The Consumer Complaints Blog

I’m so mad at being ripped off by ScienceLab.com… that I created a website for the purpose of venting. http://sciencelab-msds.com

If you have purchased materials recently from sciencelab.com (owned by Rob and Stacey Tyler of Humble, TX), and they have not arrived, chances are, they never will. I recommend that you do not delay contacting your credit card company to reverse the charges. Do not hesitate, even if that means forgoing a chemical that you could not order from another source. You will not get that chemical from sciencelab.com, you might as well keep your hard-earned money.

Sciencelab.com follows routinely and systematically the fraud script below, learn to recognize it.
(1) You place an order online.
(2) Your credit card is charged immediately.
(3) After a variable amount of time passes, you will be told that some items are back ordered without listing specifics. This lack of specifics is your first clue that something is very wrong.
(4) You won’t hear from them for months – they are waiting for the credit card charge back period to expire, beyond this time you will NOT be able to reverse the charges.
(5) If you ask which items are back ordered, you *may* receive a response.

Typically, items that they charge a lot for are back ordered. You may
receive some cheap stuff. Chances are, these products are used glassware, visibly degraded chemicals of dubious identity, or not what you ordered at all.
(6 ) You will never, ever be refunded the difference, and if they sent you a PARTIAL order, legally, it changes everything; you pretty much have no recourse, for all intents and purposes.
(7) They don’t answer phone calls. Their robot answering system and full
message mailboxes mean that it is impossible for you to reach anyone. If you fill a voice mailbox with room to leave a message, they will never call you back, even if you leave multiple, polite messages.
(8) Same with emails. They are ignored.
(9) They were supposedly back ordered for 4 months on DMSO… it’s like the grocery store being out of eggs for 4 months. That is really fishy.
(10) They have robbed you of your money and legal recourses.
(11) If you make enough noise on the internet, they may get in touch with you, but bear in mind that the measures you need to take to draw their attention are EXTREME and very TIME CONSUMING. They will continue stalling and give you tales of woe. It is the fault of Hurricane Ike, the fault of the owners getting cancer (if even true, it might be occupational, I do not trust these clowns handling chemicals safely even for themselves), the fault of a bad office manager, the fault of the buyer raising “red flags,” the fault that they reserve the right to not send you stuff but keep the money, the fault that nasty irate customers bother their children (do not do that folks, not cool), the fault that they mailed a check to the wrong address, or the check got lost, the fault of an office maternity leave, the fault that since Feb 1 they are working on things, and things are better, and they are improving… anything but give you your money back and sweet talk of imaginary cheques being in the mail when any business would refund you the same way you paid, like credit card. Except that credit card transfers do not get lost in the mail, and that would deprive them of an opportunity to stall.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.