One day after the federal government launched a website to take orders for free at-home COVID-19 rapid tests, some say they couldn’t place their orders.
Some users in apartment buildings reported the website applied the four-per-household cap on multi-unit properties. For example, if one apartment ordered tests, others in the building may not have been able to place their orders.
According to the U.S. Postal Service, “The Postal Service is seeing very limited cases of addresses that are not registered as multi-unit buildings which could lead to COVID test kit ordering difficulties. This is occurring in a small percentage of orders.”
For assistance, USPS said people should file a service request with the U.S. Postal Service online here. Or call, 1-800-ASK-USPS.
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Another North Texas small business owner said she couldn’t place an order because her home address was listed as a business.
Jordan Schild of Roanoke said she tried to order tests on Tuesday. Schild shared a screenshot with NBC 5 Responds that said, “The address you entered is listed as a business address in our system. Currently, we can only ship at-home COVID-19 tests to valid residential addresses.”
“We receive our correspondence here,” said Schild. “That's the best point of contact for us, but this is our residence too."
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Schild said she filled out the USPS service request and is waiting on a response.
“As a small business owner and in light of the pandemic, a lot of people have been working out of their homes and they have had to move some of their business dealings at home,” said Schild. “I feel like maybe other people are going to have to deal with this as well.”
As the omicron variant contributed to a surge in new COVID-19 cases, the federal government promised to mail at-home rapid tests to households for free. The White House has said it was preparing to ship as many as 500 million kits.
Americans are encouraged to order the tests for future use.
The test kits will ship in 7-12 days via the USPS.
