If you’re having difficulty ordering your free COVID at-home tests you’re not alone. The US Postal Service acknowledged delays with a “small percentage of orders” on Thursday.
On Monday, the White House launched its website COVIDTests.gov, where Americans can order up to 4 tests kit per household at no cost. The tests will be shipped through the USPS for free.
But some people are unable to place orders because the website won’t recognize their apartment number. Others are told an order was already placed for their address because a roommate placed an order.
Postal Service spokesman David Partenheimer confirmed the agency was seeing delays in orders due to multiple issues.
“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,” Partenheimer said. He said the USPS recommends filing a service request at https://emailus.usps.com/s/the-postal-store-inquiry or contacting our help desk at 1-800-ASK-USPS.
Julian Randall, who lives in an apartment building in Garfield Park, said he was having issues placing an order.
“I’ve tried everything under the sun and every combination. I wrote out ‘Apartment 1,’ ‘Apt. 1,’ ‘Unit 1’ and every other way you can think of. None of it worked,” he said.
Randall said. “I just wished they put a dropdown box for the apartment number like the postal service has for everything else.”
TikTok users claim the tests return false-positive results for tap water.
