Tracking your order

Two things: the order number and the email address used at checkout. The order number is in the confirmation email sent when the order was placed. The email address must be the one entered at checkout — a lookup with a different address will not find the order, even if it is yours. Enter both on the track page.

The lookup shows the current status of the order and, once the label has been printed, the carrier tracking number. Before dispatch there is a status but no tracking number, because no label exists yet. After dispatch the tracking number appears, and the same number is emailed to you at the moment the label is created. The carrier's own tracking page then shows the parcel's movement — see how orders ship for where dispatch sits in the day.

Carrier tracking pages all show the same shape of information: a label-created event, an acceptance scan when the parcel enters the network, scans at each facility it passes through, an out-for-delivery scan, and a delivered scan. Some things that look like problems are not:

• "Label created" with no movement for a day usually means the parcel is in the carrier's queue and has not had its first scan yet.
• A gap of a day or two between facility scans is normal for ground services crossing the country.
• A weekend with no scans is a weekend.

What is not normal: a tracking number with no scans several business days after the tracking email, or a history that has stopped mid-route for a week.

If a tracking number stops updating, contact support with the order number and the tracking number. We will raise it with the carrier and keep you informed. If a shipment goes missing in transit, contact us within 30 days of the ship date and we will replace it or refund it — the terms are on the returns page, and the process is walked through in damaged, lost or incorrect shipments.

A "delivered" scan that arrives before the parcel does is common: the driver scans at the truck, the parcel is left in a mailroom, a neighbour signs. Check the delivery location the carrier recorded, check with a building reception or mailroom, and allow until the end of the following business day. If it has still not turned up, contact support with the order number and we will take it from there.

The status shown on the track page moves through a short sequence. Before dispatch, the order has been received and is queued for the day's labels, or for the next business day if it arrived after the cut-off. At dispatch, the label is created, the tracking number appears and the tracking email is sent — this is the moment the shipping page describes as same-day dispatch. From then on the carrier's history is the authoritative record of where the parcel is, and the track page shows the number that unlocks it. If a status has not changed for longer than the sequence above suggests it should, that is the moment to write to support rather than wait. The receiving routine that follows delivery is in inspecting a vial on arrival.

If the lookup finds nothing, the most common cause is a different email address than the one used at checkout, or a typo in the order number. Check the confirmation email for both. Still stuck — contact us and we will look it up. Everything we ship is for in-vitro laboratory research only; see research use only.