Return & Refund Policy

Research materials are sold with lot-specific analytical data, and that data is only meaningful for material whose storage and chain of custody are known. Once a vial has left our control, neither of those is knowable. Section 3 explains that in full.

Inspect your delivery as soon as it arrives. Any claim under section 4 must reach us within three (3) calendar days of delivery, with your order number and clear photographs. After three days the claim is waived.

This policy states the same rule as section 6 of the Terms of Sale and Research Use Attestation, which your account signed before ordering and which controls if anything here reads differently. It forms part of the Terms of Service and should be read with the Shipping Policy. To raise anything under it, email support@theoryslabs.com with your order number.

Submitting an order is an offer to purchase, and once we accept it and take payment the sale is final. There is no right to cancel an order or to have it refunded because you have changed your mind, ordered the wrong item, ordered the wrong quantity, or no longer need the material. That is section 6.1 of the Terms of Sale and Research Use Attestation in plain terms.

If you have made a mistake, email support@theoryslabs.com immediately with your order number and tell us what is wrong. Where the order has not yet been tendered to the carrier we will try to help, and we may cancel or amend it as a matter of discretion. That is goodwill, not an entitlement, and it is not something you should count on: orders can move to dispatch within minutes of being placed. Once a shipment is with the carrier we will not intercept or recall it.

Refusing delivery does not convert a final sale into a cancellation. Refused and undeliverable parcels are handled under section 9 of the Shipping Policy.

This is not a convenience rule, and it is not a way of avoiding an obligation. It follows from what the product is.

Every product we sell is supplied against a certificate of analysis for a specific lot. That certificate is a statement about material we held, stored and handled under known conditions. Once a vial has left our control we cannot establish the temperature it was held at, whether it was opened, diluted, decanted or reconstituted, whether it was exposed to light or moisture, or whether it was contaminated or substituted. A returned unit therefore cannot be re-tested to a standard that would let us supply it to another researcher, and putting it back into stock would compromise the integrity of the catalogue for every other customer. We do not resell returned material.

For the same reason:

• Opened, used, diluted, reconstituted, decanted or altered products cannot be returned under any circumstances, and are not eligible under section 4.
• Unopened products cannot be returned either, because an intact seal does not evidence the conditions the material was stored in.
• Product transferred to anyone else cannot be returned, because the chain of custody has passed out of your hands as well as ours.
• Do not ship anything back to us without asking first. Unauthorised returns are not refunded, not replaced, and may be refused by the carrier or disposed of on arrival. Where we do ask you to return something, we will give you instructions.

There are exactly two situations in which we will replace or refund a product. They are section 6.3 of the Terms of Sale and Research Use Attestation, reproduced here:

• Damage on arrival — the product arrived with material damage to its outer packaging or primary container.
• Non-conformity to the certificate of analysis — the product materially fails to conform to the identity or purity specification stated on its certificate of analysis for the applicable lot.

Where a claim under either heading is substantiated, we will replace or refund the affected product at our sole option. You cannot require one rather than the other, and where we replace, the replacement is subject to this policy in the same way as the original.

These are your sole and exclusive remedies in respect of the condition or conformity of any product, as section 6.5 of the Terms of Sale and Research Use Attestation states. Nothing else in this policy, the Terms of Service or the Shipping Policy creates a further remedy for a product's condition.

A claim must reach us within the window in section 5 and be supported by the evidence described there. A claim without proof cannot be assessed.

You must inspect all products on receipt. Any claim under section 4 must be submitted to support@theoryslabs.com within three (3) calendar days of delivery, and must include:

• your order number;
• the item or items affected;
• a description of the problem; and
• clear photographic evidence — for damage, the outer carton as received from every side, the shipping label, all packing material, and the affected items in the packaging as you found them; for a non-conformity claim, the lot or batch identifier and a description of the testing or observation the claim rests on.

Claims submitted after three calendar days are waived, as section 6.2 of the Terms of Sale and Research Use Attestation provides. Three days is short because damage cannot be attributed to transit once a parcel has been sitting with the recipient, and because carriers apply their own strict filing deadlines.

Keep all packaging until the claim is resolved, and do not use a damaged item. We may ask you to keep an item available for inspection, to return it to us at our expense, or to dispose of it safely and confirm that you have done so — we will tell you which, and you should not dispose of anything you are claiming for until we do.

Photographs and correspondence you send are handled as described in the Privacy Policy.

Section 6.4 of the Terms of Sale and Research Use Attestation excludes products that have been opened, reconstituted, altered, mishandled, stored outside stated conditions, or transferred to any third party. Beyond that, we do not refund, replace or exchange:

• a change of mind, an order placed in error, a wrong quantity, a duplicate order you placed, or a product you no longer need;
• a research result you did not expect, or a material that did not perform as you hoped in your assay, system, protocol or instrumentation — research outcomes depend on your methods and conditions and are not a product defect;
• any claim founded on the effect, safety or efficacy of a product in a human or animal; such use is prohibited by the Research Use Only Disclaimer and by section 2 of the Terms of Sale and Research Use Attestation, and we do not entertain claims arising from it;
• a problem caused by storage, handling, dilution, reconstitution or use after delivery;
• a parcel confirmed delivered to the address you gave and then taken from it;
• a claim reported more than three calendar days after delivery;
• a claim submitted without the evidence described in section 5; or
• anything sent back to us without our prior agreement.

Separately from section 4, there are three situations in which money goes back to you because we did not supply the order at all. These are not returns.

• We cancel the order. We may limit quantities, correct a pricing or description error, and cancel any order before shipment — including after a confirmation has been issued — for the reasons set out in the Terms of Service, the Research Use Only Disclaimer and section 3.2 of the Terms of Sale and Research Use Attestation: failed verification, suspected prohibited use, suspected fraud, a listing error, or unavailability. Where we cancel after payment, we refund the amount paid for the cancelled items.
• An item is unavailable. Availability is not guaranteed. Where an ordered item cannot be supplied we will tell you and either substitute it with your consent, place it on backorder, or refund that item (section 3.3 of the Terms of Sale and Research Use Attestation).
• The order is for delivery outside the United States. We ship only within the United States and do not fulfil international orders. Any such order is cancelled and refunded (section 5.1 of the Terms of Sale and Research Use Attestation).

Where the whole order is cancelled by us, any shipping charged on it is refunded with it.

Risk of loss and title pass to you when we tender the shipment to the carrier (section 5.3 of the Terms of Sale and Research Use Attestation). From that point the carrier is performing for you, and responsibility for filing a claim for loss or damage in transit is yours, except where the damage-on-arrival exception in section 4 applies. We are not liable for carrier delays, misdelivery, or events outside our reasonable control.

We will still help. Tell us at support@theoryslabs.com with your order number and we will supply the dispatch confirmation, tracking history, packing details and any other records the carrier asks for. We will open a lost-parcel enquiry with the carrier where that is something only the shipper can do. What we cannot do is treat a parcel that left us in good order as a refundable sale.

Where a parcel is confirmed delivered to the correct address and then taken, that is not a loss recoverable from the carrier and it is not a claim under this policy. We will help with the carrier enquiry and, where the value warrants it, a police report.

Shipping insurance. If you added the optional shipping insurance fee at checkout, it does what it says on the checkout page: your order is covered against loss, theft or damage in transit, and we will reship or refund it in full, without claim forms. That cover is a separate service you paid for, and nothing in this policy's final-sale rule cuts it down. It covers the shipment in transit — it is not a change-of-mind refund, and it does not extend the section 5 window for a damage claim.

Where we replace, we ship an equivalent item at no charge. Where we refund, the refund goes to the original payment method through our payment processor. We cannot refund to a different card, to a different person, by cash or cheque, by bank transfer, or as store credit unless we specifically offer it. The time a refund takes to appear on your statement is determined by your bank or card issuer, not by us. We email you when a replacement is dispatched or a refund is issued.

Part of an order. Where only part of an order is affected, only that part is replaced or refunded. Where a volume rate or discount applied, a partial refund is calculated on the price actually paid for the affected items after that discount, and the remaining items keep whatever pricing they qualify for on their own.

Shipping charges. Where we cancel an order under section 7, any shipping charged is refunded with it. Where we refund or replace under section 4, we cover the shipping attributable to the affected items. Otherwise shipping charges are not refundable, and the cost of re-shipping a parcel that failed for a reason within your control is yours.

No restocking fee. We do not charge one — there is nothing to restock, because we do not take material back into inventory.

We take claims at face value and try to resolve them quickly, and an honest mistake is just a mistake — tell us and we will sort it out.

Knowingly false claims are different. Claiming non-delivery for a parcel you received, claiming damage you caused, claiming an item was missing when it was not, altering photographs or documents, or submitting the same claim repeatedly to obtain a duplicate remedy is a material breach of the Terms of Service and of the Terms of Sale and Research Use Attestation. Where we reasonably conclude that a claim is dishonest, we may decline it, reverse a remedy already given, cancel pending orders, close your account, decline to serve you in future, recover amounts owed to us to the extent the law allows, and report the matter to our payment processor, the carrier or law enforcement.

Contact us before disputing a charge. Section 4.4 of the Terms of Sale and Research Use Attestation requires it: email support@theoryslabs.com and give us the chance to resolve a billing or order concern first. We can usually settle an order problem faster than a card dispute can, and a dispute filed while we are already working on a replacement tends to freeze the payment and delay the outcome for you.

Because all sales are final, a chargeback filed for an order that was delivered as described is a breach of the Terms of Sale and Research Use Attestation, and we may recover the disputed amount, the processing fees charged to us, and reasonable costs of collection, and suspend or close your account. Dishonest conduct in connection with a payment — disputing a charge for an order you placed and received while telling your bank you did not authorise or receive it, or using a payment method you are not authorised to use — is treated as described in the chargebacks section of the Terms of Service.

Nothing here limits any right you have under law, your card network's rules or your cardholder agreement, and a genuine mistake or misunderstanding we will simply resolve. Where a dispute is filed, we will respond to it with the records we hold — order and account records, the signed Terms of Sale and Research Use Attestation with its version and document hash, the research-use attestations recorded with the order, correspondence, dispatch confirmation and carrier tracking — as described in the Privacy Policy.

For anything under this policy — a claim, a question about a charge — email support@theoryslabs.com with your order number. Post can be sent to Theorys Labs LLC, 8023 Vantage Dr., Ste. 535, San Antonio, TX 78230. Please do not send products back to any address without agreeing it with us first.