Kits ordered and paid for but not returned

[Judy]

Do any of you contact people who have ordered kits through your project, paid for them and then not sent them back to FTDNA? There are five people in Jewish Ukraine West who ordered kits nearly two months ago and have not yet sent their DNA samples back.

I was thinking about e-mailing them to ask if they had a problem obtaining their DNA sample, but I don't know if this would be too pushy on my part. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Judy Simon

[efgen]

Judy,

I would go ahead and send an email. You can be concerned without being pushy Just say you noticed that it had been a couple months since they ordered and paid for their kits, so you want to make sure there aren't any problems. Maybe they need help and would welcome your offer of assistance.

That said, are you sure all these kits are paid for? These people may have chosen to be invoiced and therefore haven't paid yet either. So maybe some changed their minds or just need a nudge to follow through.

Elise

[Judy]

Thanks Elise. You provided me with the incentive to go ahead and contact those who haven't sent back their kits. I think they were all paid for, but I'll check to make sure.
Judy

[Judy]

Elise, sending a reminder note and an offer of assistance turned out to be a good idea after all, for a reason that I hadn't even thought of. I got an immediate response from someone who said he paid for the kit for his uncle, and thanked me for telling him that the sample was not sent back yet. He is going to call his uncle and remind him to send it in.
Judy

[vineviz]

Judy,

I would go ahead and send an email. You can be concerned without being pushy Just say you noticed that it had been a couple months since they ordered and paid for their kits, so you want to make sure there aren't any problems. Maybe they need help and would welcome your offer of assistance.

I often use the "I hope the kit wasn't lost in the mail" approach, which generally works well.

Vince

[Judy]

I often use the "I hope the kit wasn't lost in the mail" approach, which generally works well.

Vince

Thanks Vince, good idea.
Judy

[wolong]

Unreturned kits

I have several unreturned kits in my Long Surname DNA Project, some of them going as far back as 2004. I've sent numerous emails, and spoken with them on the phone. I've even asked if they want their money back. Some folks just never "get around to it" or don't care.

[Donald Locke]

In the case where a participant has paid for the test and has refused to return the test or apply for their money back, well? Their loss I guess.

In the case where a test was paid for with the general fund from donations to your project, and the kit was never returned. That is pretty simple.
I had such a case, we paid for a 12 marker kit from the general fund and the kit was never returned, and the participant refused to reply to the many emails I sent.

FTDNA agreed to re-issue the kit to another participant. So the kit was used by another participant and returned in a timely manor

I tell you this just in case it happens in your project.

[GaryR50]

The way I handle this is that I place all the initial test kit orders myself, but I have the new member invoiced for the kit. That way, I don't have to get involved in handling any money and the problems that result from it, and they can pay for and return their test kits whenever they're ready to do so. If they don't send it back to FTDNA within six months, I assume they probably never will and I drop them from the project. They've lost no money and I've weeded out the people who either changed their minds or would rather spend their spare cash on something else.

Gary