UPDATE: Pam Williams (Vice President – Client Services, Logistics, Specimen Management, Contact Centres) expressed her regret and apology and assured my friend that a full investigation will be launched. My friend will also be updated at its conclusion. My dear friend (in her 70s), who was ill, visited this location alone on Friday afternoon October 7 and was subjected to humiliation and neglect by the staff.  She arrived early for her scheduled appointment and before she could even mention that her paperwork had been approved by her doctor's manager (something her doctor told her to say), the worker yelled at her, "GO OUTSIDE and wait in that corner THERE!" pointing to a dark corner down a long corridor.  There are no waiting chairs.  My friend was literally told to wait in a corner away from everyone else like how a child is made to do "time out." Continually she saw that others who had come after her were served before her.  When her appointment time had long come and gone, she thought she had been forgotten, being out of sight of the staff.  When she went in to check, the worker yelled, "Stay outside!  You have to STAY OUTSIDE!"  She said she just wanted to know how long she'd have to wait, and received a dismissive, "I have no idea", as a response. When she began to feel faint from illness and fatigue just standing with no end in sight, she had finally had enough, realizing that they had no intention of seeing her until everybody else had been served first. She went in one last time, for one more round of yelling, before she was able to put her foot down.  She asked for her requisition form back; declared she was leaving; stated their instances of mistreatment as reason; and demanded their names.  The lead mean girl haughtily scribbled down her name on a piece of paper (image attached).  The other girl who had also yelled, but with less relish and indulgence than the first, wisely decided to do my friend's bloodwork then and there.  It took less than 2 minutes and she was done. I realize COVID has made it rather trendy to be inhospitable, but this behaviour, led chiefly by the girl who so confidently gave her name in her own handwriting (image attached), is simply sadistic and diabolical. It is so unnecessary -- truly evil stuff.  As horrible as it sounded to me, apparently it's not even the worst!  Check out some of the negative reviews here.  You read about strangers coming to the aid of old people who have fainted, neglected and made to stand for who knows how long.  When the Good Samaritans find them a chair to rest on, they get yelled at by the staff for doing so.  Just imagine these workers having it out on a new immigrant or someone who struggles to speak English. With the reality of all the above in mind,  Lifelabs' "goal. . .to provide caring, efficient, reliable, and high-quality testing services" is absolutely laughable. We all have people we care about who are old.  If we are lucky, we too will grow old.  Think about this happening to yourself one day or to someone you care about now.  These people ought to be ashamed of themselves. Long story short:  Letters (image attached) detailing this experience, and pointing to some of the negative reviews here, have recently been sent to Lifelabs corporate offices, addressed specifically to Charles Brown (President and CEO), Jennifer Cudlipp (Chief Operating Officer), and Chris Carson (Senior Vice President -- Strategy, Product Innovation & Customer Experience).  Will update if possible with their action.

Svetlana is the best. She is thoughtful to all patients. Only removing a star because There is a Persian woman who called only half my name and 3 seconds later I asked if she called it, she said she can't remember. There was a long line up so I could not ask anyone else working. 1 hour later she called half my name again and I said may I see the requisition. It was mine. She wasn't reading the whole name. She wasted 1 hour.

the staff there is very nice. I went earlier today and since not a lot of patients, I got tested early. The nurse drawing my blood was extremely gentle and I didn't even feel any pain. Really appreciate her profession.

As a person with a long-term medical condition, I am very familiar with almost every kind of medical test, and I always use LifeLabs because there are lots of locations and in the past I have never had an issue. That is, until last week. I made an appointment like a responsible person, and got there ten minutes early to check in. The screen in the lobby shows you who's a walk-in patient and who's not. I watched several walk-in patients who were already there go in ahead of me. So tell me: what's the point of making an appointment if walk-ins get in on a first-come, first-served basis? I ended up waiting 40 minutes past my appointment time, and there were no scheduled appointments ahead of me. Just walk-ins. The staff bumbled around at a snail's pace, joking with each other and just generally not giving a damn. No one was wearing masks, and they didn't seem to care at all. Part of my testing was a urine sample, which I prepared for by drinking lots of water before leaving the house. This would have been fine if I'd gotten in at my appointment time (or even a few minutes after). But by the time I actually got to see someone, I had to grab the sample cup from the technician and literally run to the bathroom because I'd been waiting so long. Next was the blood test. The first thing I did was tell the technician that I've had a lot of blood tests, and the veins in my arms are very thin and hard to collect blood from. I informed her that most people use my hands, as it is much easier for them and less painful for me. The hard-headed (and frankly rude) tech decided I didn't know what I was talking about, and proceeded to stab me three separate times in my right arm before giving up and moving to left one. She was not gentle with the needle either, and kept angrily telling me to stretch out my arm and clench my fist (which I was already doing, and couldn't possibly do any harder). She pulled my arm down so hard to stretch it that my elbow was sore for the rest of the day. And when she still couldn't get anything from the other arm, she had to call in another technician to help. What a joke. It took two of them, and two more failed attempts, to finally hit a vein properly. This is absolutely ridiculous, and obviously didn't feel great. When the tech finally managed to hit the vein in my left arm, she scolded me for not telling her earlier to use my left arm instead of my right. There is no difference in the size of the veins; they simply got lucky. If they had listened from the beginning, and just used my hand, I wouldn't have been stabbed 6 times. Either way though, it's not my job to tell them where to go, they should be able to figure that out for themselves by simply looking at the veins. The staff were apathetic at best, and downright rude at their worst. I tried to make light conversation when they began collecting the sample and I was quite rudely shut down and told to be quiet (I always chat with the techs, they never have a problem with it). They had absolutely no idea what they were doing. My arms were bruised for days, and they didn't apologize once for all of the failed attempts. I really wish I could give zero stars. TLDR; do not go to this location. Seriously. Find any other LifeLabs, they're usually great. This one is garbage.

This is probably the worst lifelabs I’ve ever been to. They are rude, disorganized and have no empathy for elderly patients. While I was there, an elderly lady was having trouble emailing her requisition, the staff couldn’t care less and brushed her to the side, another patient had to help her email the form. Another lady took a quick sip of water from her water bottle, and a staff members approached her, pointing her finger in her face saying you’re not allowed to drink water here. If you’re not happy with your employment situation, don’t take it out on your patients. Save yourself the headache and go to another location. It’s just not worth the aggravation.

Today morning the senior wait in line (queue) for more than 45 minutes, she felt down in hall way but nobody cares. I asked from two Asian nurses to bring a chair for her but they refused. I took a chair and put it in hallway for her ( She was in bad situation), suddenly the nurse came and shout on me and said if you do again we don't accept you and don't your work here. When I said thank you after my blood test she gave me bad attitude. I am not satisfied with this branch of life lab. I have an appointment but I was in line for more than 1 hour in hallway. I am young but what about seniors? Hope manager or somebody who care about lifa lab answer it.

I completed an u/s appointment downstairs and checked the LifeLabs app for walk in wait time upstairs at Lab and it said 3 minutes, I rushed up and was told i was too late they didn’t accept walk ins after 3:30pm. It was 3:28 and not a single person waiting inside. I showed her the app and how it didn’t state no walk ins after 3:30pm. Nonetheless, I politely said okay no problem and upon leaving, lady said it’s okay you can come give me your paperwork and health card please. Sent to first cubicle right away. I was done in two minutes. I said thank you so much for your time and she mumbled something under her breath. Staff could definitely be kinder and more professional!

They don’t even deserve one start. Rude unprofessional stuff! Treat everyone like animals screaming at people that don’t speak English! While waiting all they talked about was other patients and discussed rudely others! How are you they nurses if they all hate people. Worst location ever if you can avoid this location please do!

Terrible terrible service. I have been going to other life labs locations for years but found an appointment in this location so i decided to try it. Extremely rude lab technician. I am honestly not sure if she is just rude or islamophobic. I will definitely never step my foot in this location again. I wish there was more i can do than write a review to warn people from going there and deal with her.

Please, if you can, avoid this place. I went in for a urinalysis and received a phone call three days later informing me that they "spilled the sample during the transaction." The person who called advised me to get another requisition from my doctor and to redo the test in 10 days—which completely defeats the purpose of doing a urinalysis before antibiotic treatment. LifeLabs: How can you spill a patient's sample and only inform the patient three days later? Please train your staff properly to ensure that they perform their duties competently.

Expected the worst after reading all the reviews, but my experience was not bad at all. Scheduled an appointment, and was able to see a technician 10 min after my appointment slot. Delay was caused by other patients having some difficulty with their procedures, but that is not the staff's fault. Entered the facility and left in exactly 20 min. Staff was also very friendly and helpful. No problem with parking either, unlike some other locations. I will come back to this location for other lab requisitions.

Disorganized and busy! Make sure to go there with an appointment and if it’s your first time and you want to check the results online make sure to ask them for your unique code cause they won’t tell you anything about that.. (you can also contact customer service and get it over the phone) You can use the same code for your next tests… They’re very slow in their job… So if you’re going there during the busy hours be patient and have some buffer time in your schedule. Stay safe and healthy!

Extremely rude and arrogant staff. Can’t even say hello to people but don’t step back to insult people. They’re loud with elderly patients and rude with people who have language barrier. Please avoid this place at all cost.

Booked an appointment online and thankfully there was no queue however they don't have chairs to sit inside the waiting area, I was surprised as they should have chairs or seating arrangement for elderly people or pregnant women, after 10mins wait they took my blood test but the nurse was very rude if you ask her a question she will stare or answer rudely. Should have more professional nurses and seating arrangements

Unfortunately due to my health conditions I've had to visit this location a few times for blood tests in the last couple of years. Couldn't help noticing how extremely good and professional the staff is. So i decided to take some names when i visited today. Svetlana, who takes care of the front desk is a very intelligent, caring, humble, hardworking person who treats everyone(even non speaking english)with respect and patience. Don't forget this place is always swamped with patients without appointments. Brithrey just like other techs( very caring, friendly, knowledgable professional tech) took care of me this time. Thank you guys! God bless you all.

I will never! never! never! go this LifeLabs again!!! If the point can be minus, I will give them minus! My wife is pregnant 13 weeks, she need do an ultrasound test and blood test together for the eFTS to test the NT, it’s very important! It is very nice experience for ultrasound with My Health Center. But, the blood test with LifeLabs is very very disappointed. There is a filippin nurse, rude and unprofessional, when she take the blood from my wife’s left arm, she did not use the tourniquet to find the blood vessel, my wife asked why you not use the tourniquet, she was very rude and said don’t move! the result is, she didn’t find the correct blood vessel, drawing blood and failed the test. Then, she asked my wife change the other arm, and still didn’t use the tourniquet. That is very unprofessional! When my wife walked out from the room, I can see an unhappy and incredible face. But! This is not the worst, the worst is, today, the lab manager called me, my wife’s blood sample was lost! How could the lab lose a patient's blood sample！ This LifeLabs is the worst lab I have been!

The lab is upstairs 217. Check operating hours before the visit. The require to send the lab requisition via an email (or a print).

They need to organize themselves better. I understand that it is the weekend and it gets busy, but when I got to call into cubicle, the other two cubicles got two rounds finished, and I was still waiting.. while waiting, one of the patients was asking for a reference number after his blood work, but the technician got confused and called him in to do blood work again!

a filipino women whos working there with glasses,black hair around shoulder length is so rude while talking with patients. Shes talking to them as if shes paging them.. her tone of voice is not nice at all,the way she responds so fast without listening to the patients bothered me a lot. Someone has to teach her some manners and how she is suppose to speak with patients,patients who she has to serve as its her duty to do so. why is she acting like shes working there for free and doing all this work for free. you are getting payed for what you are doing so do it properly.

Expected a terrible experience based on reviews. Great experience. My req forms were incomplete and the staff went above and beyond to help. Lena was the biggest help and they made a stressful experience a lot smoother.

I went to this location for the first time in years since I’ve moved to another region. Everything was so smooth and organized! and social distancing was monitored so I felt safe. The Farsi speaking lady in charge there was very helpful and friendly going back and forth to different patients. She helped me send my blood test form online and was very helpful when I couldn’t figure out how to retrieve it on my phone. She is the best and genuinely cares!!! Very good to have people who speak multiple languages... my partner doesn’t speak fluent English and she also knew Spanish so she was very helpful to him and he felt welcome too! Cheers to this team for all your hard work!!

If you can, avoid any LifeLabs, all experience that I had with them was bad. If you cannot avoid LifeLabs, at least avoid this and the Bathurst/Steeles location, as they were the worst experience I have ever had with a lab. It's understandable that there are Covid-19 protocols in place to avoid overcrowding, but they are simply really bad organized. The locations say they accept walk-ins but are "fully booked" even before opening. LifeLabs' Covid-19 protocol is the worse I experienced. On top of it all, at least in these two locations they are always understaffed, which makes the place overcrowded and the workers lose they patience (as they have too much to handle). I personally think it's a corporation's fault and not any staff worker's fault, hence AVOID LIFELABS IF POSSIBLE.

Considering that it was 20 minutes until they finished their work and there were 2 children with us, the receptionist's attitude was very rude and unfriendly, I am so sorry. BUT , today I came here again, and yesterday's guy told me she is upset about my feedback, however, today she is very kind to us. Know, I understand they are very tired at the end of the day. Good luck

Took my daughter to this lab at 7:30 am for blood work. I was told to take her to sick kids because lifelabs do not provide this service for kids as they do not have the applicable tubes. We went to another location at 7131 bathurst street and they took her in right away. My daughter was fasting for 3 hours. They do not deserve 1 star.

The phlebotomist who took my blood was rude. She “gestured” not asked verbally to roll up my sleeves. She also told me next time not to wear any perfume which I was not informed ahead via email before my appointment. It seems like she hates her job.

Staff are very attentive and supportive. I would recommend any pregnant woman to come here for her lab work. I did my glucose test and they allowed me to lay in one of the rooms for the 2 hours I was fasting. They’re very busy and overworked; it’s best to have understanding and know small sweet talk isn’t possible in an environment that pushes staff to see as many patients as possible who are doing tests that involve time-sensitiveness and fasting; so if may come across as aggressive, but they’re just doing their best. I will definitely recommend.

The staff are so rude, like you didn't even open your mouth to say something and they are yelling at you. They can even say it in a nice way that they are closing soon.

I visited this LifeLabs today, very positive experience, I was seen in less than 20 min. without making appointment. Staff very efficient and helpful. Thank you LifeLabs

I do not get it -why the staff call people with either their middle name or first name and cause confusion while there are so many people there . Multiple people including us had hard times identifying themselves -The monitor that shows the names went off for a while , we realized they called in the two person who just walked in while we waited 40 minutes - when I asked for the why we realized that they've kept calling my boyfriend's middle name not even the first name that showed on the monitor-I noticed that multiple people had the same issue identifying themselves only with their first name -SO RIDICULOUS AND UNPROFESSIONAL- It caused us stress while we were uncomfortable to ask question from the staff in the middle of that Chaos- Also very rude staff -

Extremely rude and arrogant staff. I walked in and told the reception that my doctor just sent me an urgent blood test and called me today and said, it should be done today. She looked at the requisition and just like she caught me lying, but its for yesterday you told me your doctor sent it today. Yes, my doctor sent it last night but I got it on my inbox just today and he called me today to just assure I will be doing it today. I dont need to lie for a blood test. The fact is that they accept walk in so what is that behaviour for. The 2 star is just for cleanness of the place.

The experience was the worst at this lab facility. We came to get a different test but the staff performed a different test and argued that it’s the right test . We consulted the doctor too and informed them we are paying for a different test, but they did not accept it. Please do not visit this facility if you are looking for any medical tests or support .

Had a good experience here. The staff were friendly and polite. I had an appointment, arrived 5min early, once they took my details I was immediately sent to one of the cubicles. I waited there for about 5min while the phlebotomist finished with their current client. Overall I was in and out of there in 20min or so. What people need to understand is that there is a shortage of medical staff. Many have left the field from poor pay and being berated by people daily just isn't worth it. It doesn't hurt to be polite and to speak to them like they are human. Also, I have difficult veins, they are deep and hard to get. I joke about it with every phlebotomist I get and I warn them prior. She got it in one poke. I was grateful as I've been to others where they had to fish for my vein, in both my arms and also popping through to muscle. So kudos to her skill ☺️ Next day comment: Also want to say, since my veins suck and is super deep, there has been no bruising

I am near to this lab so every time I choose here again. But I have never thought about changing to somewhere else as they do awesome.

Extremely rude and unprofessional staff. IF you have a choice, go elsewhere. Really poor bedside manners from medical staff, I’m sure the attending nurses are fine but front staff are disorganized, rude and mean.

I really don't know why LifeLabs tries so hard to be the worst option. This location does not clean the rooms in-between patients.

They are no responsible very unprofessional very rude I arrive 8:15 am early in the morning but they still don’t give me time and nobody is not there I put the video from the supervisor Lisa who is so rude nobody is not in the lab in the lobby but they just bring a coronavirus excuse Four don’t work and just get the salary

I have visited 4949 Bathurst St Unit 217, North York, ON M2R 1Y1 location for my blood test, very rude staff!!! Not responsible at all!!! My brother after doing the blood test passed out, and thank god I was there!!! because there are only two or three people who work there!! And they don’t even care about the clients and their filings(one of them left the room to continue her office work, despite the need for her help at that time was necessary)!! And we had to move him to the recovery room, and there were nobody to help us considering a passed out person is too heavy and we couldn’t even carry him to the recovery room because they don’t even have enough staff,, I’m going to call the head office to make sure if they are qualified to open this clinic despite of all the clinic’s protocols!! They have to think about these emergency moments!!! Also after this accident, they didn’t even have any drinks or something sweet to help the client’s blood pressure/sugar!! I’m studying in health and science and I know they don’t take any precautions in this clinic!!!! Please investigate this matter as soon as possible, before something disaster happens in this clinic!!! (Horrible experience)

The place is so organized. I booked an appointment online, and arrived few minutes earlier. There was no line up and I checked in soon. All the staffs are so nice and friendly. Finished my blood test very fast.

Usually good. But very poor regarding walk ins. They allowed a man in who had an appointment but for a different location. But when I’m waiting from 7:30 am they turn me away until 11 am when it’s too late due to fasting. Woman said her boss told her not to make any exceptions but she did. Just not for me. Won’t be going back.

The filipino receptionist is very UNPROFESSIONAL and RUDE.. no empathy at all for the patients! And she just shuts you down . I wish their management would review this post and she gets atleast a refresher for more customer service skills and proper decorum.