FORT MYERS, Fla. — A company offering pop-up COVID testing sites in SWFL and around the nation announcing it's temporarily shutting its operations amid a growing mountain of complaints about how its does business.
The Center for COVID Control taped a sign on the Edison Mall location that said, "we are temporarily closed until further notice."
When Fox 4 checked out their site on Santa Barbara Boulevard in Cape Coral, the signs for the business were almost all gone.
When Fox 4 looked into the business on the Better Business Bureau's national website, we found the company had an F rating. At least for its Chicago and Rolling Meadows, Ill. locations. The company is based in Illinois.
The BBB said its grades are largely based on complaints from the public.
In fact, the BBB even issued an alert about the company. It said, "The BBB of Chicago & Northern Illinois is actively looking into this company." BBB said that based on complaints in Illinois and across the country.
The BBB said the company has not responded to resolve the claims. Some of the complaints are over "test results, poor customer service, and requesting personally identifiable information (driver’s license, insurance, etc.)."
The company's Cape Coral location came onto Fox 4's radar recently when businesses that shared a parking lot with its office said it was being run in a way that swamped the parking lot— hurting other's business bottom line. A manager with the company in question sounded open to leaving when we got him on the phone — about the other business concerns.
"I empathize with them. I don't want to harm their businesses in any way, I'm trying to do everything I can, and I will do whatever I can. If that means getting out of the lease, I'll just get out of the lease," the manager said.
The company has put out a national press release — also posted on its website — that said it's pausing all operation until Saturday, January 22nd. It blames its troubles on customer demand — claiming its quote — "stressed staffing resources, as has been widely reported, in a subset of our locations, affecting our usual customer service standards and diagnostic goals."
The USA Today reports that the company is now under investigation in another state, Oregon. Some people said they got wrong results or no results at all. The paper reported some even called it "fake testing." Again, its location at the Edison Mall is closed until at least a week from this Saturday.
