Shipping Policy

The Site is configured to accept orders for delivery to addresses in the United States only. No shipping rate is offered for any other destination, so an order cannot be completed for delivery outside the United States.

We ship to addresses in the United States only, and we do not accept international orders. No international shipping method is offered at checkout. Destinations other than the fifty states and the District of Columbia — including U.S. territories and possessions, military and diplomatic addresses (APO, FPO and DPO), and freight forwarders — are not served. Please contact us before ordering if you are unsure whether we can reach your address.

We ship to the address you enter at checkout. We do not ship to an address other than the one on the order, and we cannot redirect a shipment in transit.

You are responsible for ensuring that it is lawful for you to receive, possess and use the products you order at the destination address, and for any permit or registration your jurisdiction or institution requires. Our Research Use Only Disclaimer and the Terms of Service set this out in full.

We do not currently apply any state-, city- or product-specific shipping restrictions to our catalogue: any product listed on the Site can be shipped to any address we serve. If that changes, we will update this policy before the restriction takes effect.

We may decline to ship any product to any destination where we reasonably believe delivery, receipt or use would be unlawful, or where the Research Use Only Disclaimer gives us reason to refuse the sale. Where we decline after payment, we refund the affected items.

Orders are processed on business days, excluding weekends and public holidays. Processing includes payment authorisation, any verification we carry out under the Terms of Service, picking, packing and labelling.

Orders are processed and dispatched within two business days. Orders placed after 3:00 p.m. Central Time, or on a weekend or public holiday, are treated as received on the next business day. Processing may take longer during periods of high volume, during holidays, where a payment needs review, where an order is held for verification, or where stock has to be re-checked.

Orders placed on a non-business day are processed on the next business day. If we expect a material delay on an order you have already paid for, we will email you and you may cancel it while it is unshipped, as described in the Return & Refund Policy.

Orders are carried by FedEx and ship from San Antonio, Texas. The services and rates offered are:

• FedEx Ground — $15.00
• FedEx 2-Day — $25.00
• FedEx Overnight — $30.00

We choose the carrier and service for a shipment unless a specific service is offered and selected at checkout.

Transit time is the time a shipment spends with the carrier after we have dispatched it, and is separate from processing time. Typical transit time is one to three business days, depending on the service selected and the destination.

All delivery estimates — whether shown at checkout, on a product page, or in an email — are estimates provided by us or the carrier, not guarantees or contractual commitments. We are not responsible for delays once a shipment is with the carrier, including delays caused by weather, natural events, carrier capacity or operational problems, mis-scans, customs or regulatory inspection, incorrect or incomplete addresses, failed delivery attempts, or any event described in the force majeure section of the Terms of Service.

Shipping is charged on every order. The charge is calculated at checkout and shown before you pay, and the amount displayed at checkout is the amount charged.

A flat shipping charge of $15.00 applies to every order delivered within the United States, whatever the order value, weight or number of items. We do not offer free shipping, there is no order value above which shipping becomes free, and no promotional code removes the charge.

The charge is in addition to the price of the products, and sales tax is calculated on the order total including it. Whatever else appears on the Site, the rate calculated and shown in your cart and at checkout is the one that applies to your order.

The charge covers one standard delivery to the address on the order. It does not cover re-shipment of a refused or undeliverable parcel, or any surcharge a carrier levies on a particular address; those are dealt with in the sections below and in the Return & Refund Policy.

Shipping charges are not refundable except where the Return & Refund Policy says otherwise, or where the law requires it.

When your order is dispatched we email a dispatch confirmation to the address on the order, including a tracking number where the carrier and service provide one. You can also see your orders by signing in to your account.

Tracking information is generated and updated by the carrier, not by us. A tracking number may take some time to show its first scan, and status can be slow to update while a parcel is moving. If tracking has not updated for an unusually long period, contact us at support@theoryslabs.com and we will open an enquiry with the carrier.

If a dispatch email does not arrive, check your spam folder first, then confirm the email address on your account is correct.

Unless we agree otherwise in writing, title to the products and risk of loss or damage pass to you when we tender the shipment to the carrier. From that point the shipment is in your ownership and the carrier is performing for you, and transit loss or damage is a matter between you, the carrier and any insurance on the shipment.

This allocation of risk is section 5.3 of the Terms of Sale and Research Use Attestation, which your account signed before ordering: responsibility for filing a transit claim with the carrier is yours. It does not remove the help described in section 8, and it does not affect the damage-on-arrival exception in the Return & Refund Policy — a product that arrives with material damage to its outer packaging or primary container is claimable under that policy if you report it within three calendar days. Where you added the optional shipping insurance at checkout, that cover applies as described in section 8 of the Return & Refund Policy.

Tell us as soon as you can, at support@theoryslabs.com, and include your order number.

Damaged in transit. Keep everything — the outer carton, all packing material, the label and the contents — and photograph the parcel as received before unpacking any further, plus the damaged items and the label. Carriers routinely refuse claims where packaging has been discarded. Do not use a damaged item.

Not delivered. If tracking shows delivery but you cannot find the parcel, check with others at the address, look in usual safe-drop places, and check with your building or mailroom; parcels marked delivered do sometimes surface within a day or two. If it does not, tell us. If tracking stops updating and delivery does not occur, tell us and we will open a lost-parcel enquiry with the carrier.

Reported stolen. Where a parcel is confirmed delivered to the correct address and is then taken, the loss is not one we can recover from the carrier. We will help you with the carrier enquiry and, where the value warrants it, a police report, but we are not able to treat a confirmed delivery as a non-delivery.

Reporting deadline — three calendar days. A claim for a product that arrived damaged must reach us within three (3) calendar days of delivery, with your order number and clear photographs. That is the window in section 6.2 of the Terms of Sale and Research Use Attestation and it is the only claim window we operate; after three days the claim is waived. Tell us about a parcel that has not arrived as soon as you know, so that we can open the carrier enquiry while the carrier will still accept one.

What we do about it. Where a product arrived with material damage to its outer packaging or primary container, we will replace or refund it at our option under the Return & Refund Policy. Where a parcel is lost, delayed or stolen in transit, the sale remains final and the claim is yours to make against the carrier — we will supply every record the carrier asks for and open the enquiry where only the shipper can — unless you added the optional shipping insurance at checkout, in which case we reship or refund in full without claim forms. We may wait for the outcome of a carrier claim before acting, and we may ask you to confirm details in writing.

You are responsible for providing a complete, accurate and current delivery address, and for making sure the address can accept the delivery. Address errors are the most common cause of a failed delivery, and a corrected address usually means a new shipment.

If a parcel is refused at the door, returned to us as undeliverable, unclaimed after the carrier’s final delivery attempt or holding period, or returned because the address was incorrect or incomplete, we will contact you. Refusing or failing to accept a delivery does not cancel the sale and does not entitle you to a refund — all sales are final, and a parcel that comes back to us cannot be returned to inventory for the chain-of-custody reasons set out in section 3 of the Return & Refund Policy. We can re-ship it to a corrected address, and you pay the cost of re-shipment plus any carrier return or address-correction fee we are charged.

We do not charge a restocking fee — there is nothing to restock, because we do not take material back into stock. Where a parcel never comes back to us at all, there is nothing to re-ship either.

Repeatedly refusing deliveries, or repeatedly providing addresses that fail, may lead us to decline future orders.

We do not ship to PO Boxes. Parcel lockers, mailbox services and similar addresses are also not accepted. Please give a street address that can accept a FedEx delivery.

Please give a street address wherever possible, include any suite, unit, floor, room, department or building information, and give a telephone number and email address that reach you, so that a carrier can contact you about a delivery. Business and institutional addresses should name the recipient exactly as the mailroom expects. Check your address on the order confirmation as soon as it arrives: if it is wrong, tell us immediately and we will correct it if the order has not yet been dispatched. Once dispatched, an address cannot be changed by us.

Orders are packed for transport as laboratory research materials. Packaging, and any measures used to protect a material in transit, are chosen for the material and the service and may vary between orders. Ice packs are included where external temperatures or the season make them appropriate.

Inspect your shipment on arrival and store each item as its product page or documentation indicates, promptly. Storage after delivery is your responsibility, and a material stored outside its stated conditions may not perform as its certificate of analysis describes.

Shipments are not delivered with any statement or documentation suggesting that the contents are suitable for human or animal use, and none may be added by you.

By accepting a delivery you confirm again that you are receiving the materials for lawful research use only, on the terms of the Research Use Only Disclaimer. Shipping questions can be sent to support@theoryslabs.com.