an Elsom Research project
Questions and answers about online shopping for Elsom Research cosmeceuticals:
What types of payment can I use?
For stock retail items, we accept payment by credit card, check, or money order. The procedure for selecting which products to purchase is the same, no matter how you plan to pay for them.
When you are ready to check out, choose the method you prefer:
If you click the
button and follow that checkout procedure, you can use any form of payment accepted by Google Checkout. That includes credit cards issued by MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and Discover.
If you click the
button and follow our offline checkout procedure, you can pay with a check or money order. We will be notified of your order and we will begin preparing it after you complete the checkout process, but we will not ship it to you until after you mail your payment to us, we deposit it, and the funds are made available in our bank account. Your order will be cancelled if we have not received payment within 30 days.
For non-stock orders, we can send you an invoice and, if appropriate, instructions for payment by wire transfer.
Yes, but you'll have to contact us in advance to work out the details. If you want to purchase a few of our retail cosmeceuticals for your personal use, we recommend that you simply use our shopping site and pay for your purchase there. If you are doing something else, such as purchasing a custom batch formulation, and you still wish to pay by credit card, we will email you a Google Checkout invoice; otherwise, you can send us a company check or a money order. For very large purchases, we may provide you with instructions for payment via bank wire transfer.
Is my credit card information secure?
Yes. You will only be asked to supply your credit card information within Google Checkout.
You can confirm that Google Checkout pages are secure just as you would any other pages: look for a URL beginning with "https://", and look for thesymbol.
The exact location and appearance of the lock symbol varies with different browsers.
If you live in Texas, USA, where our facilities are located, we must charge you 8% sales tax. Tax is calculated based on the cost of the items you purchase, excluding the cost of shipping those items. If you provide us with a billing address in Texas, tax will be calculated automatically and listed as a separate item when your total cost is displayed before you confirm payment.
For retail orders, our current policy is to charge a flat rate depending on your location. Assuming that your order will fit into a standard flat-rate USPS envelope, the rate for your location will be as follows:
- within the United States, $9 per package via USPS Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation;
- to most other countries, $15 per package via USPS Priority Mail or First Class Mail, depending on availability and cost in your area;
- to several countries for which detailed tracking is essential, $25 per package via USPS Express Mail.
Other options, such as overnight delivery by alternative carriers, are not yet automated as selections within the shopping site; contact us if you would like to arrange non-standard shipping. For custom batch orders, or If your retail order is too large for flat-rate packaging, we may contact you to coordinate payment of additional shipping costs.
Shipping prices are set by carriers, not by us. As their prices change. we may have to change our shipping charges. We may also sometimes have to charge a higher rate for international shipping, especially to locations in which standard postal delivery is problematic; if we think this is necessary, we will contact you for approval and additional payment before shipping your package.
What about international shipping?
We are happy to have satisfied customers around the world; if you are concerned about whether our products can be shipped to you, please contact us before placing your order.
We are located in the USA, so packages shipped within the USA reach their destinations more quickly than those sent to other countries. We frequently ship international orders, and most of those also arrive quickly, but there can be delays; delays in shipping and Customs clearance are beyond our control and we have no power to assist in resolving them. If you place an order to be delivered outside the USA, you become the "importer of record", which means you may be responsible for additional paperwork, compliance with health department regulations for importing cosmetics, and Customs clearance fees in your own country; you are responsible for familiarizing yourself with those procedures and handling them appropriately. If you need information from us to help you in complying with your local import procedures, please contact us.
If USPS Priority Mail can be delivered in your location, and if our experience with other shipments to that location leads us to believe it is a reliable method, we will probably ship your product via USPS Priority Mail without charging you for the additional cost to us of international shipping. There are several countries in which customers have repeatedly complained of unacceptable delivery delays, usually due to a lengthy waiting period in a local Customs office; for shipments to these countries, our standard shipping method is USPS Express Mail, which provides detailed tracking information for a higher cost. If we believe these standard methods are likely to be unsatisfactory, we may suggest using other, more costly, methods of shipping your package, we will contact you to discuss options and, if you agree, to increase your shipping charge. Of course, if you choose not to accept the high cost of international shipping you can ask us to cancel your order and we will do so.
We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone. If you live in a country where we choose not to do business, or if we choose not to process your order for any other reason, we will cancel your order and your credit card will not be charged.
How quickly will my order be shipped?
If you pay for your in-stock retail item via Google Checkout, it's very likely that we will ship your order the day we receive it; we'll use Google Checkout to notify you as soon as your package is on its way. If you pay by mail, there will obviously be some delays while your payment is delivered and processed.
For speciality items such as custom micro-batch orders from The-Formulator, as well as for full-size custom batches, there will be some delay for formulation and manufacturing; we'll coordinate that with you as appropriate.
Must I sign up for an account here?
No. Without logging in, you can see our full catalog and prices, you can follow links to our informational pages, and you can place items in your shopping cart . If you use Google Checkout to pay for your items, then your Google Checkout account is the only account you'll need. Otherwise, you will have to create an account with us to use our alternate checkout process; at checkout time, we will ask you to do that if it is necessary. If you do not create an account, we won't be able to provide some services (such as remembering the contents of your shopping cart across multiple visits, and maintaining a history of your orders); if you do not want those services, and do plan to pay with Google Checkout, then there is no need for you to create an account.
If I sign up for an account here, will you start sending me junk mail?
No. When you create an account, you'll get a note confirming that the signup process was successful. When you place an order, you'll get 2 notes: one immediately, confirming that we received your order, and one later, informing you that the order has been shipped. Ordinarily, that's all you'll hear from us. If there is some unusual problem or some question we must clarify with you before shipping you order, you'll hear from us about that, too. Otherwise, we won't speak untiil spoken to. You can keep up with our latest announcements by watching our blog, participate in discussions about your favorite products and technologies and ingredients in the Topical Formulations forum and read fuller explanations in the Journal of Topical Formulations (both of which we sponsor), and contact us directly with your questions or concerns. With all the information we already publish, plus conference presentations and ongoing business correspondence and documentation of our research projects, we have plenty of writing projects to keep up with; adding to that workload by creating marketing mail is NOT in our plans!
I read something interesting on an Elsom Research page, but I don't remember which site it was on and now I'm having trouble finding it again. Is there an easy way to search ALL the Elsom Research sites?
Yes! Try our Google Search Gadget, customized to search all our sites:
Read the general FAQ about Elsom Research cosmeceuticals