A Vial Arrived Broken or Missing: What to Do First

A box arrives with one vial fewer than the order, or a cracked vial, or a stopper that has lifted. These are resolvable, and almost all of the difficulty in resolving them comes from evidence that was not captured in the first ten minutes. This is what to do, in order, and what the seven-day window actually means.

Before you unpack anything

• Photograph the outer packaging as it arrived, including the label, before opening it. If the carrier damaged the parcel, this is the only record of it.
• Photograph the contents in the box, before lifting anything out, with the vials in the positions they travelled in.
• Photograph each affected vial individually, with its label and lot number legible.
• Do not open, reconstitute or discard anything you intend to raise a claim about. A vial that has been opened cannot be assessed.

What counts, and the window

Contact us at info@bmslabsresearch.com within seven days of delivery if an item is missing from the order, an item is not what was ordered, or a vial arrived broken or with a compromised seal. Include the order number and the photographs of the shipment as received. Where we confirm the problem, we send a replacement at our cost, or issue a refund if a replacement is not available.

The seven days run from delivery, not from when the box was opened, which is the practical reason to inspect on arrival even if the material will not be used for weeks.

What a compromised seal looks like

• A crimp cap that turns freely or has lifted away from the glass.
• A stopper sitting proud of the vial neck, or visibly pierced.
• A crack or chip, including a hairline crack at the neck or base.
• No vacuum when the stopper is pressed, on a product that should hold one.
• Contents that are wet, sticky or clumped in a vial that should be dry — see cake appearance for what is normal and what is not.

What is not a defect

Several things look alarming and are not. Powder up the vial wall or on the stopper is static and transit. A cake that looks like almost nothing is normal for a few milligrams of a porous solid — see why the vial looks empty. A shrunken or glassy cake is a drying-process matter. A warm parcel is expected, because lyophilised material is shipped at ambient temperature and is stable in transit. None of these reduce what is in the vial, and the certificate for the lot is what describes the contents.

Returns, and why they are limited

Material that has left our custody cannot be assessed for storage conditions and cannot be resold, so returns are limited to the three situations above rather than offered as a general right of return. This is a consequence of how research material has to be handled, not a convenience: a vial whose storage history is unknown has no documented integrity, and reselling it would make every certificate downstream meaningless.

Refunds

Refunds are issued in digital currency to a wallet address you provide, for the US dollar value of the original order, converted at the rate in effect on the day the refund is sent, with network fees deducted. They are sent within five business days of our confirming the claim. Payment mishaps are handled separately: an underpayment holds the order until the balance arrives, and an overpayment is refunded the same way.

What makes a claim fast

• The order number in the first message.
• Photographs as received, not after unpacking and tidying.
• The lot number of each affected vial.
• What exactly is wrong, in one line: missing, wrong item, broken, or seal.
• The vials kept as they are until the claim is resolved.

Current terms are on the shipping and returns page, which is the authoritative version if anything here and there differ.

All products referenced on this site are supplied for laboratory research use only, and are not for human or veterinary use.