No knowledge of the biotech, but this is <i>really</i> shady.  Above-board companies simply do not look like this.<p>1) Refusal to use the ground-breaking technology:<p>&gt;Then I asked about what Theranos calls “nanotainers” or tiny vials that can give you test results with a single drop of blood.<p>&gt;“Oh you have to order that separately,” she informed me. “We take those intravenously if you bundle a bunch of tests together.”<p>&gt;[...]I then informed them I was a journalist and would like to take the test separately to test the technology. They told me I would still need to order it separately.<p>2) Sudden delays and bizarre excuses when you insist on using their ground-breaking technology and identify as a journalist:<p>&gt; So I went to order it separately.<p>&gt;That’s when things got weird. It took much longer to process this separate order at the counter. I was told it was because they had to manually type in my order on the other end.<p>&gt;[...]I spoke with Chris, the Theranos manager, on the phone who informed me it was about supplies. Okay, but the people with the supplies to administer [the] test thought I could take it until management said they could not that day.<p>3) Extreme concern with following a central PR script when people ask questions:<p>&gt;Then I walked myself back to the testing center and could overhear one of the women on the phone with management in a panicked voice telling them I was a journalist doing an investigative piece (I wasn’t, just curious as to how it worked).<p>4) Scouts that are instructed to alert central command whenever people start asking questions (edit: especially when that was during a <i>patient consultation</i>):<p>&gt;I reached out to Theranos head of communications Brooke Buchanan for an explanation as well. She’d already been informed I was in the store today.<p>5) Insistence that you check only specific cases of their product:<p>&gt; I was asked why I chose not to go to the Theranos main office in Palo Alto for a test instead [of the Walgreen&#x27;s location the author went to].<p>Also -- just a personal observation -- the use of the phrase &quot;at this time&quot;  strongly correlates with how badly someone wants you to stop asking questions (police officers citing you, HR employees with bad news, PR spokespeople in a bind, etc).