Arrival Inspection & Damage Claims
What to check before you open a vial, and what to do if something looks wrong.
Why before, and not after
Check a vial while it is still sealed. Once a stopper is pierced or solvent is added, the evidence of how it arrived is gone — and with it most of what would let us put it right.
This takes under a minute and is worth doing on arrival rather than on the day you intend to use something.
The packaging
Crushing, a stoved-in corner, a puncture, water staining, or something loose rattling inside. Photograph any of these before opening the box — they are the context for anything found inside it.
The seal and crimp
The aluminium collar at the neck should be tight and immovable. It should not spin when touched, lift at an edge, or show a gap against the glass.
The stopper should sit flat or very slightly dished. One that has domed upward, or that looks pressed rather than moulded, suggests the vial has lost the vacuum it was sealed under.
The cake
The dried material should sit as a firm disc or plug and stay put when the vial is tilted.
Worth flagging: a cake that has collapsed in on itself, slumped to one side and set there, shrunk away from the glass, or taken on a glassy or melted-looking surface where a matte one is expected. Material that has become loose powder or broken fragments has at least been handled roughly.
Moisture and colour
Any condensation, fogging or beading inside the glass, or a cake that looks damp rather than dry. Turn the vial slowly against a plain light background — moisture is far easier to see against white than against a bench.
Material is normally white to off-white. Yellowing or browning against that expectation is worth a photograph, and worth comparing against another vial from the same lot if you have one.
The glass
Cracks, chips at the rim or base, or star fractures around the neck. A hairline crack shows up most easily by rotating the vial against a light rather than looking straight through it.
If something looks wrong
Do not use it and do not reconstitute it. Adding solvent answers nothing and removes the evidence.
Photograph it sealed — the packaging, the whole vial, the seal at the neck, the cake, and the lot number on the label.
Contact your account channel within 7 business days with your order number and the lot number, and set the vial aside where it cannot be used by accident. See our Refund Policy for what happens next: /legal/refund
Raise it even if you are unsure. Being wrong about a vial costs a photograph and a short email.
Questions about wholesale terms or verification? Open an account and we'll follow up directly.