Smart Cells Arvostelua 

The phlebotomist arrived 2.5h after I told her that my wife's cervix was dilated by 10cm and the result was that she couldn't collect the minimum 10ml of cord blood required for processing.
2.5h is a VERY LONG time and I think it's totally unacceptable, particularly after I have been informing the phlebotomis step by step, since the start of the contractions.
For the service being so expensive, you would expect a much better service.

I do not recommend using this company. They need to change their phlebotomist company as once you register with Smartcells collection is out of their control.

The phlebotomist service is incompetent and rude. They make the whole experience stressful by continuously messaging and then turning up late. This is in the London area. We’ve had a great experience in the south wales area.

I’ve had 3 children. First time round service was good (2017), 2nd (2019) awful and 3rd (2024) atrocious. For the 2nd and 3rd we had the same phlebotomist.

Sadly this time round the blood could not be stored!!

I would not recommend this company or its services . I think they are very irresponsible and don’t understand the situation. We bought a package of cord blood and tissue collection and storage. We had a planned induction and the phlebotomist was well aware of progress of labour as best as it could be. She arrived late to take the sample. Later we were told that blood was not enough for storage and they’ll preserve only cord tissue. We as doctors ourselves know taking cord blood is the easiest thing and had we known that this situation could have arisen, we would have taken it ourselves or ask the hospital team to take it . So much of planning, coordinating let alone money was involved in coordinating with the team to collect and pick up the sample and all this was a waste. We were mainly interested in cord blood as it has more research and promising results. The customer care was unhelpful and claimed the phlebotomist was present at the time of delivery which was a lie. Please also read T&C carefully as we initially then decided not to store cord tissue alone, but we were told we will be charged £460 to discard the sample. All this happened and smart cells were very unapologetic about them not be able to deliver what they were supposed to. If you’re opting for this service, I would suggest choose someone more responsible.

Very bad experience with them. If you are going to have a phlebotomist from them, be careful. Because, they will not turn up on time and your babys cord blood will not be stored and you will get lots of reasons and just apologies for that from their customer service.

We are putting lots of time in researching on cord blood storage and deciding to go for it even though it is quite expensive. But if the company acts like they are not responsible, then they are not fit for this. These are golden opportunities which happens only once in your baby's life time. We have missed because of smartcells rather we should have gone to the other company.

If the phlebotomist is not under their control, they should have given this option to us as well, so we can find someone nearby. I was following up with the phlebotomist from the morning since my wife admitted, and in the evening it was a emergency C Section and I told her the same, she simply says it will take one hour for her to come. So there is no planning to collect cord blood if it was a emergency c section/emergency admission.

So be very careful going with this company.