Shipping related information
Carriers:
For shipping, we almost entirely rely on the services of the common carriers including United States Postal Service, FedEx, UPS, DHL and many trucking companies.
Although customers may choose a carrier or shipping method while placing an order, we make the final decision in the carrier selection after reviewing the order content, weight, volume, and the delivery address.
Shipping Time
All orders are shipped out from our warehouse in New Jersey. After we ship a product, it usually takes 3 to 8 business days for the carriers to deliver it to addresses in the United States. Incidents such as rain, snow, Covid, holidays and annual events can slow down the shipping and extend the shipping time. Neither MiniScience nor the carriers accept any responsibility for such delays. We do not use any express shipping services such as Next Day Air, 2-day Express or 3-day shipping.
Priority handling of orders
MiniScience is organized as a wholesale online distributor of science education products. We do accept small orders so that our customers can buy samples for evaluation before placing a large order. We generally give the highest priority to the processing and handling of large orders. In most cases orders are shipped out within one to three business days.
Shipping cost or charges
The shipping fee you pay must cover the carrier rates plus the cost of packaging materials and handling. For small orders the shipping fees start at about $10. UPS and FedEx have an extra $4 charge for residential addresses, plus fuel surcharges, rural area delivery fees, hazardous material handling fees (about $50 per package when a package contain certain chemicals or regulated materials).
Collect shipping
We do accept collect shipping from customers who have a commercial UPS account or FedEx account. We charge $10 per box for collect shipping mostly to cover the handling and the cost of packaging materials. With collect shipping, the carrier will bill you according to your contract rate. With collect shipping we can choose the shipping method of your choice (including express services).
Order Tracking
UPS is no longer scanning packages at the time of pickup and does not maintain usable tracking data. If you track your package in UPS tracking system you may only see “Label has been created” until the day the package is delivered. We try to ship most orders by USPS, FedEx, DHL and asset based trucking companies.
Shipping questions?
Please send us an email with your questions.