with expiration dates almost a year out. But the OP’s advice to check the dates is still very important for people who bought the tests this fall. 

[snowballs mom]

28 minutes ago, jelayne said:

We ordered tests from eMed on Wednesday which arrived Friday.  They have a 11/21/22 expiration date.  So we are set for our Feb, April and if needed October cruise.

Hmm. I ordered mine directly from eMed on 12/20/21and they have not yet shipped. I would be interested in knowing if anyone else has been waiting that long. I just left a message with Support, but I do not expect to hear back from them until Monday.

[NavyCruiser]

2 wks ago, we bought 2 pack from Optum on Celibrity's link, $69 for 2 pack, no tax, free shipping.

Ordered on Mon, received on Thurs, 3 biz days later.

It had manufacture date of 12/9/21, expires 11/6/22

[Turtles06]

23 minutes ago, snowballs mom said:

Hmm. I ordered mine directly from eMed on 12/20/21and they have not yet shipped. I would be interested in knowing if anyone else has been waiting that long. I just left a message with Support, but I do not expect to hear back from them until Monday.

That doesn’t sound right. We ordered tests on Dec. 26 that arrived on the 29th. Have you logged onto eMed and checked your order status? We’d never been notified that ours had shipped; I checked our account on the morning of December 29, and was pleasantly surprised to see that they were going to be delivered by FedEx that day. 
 

Good luck! 

[snowballs mom]

6 minutes ago, Turtles06 said:

That doesn’t sound right. We ordered tests on Dec. 26 that arrived on the 29th. Have you logged onto eMed and checked your order status? We’d never been notified that ours had shipped; I checked our account on the morning of December 29, and was pleasantly surprised to see that they were going to be delivered by FedEx that day. 
 

Good luck! 

Yes, it shows that the order is open and the tracking number is pending. My credit card was charged immediately, so I am hoping they fix it early this week. I was expecting a delay of a few days, but seeing that others have received kits that were ordered several days after ours is concerning. Luckily we do not cruise until mid-February, so I have time.

[phoenix_dream]

42 minutes ago, snowballs mom said:

Yes, it shows that the order is open and the tracking number is pending. My credit card was charged immediately, so I am hoping they fix it early this week. I was expecting a delay of a few days, but seeing that others have received kits that were ordered several days after ours is concerning. Luckily we do not cruise until mid-February, so I have time.

We also got our test kits in three days.  I would call them Monday and find out what is going on

[CHEZMARYLOU]

2 hours ago, jelayne said:

We ordered tests from eMed on Wednesday which arrived Friday.  They have a 11/21/22 expiration date.  So we are set for our Feb, April and if needed October cruise.

Is  11/21/22  the date on the box or the extended date? If it is the date on the box then when we order for our March cruise we should be able to use them for our December 31, 2022 cruise.

[Turtles06]

2 hours ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

Is  11/21/22  the date on the box or the extended date? If it is the date on the box then when we order for our March cruise we should be able to use them for our December 31, 2022 cruise.

The tests being sent out now are newly manufactured and the date on the box is the 12-month expiration date. 

[Homosassa]

16 hours ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

 

Local pharmacy said tests sat on the shelves for months as there were and still are multiple free testing sites locally.  Then Covid exploded along with test kit demand.  Everything on backorder as US Government bought hundreds of millions of kits.  Thus the extension of the expiration date according to Walgreens. 

Misinformation.

 

The three month extension for test kits was because Abbott supplied additional data to the Food and Drug Administration back in the early spring of 2021 that showed the reagents in the kits were stable for a year. For kits already in inventory, three months was added onto the existing expiration date.

 

Just a note that for those that notice the original date of expiration plus three months does not equal and year from production date, that is because the production date is the date the kits were assembled. It is not the date that the test reagents were manufactured.

 

As noted in a previous post, kits now being shipped carry their extended expiration date on the package.

[Turtles06]

15 minutes ago, Homosassa said:

The three month extension for test kits was because Abbott supplied additional data to the Food and Drug Administration back in the early spring of 2021 that showed the reagents in the kits were stable for a year. For kits already in inventory, three months was added onto the existing expiration date.

Exactly.
 

https://www.doe.mass.edu/covid19/testing/binaxnow-extension-2021-may.pdf

[jelayne]

17 hours ago, snowballs mom said:

Hmm. I ordered mine directly from eMed on 12/20/21and they have not yet shipped. I would be interested in knowing if anyone else has been waiting that long. I just left a message with Support, but I do not expect to hear back from them until Monday.

I was getting concerned when on Thursday we didn’t get a email that the kits had shipped, as past order we got notified. Friday I logged into eMed account and it did not show kits had shipped so I decided to wait until Monday and contact them.

Friday night heading out for dinner found the box on the porch. I got the shipping notification on Saturday.

[snowballs mom]

1 hour ago, jelayne said:

I was getting concerned when on Thursday we didn’t get a email that the kits had shipped, as past order we got notified. Friday I logged into eMed account and it did not show kits had shipped so I decided to wait until Monday and contact them.

Friday night heading out for dinner found the box on the porch. I got the shipping notification on Saturday.

I just spoke with their customer service. Mine were never shipped, and my order issue has now been escalated. I am good with canceling and ordering again if it cannot be fixed, but we shall see...

[kayakcove]

The problem is likely training on eMed side.  We had extra tests from our November cruise and gave them to daughter and son in law sailing today.  They went on line and eMed rep said test was out of date. I got text from them and I advised them that was wrong as date had been extended. He looked and found the extra sticker with extended date.  Went back on to eMed and had not problem or indication by reps of expiration problem and completed their tests with Negative results.

[DebInAntigua]

For peace of mind, you can call EMed customer service and give them info from your test package and they will confirm the actual expiration date. 

[hcat]

23 hours ago, cbfb said:

FLL has testing if you are flying into that airport. 

Can you provide details?  We plan to fly in a day ahead of the cruise

[cbfb]

https://testing.nomihealth.com/easy_registration/34/onsite
 

testing if you fly in or out of FLL. There is a charge.