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CR Scientific- products for science, hobby, and education


Ordering Information & Policies:

By placing an order, you agree to the policies below.  You must also read and agree to our general Terms of Use / Terms of Sale.  Together with the Privacy Policy and this page, the Terms of Use / Terms of Sale form a set of conditions to which the customer must agree in order to purchase items or use this website.

Quick links:
Broken & Damaged Item Policy
Cancellation of Orders
Checks
C.O.D. orders
Contact / Customer Service
Credit Card Orders
Credit Terms
Express Mail & Rush Order Policy
FedEx Shipping
International Orders
Minimum Order Policy & Charge
Missing Item Policy
Package Sent but not Received
Phone Orders
Purchase Orders
Refund / Return Policy
Security and Privacy
Shipping
Unauthorized credit card purchases / Chargebacks
UPS Accounts
W-9 Forms and Backup Withholding Paperwork





Broken / Damaged Item Policy:
  
All orders are packed carefully.  They are inspected during packing to make sure there is no breakage.

Uninsured packages:  We do not issue replacements or refunds for uninsured items that arrive broken or damaged unless the customer first sends us back the damaged item(s) or (at our discretion) sends a photograph that clearly shows the breakage or damage, as well as the condition of the package in which it arrived.  The photo must be in-focus and lit well enough for us, at our sole discretion, to determine that (1) it is in fact the same item we shipped, (2) that item is broken or damaged, and (3) the damage occurred during shipping, not from use or misuse of the item after delivery. 

Customer is responsible for return shipping costs for damaged or broken items that are sent back to us.

Insured packages:  Payment to cover the cost of the broken or damaged item is the responsibility of the shipping carrier with whom the item was insured.  It is important to contact the carrier as soon as possible upon discovery of shipping damage / breakage. We do not issue replacements or refunds for insured items which arrive to the customer broken or damaged.

Placing an order signifies acceptance of these policies.  (As per our Terms of Use / Terms of Sale, the web page you're reading right now is encompassed in those Terms.) 





Cancellation of Orders
- We reserve the right to cancel any order at any time, without further notice, and without supplying a reason.  

We will cancel any order that we, at our sole discretion, deem suspicious, fraudulent, or having a high risk of chargeback.  




Checks & Money Orders - We accept valid US Postal money orders.
We accept most company checks.  We may reject any check for payment if we are unable to verify it as being backed with sufficient funds.  We may be forced to start rejecting checks from Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and a few others due to the  difficulties they impose on verifying checks, not to mention the general difficulty of dealing with their automated menus or their apparently boundless appetite for fees.

Please don't bother with the "excess-value money order" scam.  If we receive a check or money order made out to an excess amount, we will cancel the order and contact the authorities.





C.O.D. Orders:
We do not accept C.O.D. orders. Prepayment is required unless Net 30 credit terms have been established (see below).






Contact / Customer Service:


Phone: 1-877-260-6039. If no one is available at the time you call, please leave a message and you will be called back as soon as possible. (We are located in the Eastern time zone;  please indicate time you can be reached)





Credit Card Orders
(USA):  We accept credit cards via Google Checkout.    Currently, the only credit card we can process via phone or manually is American Express;  all others please use our on-line shopping cart.

We also accept Paypal, money orders, company checks, and company purchase orders.  (Please see "Checks & Money Orders", above).

Please see the list of countries, below, from which we cannot accept credit card  orders.  If your credit card was issued by a bank in one of the countries on that list, or if the shipping and/or billing address is in one of those countries, we are unable to do business with you.  We apologize for the inconvenience.





Credit Terms:
 (Please see also "Purchase Orders", below)

1.)  Regardless of how big your business may be, we will still need trade references and relevant financial information if we've never done business before.  Size of corporation is no guarantee of reliability;  there is at least one multinational from whom we no longer accept orders because they apparently don't care to pay their invoices.

Schools, government institutions, and businesses can apply for Net 30 credit terms; the minimum purchase order amount when buying on "Net" terms is $50.00.   The payment deadline is 30 days from the shipment date.  Please make sure your company's accounting department can remit payment within the 30-day time frame.

2.)  We cannot grant credit to non-U.S. companies unless we have an existing business relationship or are provided sufficient information to verify your company and its credit-worthiness beyond any reasonable doubt.

3.)  Past-due invoices will incur finance charges of 1.5% which will be assessed starting one week (7 days) after the due date.  This charge will recur every 30 days thereafter (for a total of 18% per year) until the outstanding invoice, including finance charges, is paid.

To apply for Net 30 terms, please fax or email your company's information along with 3 trade references.

4.)  We do not normally accept Net 45, Net 60, or other extended terms unless there are special circumstances.





Express Shipping / Rush Orders:
  
For any orders having a merchandise total of less than $100, we no longer do Express / Expedited / Next Day Air shipping. 
We're sorry, but from now on, we require a $100 minimum on all Express / Expedited / rush orders.  Express orders not meeting this criterion may be cancelled or have the shipping method downgraded, at our discretion and without further notice.
If you still want an order shipped via Express or other expedited means, we will need you to call or email us to make sure the desired item is in stock (and someone is able to get your order filled immediately) before you place an Express / Expedited / rush order.  This is also true for certain other shipping methods (2nd day, 3-day).  Please read the following Notes also:

Note 1:  our normal time frame for packing and shipping orders is 2-5 business days from the date the order is received.  This is also stated in our on-line Shopping Cart messages when an order is placed.  Regardless of the shipping method chosen, we can make no guarantee that your order's packing will be expedited or otherwise put ahead of other customers' orders.

Note 2:  The post office does not guarantee 'next day' on all Express Mail orders.  Some destinations in the continental USA take 2 days in transit.  We have no control over this, nor over such times when UPS or other shipper makes a mistake that causes a shipping delay.

Note 3:  We do not ship on Saturdays.  If you order something on Friday and request it sent via Express, it cannot make it into the mail until Monday at the earliest.




FedEx shipping
:

as of May 14, 2007,
we no longer ship via FedEx under any circumstance

The option to use FedEx shipping has been removed from our on-line system.
We will also no longer ship via FedEx for mail or telephone orders.


We will be glad to ship your package via UPS or the US Postal Service.





International Orders:


1.) International Credit Card Orders:  We accept legitimate Credit Card or Paypal orders (confirmed addresses only) from many countries. However, we reserve the right to refuse or cancel orders we deem suspicious or fraudulent.

We're sorry;  because of credit card fraud, we absolutely CANNOT accept Credit Card orders, checks, money orders, or Paypal orders from the following countries or regions:

Africa (including Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, etc.)
Eastern Europe (including Russia, Romania, Estonia, and surrounding countries)
Egypt
Indonesia
Israel
Macedonia
Malaysia
Morocco
Pakistan
Philippines
Singapore
Thailand

We reserve the right to reject any orders originating from these countries or having any other fraud characteristics. 
 
If you are ordering from outside North America, please be advised that surface mail is a risky way to ship purchases. Surface-mailed items can take as long as two months to arrive (some have taken as long as three, even to western Europe). Air mail is more expensive but much faster and generally more reliable.

2.) Lost Packages / Merchandise Hasn't Arrived Yet: 
The post office keeps customs records for a maximum of 60 days.  The records are destroyed after this time.  If you wait until this point to try locating your package, you may never find it, and we will not issue a refund or ship replacement merchandise after more than 60 days have elapsed from the order date.  If you do not receive your package by 45 days after we ship it, you must contact your local post office and/or customs officials to find the package.  
We are not responsible for what your customs officials may do with a package when it is in their possession.  It is entirely up to you, the buyer, to be persistent and try to get your merchandise from them.
   It is also entirely the buyer's responsibility to pay for any fees or to meet any other requirements that customs may have before releasing the package.  It is very common for packages to be delayed several days (or even weeks) in the customs office.   We cannot locate international packages once they leave our sight!  The only assistance we can offer is to provide a shipping label number.  This may help customs locate your package for you.


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Minimum Order Policy / Charge:


Orders under a certain amount will have a minimum order charge added to them to make up to the amount.  Our current, absolute minimum is $10.00.  For example, if you order a $7.00 item, there will be $3.00 added to the order to make it up to $10.00.  

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Missing Items or Parts in a Shipment:

We check all shipments carefully to make sure all parts / items are present in the customer's package before it goes out the door. 

If it appears there is a missing item in your order, please first check that it hasn't sunk all the way to the bottom of the styrofoam peanuts in the box.  We have had customers go through boxes two or three times until the part materialized.

A growing number of "missing parts" claims are fraudulent.  We take this problem very seriously.  It is a form of theft and is becoming increasingly costly.

All shipments now include a carbon copy of the hand-completed packing slip, filled out by the packer as the items are put into the box.  This will constitute proof that all items were packed, except of course those marked as still "on order".  Placing an order signifies  acceptance of this policy.  (As per our Terms of Use / Terms of Sale, the web page you're reading right now is encompassed in those Terms.) 

In addition to duplicate packing slips, we are going to record the packing process for randomly-chosen orders.  If we receive a missing parts claim on an order that was photographed, we may contact the police. 

We may eventually record the packing of all orders as standard practice.

Effective immediately,  we will no longer honor the majority of "missing part" claims.  In other words, we do not issue refunds or replacements for items or parts claimed to be missing from a customer's shipment, unless in our own determination and at our sole discretion we find that a package was genuinely missing the part or item before it left here. 

Our missing item / missing part policy becomes effective immediately.  We apologize for the inconvenience to our honest customers.


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Package Sent but not Received:  We use Delivery Confirmation for US Postal Service packages being sent to US addresses.  If Delivery Confirmation states that an order has been delivered, our policy is that is has been delivered and that our end of the transaction has been completed.  We assume no responsibility for postal service errors (e.g., wrong-address delivery, despite correct address info on the packaging)

If you believe your order has arrived at the wrong address, please contact your local post office to locate the package.  Our experience has been that such postal service mistakes occur in no more than 1% of cases.

We're sorry, but we cannot provide assistance with Postal Service errors.


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Phone Orders:

Fo telephone orders, we currently accept only American Express.  For Visa, MasterCard, and Discover, please use the on-line ordering and checkout.  We will be happy to help you through this system while talking to you on the phone if you call when someone is available.

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Purchase Orders:

1.)  Minimum Purchase Order amount is $50.00 (fifty US dollars). For purchase orders of less than $50, please order from our web site using a credit card via Google Checkout or Paypal.

2.)  First-time PO with us?  We'll need your company's Federal EIN (tax ID #), name & contact info of a company officer / owner, and at least 2 trade references.  These trade refs are companies that already extend credit (Net payment terms) to your company.  Please give phone number(s) and names of contact person(s).  For PO's of $100 or more we will also need your company's banking information (account number, bank / branch name, and branch phone number) if this is your first order with us.

We reserve the right to investigate trade references to determine whether or not to extend credit terms to your company.  We reserve the right to reject credit applications for any reason and at our sole discretion.

3.)  Important:   PO "Terms of Purchase" - whether you're a first-time customer or a repeat one, if your company purchase order includes one or more "terms of purchase", please be advised that our company policy dictates that we cannot and do not agree, implicitly or explicitly, to any terms that run contrary in any way to our own Terms of Sale / Terms of Use.  This would include terms covering indemnity, warranty, dispute, or any other provisions.   If your company has such terms of purchase we may, depending on circumstances, have to cancel your order or get a waiver signature from someone in your company who is authorized to enter your company into binding contract.

Please also be advised that we reserve the right to refuse service or cancel order(s) at any time and without further notice.

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Refund / Return Policy
-

If you find an item to be defective or unsuitable for your science application, return it within 30 days of purchase (in same condition it was received) for a refund or a store credit.  All shipping costs, including return postage or freight, are specifically excluded from refunds or credits.  Discount rates and/or transfer fees collected by Paypal, Google Checkout, banks, and/or credit card companies are also excluded from refund / credit amounts.

Because different product lots may have some variation in appearance and finish that is beyond our control, we do not offer refunds based on appearance (color variations, surface finish, etc.) unless the item was sold as a decoration.  We also do not offer refunds or returns for items found to be unusable based on some feature which was clearly mentioned in the product description.

Certain items, particularly those manufactured by LW Scientific, have a restocking fee of 15%.  (This is unfortunately beyond our control.) 

Please note that postage / shipping costs are not included in refunds or credits of any kind.

Important:  Please be sure to read our Terms of Use / Terms of Sale regarding use / misuse of laboratory items.  "Misuse" includes (but is not limited to) use of items in our catalog for any purpose other than laboratory and/or scientific, educational use.  For example, using laboratory items for any food, household, drug, and/or cosmetic   purpose(s) would constitute misuse under these Terms.  Items which have been misused or abused by the customer are not eligible for refund or exchange.


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Security and Privacy Policy
:   Please click on this link to read our security and privacy policy in its entirety.  In summation, we do NOT sell, rent, or otherwise offer your contact information to spammers.  No amount of money is worth aiding or abetting these vermin. 

To protect ourselves and our customers, we investigate all suspected fraud cases and, if applicable, report them to the appropriate authorities.


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Shipping Policies:
: We make every effort to ship your order out in a timely fashion. Occasionally, due to "runs" on certain item types, we run out of stock on an item on extremely short notice and have to re-order before there's time to update the website. When this happens, the speed with which your order is filled depends on how soon the new stock arrives. This does not happen often, but please be advised that the shipping timetable you desired will not be possible. Please also be advised that we do not always stock all listed models of microscopes, centrifuges, etc.; there may be an additional lead time of at least 5-7 business days associated with these items.

FedEx noteWe no longer ship via FedEx for any reason.  We ship with UPS and the US Postal Service.

Postal Service note:  The US Postal service now charges exorbitant rates for any package larger than 1 cubic foot (1728 cubic inches).  That isn't a very big box.  We do not know when they started this policy, but it appears to have been recently.  

A package which should by any reasonable estimate cost $7 or $8 to ship now costs $18 to $20 because of this Postal Service policy.  Our on-line shopping cart will not correctly calculate such oversize charges, since too much human intervention is required to figure out how big a box will be required for a given order (there is just too much variation).  As a result, we will have no choice but to ship these "oversized" packages via UPS, or else charge the actual USPS shipping cost to the customer.  

If you are ordering Belomo loupes, microscope slides, or other very small items only, the package will be well under the size limit.

Express Shipping - We do not offer Express shipping on merchandise totaling less than US $100.00.  We may at our discretion refuse to ship via Express, for example if we are backlogged on orders.

Item(s) Arriving Later Than Expected:   Occasionally a customer asks for a refund because an item did not arrive in the expected timetable.  While customer satisfaction is important, our shipping policies clearly state (in multiple places) that an item may take 2-5 business days to pack or otherwise prepare for shipping;  this lead time extends to Express / Expedited shipments as well as normal Ground shipments.  While we make every effort to speed up the packing of Express / Expedited orders, there is only so much we can put a given order ahead of other customers' orders.

EXAMPLE: an Express Mail order placed on Monday and shipped out on Thursday or Friday of that same week would not be eligible for a refund based on its arriving later than desired, because it shipped out within our 2-5 business day policy. 

EXAMPLE 2:  An Express Mail order placed on Monday and not shipped out until the Wednesday of the following week would be eligible for a merchandise refund, because it took more than 5 business days to get out the door.

Before a refund can be issued, the customer must return the merchandise to us in the condition it was received.  Refund amount does not include shipping cost.

Substitution of Shipping Methods - We reserve the right to substitute a different shipping method from what was specified.

If you believe you've been unfairly charged for shipping on items which did not arrive in a timely fashion, we'll be happy to refund some or all of the shipping costs, depending on the circumstances. Please contact for details.

Please provide ACCURATE ADDRESS INFORMATION or your package might not get to you!  Please also provide COMPANY NAME if you are ordering from a business. UPS will charge extra to ship to residential addresses.

If you are purchasing from a university or large company that takes up a whole block, please still include street address if possible, especially for UPS shipments.

Tracking for Domestic Orders:  UPS provides built-in tracking functionality;  the Postal Service does not.  Because of the few incidents in which a package was either lost or stolen, sometimes by the intended recipient, we have had no choice but to purchase Delivery Confirmation on all domestic postal service shipments from now on.  This will add 60 cents to all orders sent via Postal Service. 

Tracking for International Orders:  Please see "International Orders", above.

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Unauthorized Credit Card Purchases / Chargeback Policy

Fraudulent chargebacks are an increasingly prevalent and costly form of fraud.  To reduce the number of fraudulent chargebacks, we reserve the right to investigate any and all orders before shipping merchandise.  This may include contacting the customer to make sure he/she actually placed the order.  This may also include contacting the credit card issuer or the customer's bank to verify billing and/or shipping information.

Any orders going to the cardholder's AVS-verified billing or Paypal billing address will be presumed to have been ordered by the cardholder.  Chargebacks resulting from such sales may be considered theft unless the merchandise is returned promptly, in addition to $30 to cover the chargeback fee.  When such chargebacks happen, we will first attempt to contact the customer to determine whether it was simply an error.  If these attempts fail, we will send the customer a bill for the merchandise plus $30 for the chargeback fee.  Cardholders who fail to respond to our contact efforts will be presumed to have committed willful, fraudulent chargeback.
We may pursue additional avenues, including collection, if necessary.


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UPS Accounts:

We gladly ship to UPS accounts, but there is one thing we request you do. If you wish to have your order shipped using a UPS account number, please call, fax, or email with the account number. The on-line ordering system is not set up to handle your UPS account; such orders must be faxed or phoned in, or you can provide the account number in the "comments" section of the on-line order.  In the latter case it will NOT automatically take this into account;  your order will still display as having a certain shipping cost.   We have adjust such orders manually, subtracting the shipping cost that was calculated.

Please be sure to indicate the postal code associated with your UPS collect account number.  We cannot use UPS account numbers unless we also have the proper postal code.

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W-9's, 1099's, and Backup Withholding Paperwork

We will furnish a TIN upon request to a payor.  However, CR Scientific is a seller of tangible merchandise.  As per IRS regulations, merchandise is specifically exempted from information return requirements that pertain to backup withholding.  This would explain why (for example) you don't require your local office supply store to fill out a W-9 before you pay for a ream of printer paper or a bag of rubber bands.





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