For those awaiting Y results

[Peter MacDonald]

Sounds like a very similar situation with the delay of the first batches of the Big Y test. Same situation at this very point in time last year, FTDNA ran out of a reactant that delayed tests a number of months.

[dna]

Whether or not it's an upgrade or the full test upfront doesn't apparently make one iota of difference. Hence the 3 day Y upgrade on the previous thread versus the poster above.

The 3 day upgrade was possible with all the required panels done earlier by FTDNA. The results were posted only after they were paid for.

W.

[Howtree]

The 3 day upgrade was possible with all the required panels done earlier by FTDNA. The results were posted only after they were paid for.

W.

How are you so confident of this? Did Ftdna tell you this?

[ekc123]

How are you so confident of this? Did Ftdna tell you this?

I don't have any knowledge about the case above, but that did happen in my case. I ordered an individual STR marker test at the behest of one of my group's administrators for $20. It was DYS533. Apparently, FTDNA runs a whole panel when they test for individual markers, because when I ordered the y111 upgrade, the only panel that showed up immediately (2 days after I ordered the upgrade), was the panel to which DYS533 belongs. In other words markers 76-85 showed up on 12/19 and I ordered the upgrade on 12/17. DYS533 is marker 82 in that panel.

[Dna-donut]

The 3 day upgrade was possible with all the required panels done earlier by FTDNA. The results were posted only after they were paid for.

W.

That makes sense but it still doesn't account for how the test results are running. Granted its not cookie cutter magic and there are bound to be exclusions to any rule but when a fellow 598 batch now has his upgrade from 37 to 67 results yet there are a myriad of others from previous batches or in my case the same batch still waiting it's obviously not sequential. I personally ordered 37 test on the 22nd of Nov then upgraded to 67 on the 25th of Nov before they batched the 37 marker test and all are batched the same or in essence I ordered the full 67 test.

So I see what you are saying in so far as why wait twice but in the end when you end up waiting several months I see little difference. I am personally only on week 8 so my wait isn't into the realm of the obscene, yet.

[ekc123]

That makes sense but it still doesn't account for how the test results are running. Granted its not cookie cutter magic and there are bound to be exclusions to any rule but when a fellow 598 batch now has his upgrade from 37 to 67 results yet there are a myriad of others from previous batches or in my case the same batch still waiting it's obviously not sequential. I personally ordered 37 test on the 22nd of Nov then upgraded to 67 on the 25th of Nov before they batched the 37 marker test and all are batched the same or in essence I ordered the full 67 test.

So I see what you are saying in so far as why wait twice but in the end when you end up waiting several months I see little difference. I am personally only on week 8 so my wait isn't into the realm of the obscene, yet.

Representatives of the company claimed when they came out with the new forum that the batching process was just for accounting purposes and has nothing to do with the actual testing process in the labs. They really did not explain further as to how the testing process works, but only that the batch numbers don't mean much. There used to be a batch calendar, but the thread was closed when they updated the forum. I had to wait several months on a y upgrade and I did get a response back from customer service claiming that they could not get an accurate reading and had to rerun my sample several times before they got an accurate reading. In my case, that ended up being the problem and I believe they said they had to rerun the test three or four times to get reliable results.

This most recent backlog affecting many people is supposedly due to a supplier no longer selling a component they needed for the y testing process. They now claim they have upgraded the whole testing process and that once it becomes fully operational, the y sequencing will be much faster. We'll see. Hopefully, they'll start churning out y results soon and get results for folks affected by the backlog.

[dna]

@Dna-donut

I have already commented elsewhere in the forums that the customer facing FTDNA Support does not have access to the actual state/status of the customer tests.

Probably that should be the most requested feature. Even if the implementation was that lab was pushing updates once a day.

I was trying to guess possible reasons for such arrangements, and there are indeed many factors that could have played role (from historical, to security and privacy). However, given current expectations from services sold on Internet, customer (our) expectations are higher than the level being delivered by FTDNA.

W.

P.S.
I should mention that there are very successful companies that behave similarly. For example, tracking is not available for all Amazon purchases...

[Sarmat]

I had to wait several months on a y upgrade and I did get a response back from customer service claiming that they could not get an accurate reading and had to rerun my sample several times before they got an accurate reading. In my case, that ended up being the problem and I believe they said they had to rerun the test three or four times to get reliable results.

That's the same thing that Customer Service initially told me several times, but then later I found out through the president of the company that in fact my test had not even been run yet "due to space limitations" at the lab.

If there's one thing I've learned from dealing with FTDNA for the past three years, it's that you can't believe most of what you're told by the Customer Service department. I think their primary goal is just to get people off the phone or to get them to stop emailing as quickly as possible.

[ekc123]

That's the same thing that Customer Service initially told me several times, but then later I found out through the president of the company that in fact my test had not even been run yet "due to space limitations" at the lab.

If there's one thing I've learned from dealing with FTDNA for the past three years, it's that you can't believe most of what you're told by the Customer Service department. I think their primary goal is just to get people off the phone or to get them to stop emailing as quickly as possible.

Ha, you could be right. I've been a customer since about 2006 and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason concerning receiving results. I remember having ordered the snp "deep clade" test, and if I remember correctly I had to wait about six months for results. On the other hand, the Family Finder test was completed quickly. They should put in the expected results section, "We should have your results sometime in the next year. Thank you for your patience with our fickle specialized super secret testing process."

[Dna-donut]

And that's the rub

First let me state I am not unsatisfied in fact both my FF test were turned around quite quickly earlier in the year. My questions or rather comments revolve more around how can one ascertain with any certainty when their results will become available. From what I am seeing lately, there is none. The batch numbers assigned, being they are an in house accounting metric, apparently have no relevance in when any particular batch will be completed. If that is truly the case then why give access to the batch number to the end user anyway? Why not just do as ancestry does and give notifications of when the lab is processing and when completed.

Also if there are issues with their procedures or supplies why wait for the impending hammer to drop from the customers and why not proactively make such announcements.

I understand this is a hobby and therefore getting or not getting your results within any specified time frame isn't going to stop the world from rotating. At the same time though they are offering a service, which isn't exactly inexpensive, and therefore should do whatever it takes to communicate to their customers if there are expected or unexpected delays.

As stated my wait hasn't been all that long yet and I really don't expect any results until later this month or even the beginning of Feb. Granted I would be happy with sooner than later but, it is what it is.

So those who do get their results please continue to let us others know, if for nothing else to ease our minds in that something is happening and there is some headway being made.

[Howtree]

crhfish, I believe we both have y tests in the same Batch (#593) from October. To wait this long while Y marker results are being issued for batches that were made in November or December is totally unacceptable. We paid $369 for our test for 111 markers. We received about 30 markers in mid December (all were above no. 75). There has been no other sign of life on our account until Monday night - of THIS week - when our "waiting times" for markers 1-12 changed from 1-2 weeks to '4-6 weeks'! I talked with customer service that morning too.

We have not received data for one single marker between 1-67 yet. We are in our 4th month now. And now the website is estimating an additional 4-6 weeks. That is not good value for almost $400.

We have no data, no haplo group, nothing except about 30 numbers. Oh,and our order page says this test was complete as of 12/18/14! Customer Service has known this the entire time too. Because after 8 weeks, i started calling about once a week - except for the holidays - to get an update.

However, I do not wish this sort of service on anyone and I too am glad to see some activity somewhere.

[crhfish]

Yes, I am in batch 593. I logon here everyday and there is no change. Earlier in this post is was said that the batch numbers don't mean anything. So I am to understand that a company that is doing genetic research has assigned batch numbers in some sort of random ass order. I thought these folks were supposed to be smart. I'm trusting them to do some pretty complicated tests. Why can't they have a system in place that makes sure tests are done is a systematic manner?

I have sent them an email and got the canned reply. So just to see if any of these folks are reading this page or if they have a screening filter in place please allow me to type the word ass one more time.

Where do they run these tests? Something beyond what they have told us is going on.

[crhfish]

Right after I posted this I did a little digging. I think we are simply being lied to. FTDNA is in the process of doing a 200 person M-222 experimental panel. Using my friend google I found some discussion about how this could have caused the backlog in the lab. The folks that are a part of this panel are getting results inside of a month.

But the best part of my search is that I learned the lab is in Houston. Its just 2.5 hours away from here so if I need to I can actually drive over and see if i can find anyone.

[grahcom]

Well some folks dna test come back quicker than others, I suspect the better samples come back with the quicker results. I had 2 kits getting Y done,

1st kit Y37 batch 592 still waiting on panel 1-12... same kit had Y111 batch 599 results in 7 Jan.

2nd kit had Y67 batch 593 all results in by 7th Jan, (panels 1-12 and 48-60 were the slow ones) same kit had Y111 batch 601 results in by 1st Jan.

[dna]

Right after I posted this I did a little digging. I think we are simply being lied to. FTDNA is in the process of doing a 200 person M-222 experimental panel. Using my friend google I found some discussion about how this could have caused the backlog in the lab. The folks that are a part of this panel are getting results inside of a month.

But the best part of my search is that I learned the lab is in Houston. Its just 2.5 hours away from here so if I need to I can actually drive over and see if i can find anyone.

That M222 panel test is done on new equipment. Also we are discussing delays in STR testing, and M222 panel is for testing of SNPs only.

W.