Since Laboratory Supply Network's inception, we have very customer-friendly shipping policies. We offer flat-rate shipping based on order value, regardless of how large or heavy the item is, to anywhere in the US. While we're still going to be maintaining that policy on as many stores as possible, we are unable to continue offering that on our LabFreezers.net, LabIncubators.net, and LabCentrifuges.net stores.
We started out with that policy when we were first starting up, and our first few stores sold items that mostly shipped by standard parcel shipping. We wanted all customers, everywhere in the US, to benefit from the same prices and shipping policies. We really like the idea of treating everyone equally, which is why we have policies such as our Fair Pricing Policy. However, we were taking a huge loss shipping to places outside the continental US. Someone in Alaska would order a $1400 freezer, we would charge $12 for shipping, and it would cost us over $2500 just to ship it. Someone in Hawaii would order an incubator costing $4500, and it would cost us over $2000 to get it delivered to them. Same for Puerto Rico and other US territories. These kinds of sales resulted in huge losses for us, and for a long time we took it on the chin and dealt with it to maintain our principle of treating everyone equally.
Unfortunately, that policy has been hitting us harder recently, and we've come to the very difficult decision that we're no longer going to be able to offer flat-rate freight shipments to US locations outside the continental United States (we already don't ship freight internationally except on a case-by-case basis). We'll still ship to Hawaii, Alaska, and US territories, however we'll need to charge the actual costs for shipping. We're a small business, and it simply became unsustainable for us to take those kinds of losses on sales for the sake of principle. Our principle does us no good if it serves to slowly drive us out of business.
Because of this, customers outside the continental US will no longer be able to order online from LabFreezers.net, LabIncubators.net, and LabCentrifuges.net. We ship from many different locations - usually the manufacturer's warehouses, and our e-commerce platform does not have the capability to readily calculate shipping rates from different locations depending on what is being ordered. We kindly request that if you are a customer in one of those locations, you call or email us to request a quote. We'll still be more than happy to help you. All customers from anywhere in the US (and Canada!) can still order online from our other marketplaces.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this change in policy, and wish you all the best in your research, development, or whatever endeavor you're putting your laboratory equipment to use in.
