Viome Tracking Order Status

I read some of the other reviews and want to start with saying this is not a scam. Misleading advertising - yes, poor customer service - yes, not actionable results - yes. But it is a real service. I do agree, however, with other people's assessment that this service was (at least at first) misleadingly advertised as a food sensitivity test. Then once they got confronted about this problem, they just decided to ask you in the questionnaires what you are sensitive to and exclude these foods from your recommendations list. But how would a person who is just starting their investigations into gut problems know that? I find the fact that you are obligated to fill out these long questionnaires insulting. It feels like double dipping: took money for an expensive test and wouldn't give the results to you until you also spend an hour filling out the questionnaires to give them the data on yourself. I understand that the data helps improve their algorithms and AI models, but you shouldn't be forced to give it. I would gladly volunteer and feel better about it, if they asked instead of forced. The site user experience is very poor and they haven't fixed some bugs in like 5 years. I understand the sentiment of what they are trying to do with the scores, as not everyone could digest the source data. But I would prefer to have some form of an advanced mode where I can see it. I managed to draw decent insights from my results, but I had to research myself what each of my out-of-range scores means and what I can do about it. It feels like you should get that info from them for the kind of money they charge. My biggest disappointment was getting the full body intelligence test. I was having real trouble collecting blood and they only include two lancets. Luckily we had an extra one at home from a different test. But if we didn't, I don't know what I would do. My biological age came ridiculously high and after spending a bunch of time with their very friendly but totally useless support person, I learned that they calculate that based on your + your microbiome genetic expression. If I knew that I wouldn't have bought the test, as I was in the middle of multiple efforts to treat an overgrowth and my microbiome was obviously in distress. That was a total waste of money. Their support really gets under my skin. Even reading responses here, they are soooo friendly, while not really genuinely understanding people's problems and trying to solve them. I find this copy/paste from a script support very irritating. I am very conflicted about using this service again. On the one hand, there is some useful info. For example, this is the only way I know of to get gut lining assessment. But the value compared to the price is definitely pretty low.

I've spent years trying to understand and improve my health and sleep through science-backed methods, and in that time, I've taken a lot of different tests (bloodwork, genetic, allergy, hormones, etc.). Of all the tests I've taken recently, I was most excited about the Viome Full Body Intelligence test. And by far the most disappointed. It took almost 3 weeks to get my results, and those long-awaited results were so vague as to be nearly useless. After supposedly testing dozens of biomarkers, all they give you back is a series of their own numeric scores for various broad aspects of health. For instance, they rated my biological health as being 13 years older than my chronological age, which is terribly alarming. How did they determine this? "We assess the activities of your gut microbiome, your cells, and oral microbiome...in order to determine how well you are aging in comparison with your chronological age." So what does this mean? "If your Biological Age is substantially higher than your chronological age, this means that at a cellular level, your body is aging faster compared with other people your age." And what do I do about it? "Your food and supplement recommendations will target the underlying causes detailed in your other Integrative Health scores that have an impact on how you're aging internally." That's it. That's all they give you. Or consider my "Immune System Health", which they scored at 43 or "Not Optimal". I could have told you it's not optimal; I seem to catch every bug my 9 year-old brings home. But how I do interpret Viome's results? They say: "A Not Optimal score means that your immunity is low and your immune system's preparedness to invading bacteria or viruses needs support." Wow, thanks for that deep insight. And how did they determine this? "Your Immune System Health score assesses your immune response based on the inflammatory activities throughout your body as well as inside of your gut. This score considers over 14 functional pathway scores, including those related to your body’s ability to clear toxins from the gut, manage oxidative stress, and mitigate pro-inflammatory pathways." Okay, that sounds like some great data. Now can they tell me those 14 "individual pathway scores" and what they specifically mean? No. Viome has the data, but they don't share details. I wrote to their customer service several times expressing my frustration, and they eventually sent me some more information from one of their clinicians, which was...almost equally vague. And still with no specific, objective data that I could compare to or corroborate with any other lab test. So with Viome, at best you might know is something is broken, but other than recommending some foods (many of which I already eat, some of which I have allergies to) and trying to sell you on their overpriced supplements (many of which I already take)...they leave you on your own to figure out why and how to fix it. If I could at least download my raw data (as with companies like 23andme) and individual test scores, I could take that to a functional medicine doctor to analyze and interpret. But Viome doesn't release this data. So I just paid them a lot of money to collect my health data, which they're now withholding from me. And what do they hope to do with this data? Apparently, sell me their vitamins, probiotics and toothpaste, starting at $49/month (which they claim is NOT their primary objective), and try to get me to pony up for future re-tests. I purchased two tests, one for me and one for my mother. After my dissatisfaction with my own results, I asked for a refund on my mother's test, which she had not yet submitted. They flatly refused. For me, this has been a near total waste of money and an investment I deeply regret. Your money would be far better spent on some bloodwork and a visit with a functional medicine doctor. Stay away from this company.

The promised timeline of 2-4 weeks doubled, so your website should say 2 months for results. The process for collecting blood could also use some updating. You’re only given 2 single use lances so when I had trouble drawing enough blood, my only option was to break apart the hardware to extract the blade and stab my other fingers. The vile that houses the blood also clogs easily. All of this wouldn’t have been bad if the results were worth waiting for, but after reading online about the lack of FDA Approval and scientific community saying to be wary, I found the results to be problematic. They don’t tell you the “why” of your results so they’re hard to trust because Viome is obviously trying to sell you the solution (supplements). It makes their business model suspicious and they could gain more trust by diving much more into the data and the why. Why should I stay away from XYZ foods? Am I allergic to a specific enzyme in their food? It did push me to make an appointment with Parsley Health though which I guess is a positive.

Nobody at Viome can confirm the supplements will not cause liver or kidney damage. While I’m happy with the impact of the supplements, I’m concerned about the long-term risks. Until that issue can be addressed, I’m cancelling my supplement Rx. The nutrition guidance has been beneficial, however…

The customer service is very lacking. There is no customer service email listed. Contact Customer Service take you to a bot which is very frustrating. I have to do an internet search just to try and find an email.