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A customer who ordered a whole-genome sequencing kit from Dante Labs tells CNBC he noticed something wrong with the one received in the mail — it had already been used. The customer, Cedric Meury, altered the company of the issue, which acknowledged the problem.

Dante Labs CEO Andrea Riposati tells CNBC he's aware of five instances in which customers received already-used kits.

Dante Labs offers sequencing-based genetic tests for a number of conditions, including hereditary cancer and cardiovascular disease risk assessment, directly to customers. As GenomeWeb has reported, the startup outsources both its testing and bioinformatics analysis to partner labs.

The company says the source of the mix up is the partner it uses to ship and receive kits, according to CNBC. Dante Labs tells it that this partner printed the wrong shipping labels and sent the used kits out as new ones, rather than sending them back to the lab. The company says in a blog post that it sent new kits to all affected.

CNBC notes that this is emblematic of the growing pains faced by direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies. Other firms, it adds, have run into issues with not being able to distinguish human and dog DNA as well as not having the necessary certification for testing.