Shipping & returns
What happens after payment.
How orders are packed and dispatched, what tracking tells you, and what to do when something is wrong with a shipment.
Dispatch
Orders are packed once payment has been recorded. A packing list is checked item by item, postage is bought for the real parcel and destination, and the parcel is handed to the carrier.
Your order status distinguishes these stages deliberately. Label created means postage has been bought and the parcel is waiting for collection. Dispatched means it has actually been handed over. We do not report a dispatch that has not happened.
Transit times depend on the carrier, the service, the destination, and customs. Where a carrier gives an estimate we pass it on and label it as the carrier's estimate. We do not offer a guaranteed or same-day delivery commitment.
Tracking
When a shipment is created, the carrier and tracking number appear on your order. Check it from the track order page using the private link from your confirmation, or with your order number and the email address the order was placed with.
Tracking is not available before a shipment exists. Carrier scans can also lag behind the parcel's physical position — a parcel that has been collected may show no movement for some time.
Correcting an address
Tell us as early as you can. Before a label is created we can change the address on the order directly. After a label is created the address is printed and in the carrier's system, so a correction usually means the parcel has to complete its journey or be returned first.
Where an address check suggests a different version of your address, we show you both and ask — we do not silently overwrite the address you gave us.
Where we ship
Allowed destinations are configured per service area, and the cart will accept an address that we may not be able to ship to. If your destination is outside the areas we currently serve, we tell you during review and no payment is requested. Research materials are subject to the importing country's own rules, which are the recipient's responsibility.
Damaged, missing or incorrect shipments
Contact us with your order number within 14 days of the carrier reporting delivery, and include:
- photographs of the outer packaging, including any damage and the label;
- photographs of the vials as they arrived, unopened;
- the lot code printed on each affected vial.
We will check the packing record and the shipment history for your order and reply with what we can do. Where a parcel is lost or damaged in transit we also raise it with the carrier, which takes as long as the carrier takes.
Returns
Because these are research materials whose storage conditions cannot be verified once they leave our control, we do not accept returns of opened or used vials, and we cannot resell a vial that has been outside our custody.
We will put right what is our error. If you received the wrong item, the wrong size, or a vial that arrived damaged or with a broken seal, tell us within 14 days and we will arrange a replacement or a refund of that line.
- Unopened vials, still sealed, reported within 14 days of delivery: contact us before returning anything, so the return is recorded against your order.
- Refunds are issued to the original payment route. A submitted refund is not a completed one — we tell you which stage yours is at.
- Shipping costs are refunded when the fault was ours.
Your data
Your delivery address is used to fulfil your order and to buy postage. It is held in our order records, shown to the people packing your order, and passed to the carrier printed on the label. It is not published, sold, or shown in any affiliate or partner view. See the privacy policy.
The formal policy documents are the shipping policy and the return policy. This page explains how they are applied in practice.
Check an order