Alphabioregen supplies living cells, three-dimensional tissue models and temperature-sensitive reagents. These are not ordinary consumer goods: once a vial has been thawed, a model has been handled, or a bottle of medium has been opened, the material cannot be restored, resold or reused. This policy explains what we will replace or refund, what we cannot, and exactly what we need from you in order to act quickly.
Our aim is simple. If a product arrives in a condition that prevents you from using it, and the cause is attributable to us or to the shipment we arranged, we will make it right. This policy sits under our Terms and Conditions of Sale and should be read together with our Shipping Policy and Warranty Policy.
Please inspect every shipment the moment it arrives, before you sign for it where possible. Check the outer carton, the refrigerant (residual dry ice, or gel packs still cold to the touch), the packing list against the contents, the integrity of every vial, flask, plate or bottle, and the lot numbers against the Certificate of Analysis.
Anything visible — damage, shortage, a warm shipment, an incorrect item, missing paperwork — must be reported to us within 24 hours of delivery, and in no case later than 48 hours. Frozen and refrigerated products must be transferred to their labelled storage conditions immediately after inspection.
Problems that only appear in culture — poor attachment, low viability, contamination, failure to expand — must be reported within 15 days of delivery.
If the outer carton is crushed, punctured or wet, or if vials, bottles or plates arrive cracked, leaking or broken, we will replace the affected items or issue a credit. Note the damage on the courier’s delivery record where you can, keep the packaging until the claim closes, and send us photographs of the outer carton, the internal packing and the damaged items as received.
If you receive a catalogue number, lot, size or quantity that does not match your order acknowledgement, we will ship the correct item and arrange collection or disposal of the incorrect one at our cost. Please do not open, thaw or place the incorrect item into culture — doing so prevents us from resolving it as a simple exchange.
If a product does not meet the specifications recorded on its Certificate of Analysis, we will replace it or refund it. This is the warranty commitment set out in our Warranty Policy. To investigate a defect claim we need your culture record: seeding density, the medium and supplement lots you used, vessel type and coating, incubator settings, passage history, and photomicrographs where the issue is visible.
Please note that lot-to-lot variation in growth rate, morphology, marker expression and doubling capacity is inherent to primary human material and is expected. Variation within the released specifications is not a defect.
Cold chain is the risk that matters most in our business, and we take it seriously. Report a suspected excursion if any of the following is true on arrival:
Where we arranged the shipment and the excursion is documented, we will replace the product. Do not refreeze cryopreserved cells that have partially thawed, and do not place a suspect shipment into culture before contacting us — tell us first, and we will advise whether to hold, test or discard.
Where you directed shipment on your own courier account or through your own freight forwarder, transit conditions are outside our control and this cover does not apply.
The following are not eligible for return, exchange or refund, unless we have confirmed a non-conformity attributable to Alphabioregen:
Custom products are made to your specification and cannot be resold to anyone else. They cannot be cancelled or returned once production has started. If you need to cancel before production begins, contact us immediately — we will do what we can, but we may need to retain the cost of raw materials committed, donor material reserved, and production capacity already scheduled. Custom orders are payable in full at order acceptance.
If we agree to accept a return purely for your convenience, where no fault on our side is established, a restocking charge of up to 25% of the product price applies, and the original outbound freight is not refunded. We will always tell you the exact charge before you ship anything back.
There is no restocking charge where the return arises from damage, a wrong item, a manufacturing defect or a transport temperature excursion covered by Section 2.
Contact us at sales@alphabioregen.com or through your account manager, within the timeframes in Section 1, with the following:
We will issue a Return Material Authorization (RMA) number if a physical return is appropriate. Please do not ship anything back without one — unauthorized returns are refused at the point of delivery. In many cases a physical return is neither safe nor useful for biological material, and we will authorize a credit or replacement and ask you to dispose of the product locally under written instruction.
If a return is authorized, keep the product in its original packaging and at its labelled storage conditions, and display the RMA number on the outer carton. We pay return freight where the issue is ours; you pay it where it is not.
Where a claim is accepted we will, at our option, replace the product, issue a credit to your account, or refund the price paid. For temperature-sensitive products, replacement is normally the fastest and most useful remedy, and it is the one we will usually propose.
| Stage | Target timeline |
|---|---|
| Acknowledgement of your claim | 1 business day |
| Assessment and decision, once complete information is received | 10 business days |
| Replacement shipment scheduled after approval | Next suitable cold-chain dispatch day |
| Credit issued to account after approval | 5 business days |
| Refund to original payment method after approval | 15 business days |
Refunds cover the price paid for the affected product. Original and return freight, refrigerant charges, duties, taxes and brokerage are refunded only where the problem is attributable to us. Refunds are made to the original payment method wherever practicable; bank transfer refunds may take additional time to clear depending on your bank.
We may sometimes offer a credit or a replacement in circumstances this policy does not cover, because it is the right thing to do for a customer relationship. Any such accommodation is made case by case, without admission of liability, and does not create an entitlement to the same treatment on a future order.
If you purchased through one of our authorized distributors, please raise your claim with that distributor in the first instance. Their own returns terms will apply to your purchase, and they will contact us directly where the issue originates with the product or the shipment.
| Purpose | Contact |
|---|---|
| Claims, RMA requests and returns | sales@alphabioregen.com |
| Orders, invoices and account matters | sales@alphabioregen.com |
| Technical and culture-performance questions | research@alphabioregen.com |
| Telephone | Toll Free (888) 982-8905 | 617-844-6080 |
| Postal address | Alphabioregen, Inc., 10 Mall Road, Suite 301, Burlington, MA 01803, USA |
This Refund Policy forms part of our Terms and Conditions of Sale. Where this policy and those Terms differ, the Terms and Conditions of Sale govern. We may update this policy from time to time; the version published on the date your order is accepted applies to that order.
