The Dreaded "Failed Sample."

[Zaru]

AAAAAAArrrrggggggh.

Another ten weeks to wait for MtDNA results. No one's fault other than my own old sample.

Too many "no's" (gedmatch failing, FTDNA site failing,and now my sample failing) and not enough "yes".

Rant over.

[Mudgeeclarke]

AAAAAAArrrrggggggh.

Another ten weeks to wait for MtDNA results. No one's fault other than my own old sample.

Too many "no's" (gedmatch failing, FTDNA site failing,and now my sample failing) and not enough "yes".

Rant over.

I do feel for you. In the past few years, I've done every test I can in Y and MtDNA including extra SNPs, and the Geno2. I can remember one coming in ahead of time, about maybe half a dozen arriving just maybe 5 days late, and two at least that had me concerned only my beneficiary would see the results. I pretty much tell myself to expect a month over ... Happily though, I have not used up my sample yet. Good luck, second time around.

[MerryB]

It may be a case of the more you rub your mouth, the better the sample. Mom said my dad rubbed all over his mouth collecting the dna sample for so long she thought he might make himself bleed. (He didn't bleed.) His vials are 5 years old, and we've run the y-dna 67 and 111, deep clade, family finder, mtdna plus, mtdna full sequence, and now the Big Y. So far no new sample has been needed, but the Big Y isn't complete yet. ymmv. Good luck with your new sample!

[MCook]

I ordered the mtDNA Plus test on 9/23/13 and the original "expected by" date was 11/12/13 (they still had a sample from my Y-DNA37 test earlier in the year). It was delayed twice, then a new sample was requested, and has since been delayed 3 more times and is now expected 4/23/14. I'm fully aware that mine is not the most extreme case of delayed results and that the only thing I can really do is try to wait patiently, but with each new delay the frustration grows.

I think part of what feeds the frustration is the lack of communication from FamilyTreeDNA when these delays occur. Each time I've had to go to the site to find out that the results have been delayed, and each time the only explanation given is the same "your results have been delayed due to one of the following" style note on the Awaiting Results page. An email with a slightly less generic explanation would go a long way towards making the delays easier to accept. After the third or fourth delay I've started to wonder if there's something wrong with my mtDNA!

[eastara]

There were speculations that if something is wrong with your test (not your DNA sample)the first time, very often lab workers displace it and fail to put it for retest.
The Reasons for delay you keep receiving are just computer generated messages to push the due date further and further.
Only being very persistent can make them actually find your sample and place it back in the machine.
I wonder with such huge backlog of mtDNA tests why they are having a new sale - to wait maybe more than six months for results as in the good old days.

[gtc]

It may be a case of the more you rub your mouth, the better the sample.

I have found that the best time to scrape is first thing in the morning after you awaken and before you do anything else. I have suggested this to a number of new testers and so far none have had to scrape again because of poor/failed samples.