Refund policy

Cancel at any point before the laboratory begins analysing your sample and you are refunded, less a 30% administrative fee. That fee covers the collection appointment, the chain-of-custody paperwork and the handling already carried out.

Once the laboratory has started testing, a change-of-mind refund is no longer available. Analysis destroys the piece of hair it is performed on, and the laboratory charges us for the run from the moment it begins — so there is nothing left to return and nothing left to resell.

A repeat test is a second analysis, and is charged as a new test. The laboratory charges us for every run it performs, so we cannot provide repeat testing free of charge or at a reduced rate — including where you are concerned about the result you received. That is a matter of price, not a limit on any remedy: if something has gone wrong with the testing itself rather than with the answer it gave, the section below on consumer guarantees applies and nothing here affects it.

If you need to move a collection appointment, 24 hours' notice lets us give the slot to someone else — please ring rather than not arriving. Where a test has already been paid for, the 30% administrative fee above is the only charge that applies.

If you are unsure whether testing has started, ring us on (03) 9380 5434 and we will tell you. The sooner you call, the more likely the answer is that it has not.

Nothing in this policy excludes, restricts or modifies your rights under the Australian Consumer Law. If a product or service we supply fails a consumer guarantee — for example it is faulty, or not supplied with due care and skill — you are entitled to a remedy regardless of anything stated here.

Almost all of this work happens before anything is written. Dr Michael Robertson reads your results, any prior reports and the material you have sent, weighs them against the question you have asked, and forms his assessment — by the time a document or a phone call exists, the hours are already spent.

So the line is drawn at the point he opens the file, not at the point you receive something. Cancel before he has started on your material and the fee is refunded, less the 30% administrative fee.

Once he has begun reading and assessing your material, a change-of-mind refund is no longer available — whether or not a report has been delivered, and whether or not the consultation has taken place. The work you paid for has been done.

We will tell you when he is due to start, and we will tell you if he already has. If you are having second thoughts, ring us on (03) 9380 5434 rather than waiting to see what arrives.

Bookings taken at short notice — anything needed on seven days' notice or less — are not refundable once confirmed, because the time is set aside immediately and other work is moved to make room for it. This is stated on the product page before you pay.

Court appearances work differently, and more generously. A hearing date is held against other instructions, so what comes back depends on when you tell us rather than on whether the file has been opened — and with more than 14 days' notice a court booking is refunded in full, with no administrative fee. Between 7 and 14 days half is refunded. The full schedule is in the booking and cancellation policy.

Nothing in this policy excludes, restricts or modifies your rights under the Australian Consumer Law. If a product or service we supply fails a consumer guarantee — for example it is faulty, or not supplied with due care and skill — you are entitled to a remedy regardless of anything stated here.

Change your mind before the kit is posted and it is refunded, less the 30% administrative fee covering the paperwork already prepared in your name.

Once a kit has been dispatched it cannot be returned or refunded. The reason is the chain of evidence. A hair test is only worth as much as the record of how the sample was handled, and that record has to be unbroken. A kit that has been out of our control, even briefly, is a kit we can no longer vouch for — we cannot know whether it was opened, tampered with or swapped — so it can never be issued to another donor and cannot go back into stock. It is not that we would rather not take it back; it is that there is nothing useful left to take.

A kit is a few sheets of paperwork and a sealed sample pouch — there is nothing in it that can fail in transit. If something is genuinely wrong with what arrived, call us on (03) 9380 5434 and we will sort it out.

Nothing in this policy excludes, restricts or modifies your rights under the Australian Consumer Law. If a product or service we supply fails a consumer guarantee — for example it is faulty, or not supplied with due care and skill — you are entitled to a remedy regardless of anything stated here.

Everything above describes what happens when you change your mind. None of it applies where something has gone wrong with the service itself — a result we got wrong, a report not prepared with due care, a kit that arrived unusable. Those are consumer guarantees, they sit outside this policy, and no cut-off on this page affects them.

Nothing in this policy excludes, restricts or modifies your rights under the Australian Consumer Law. If a product or service we supply fails a consumer guarantee — for example it is faulty, or not supplied with due care and skill — you are entitled to a remedy regardless of anything stated here.

Once approved, the credit is applied automatically to your original payment method within 14 business days.

Standard postage within Australia is free, so no shipping refund arises. Express Post is $25 and international postage is a flat $55, which buys the outbound journey only — the overseas return leg is never something we charge for, because we cannot prepay it. Neither is refunded once the parcel has been lodged with the carrier, because the cost has been incurred by then — but if you cancel before the kit is posted, the postage comes back in full. The 30% administrative fee above is charged on the kit, never on the postage: we have not posted anything, so there is nothing to keep.

Where a parcel is delayed or lost in transit we will help you pursue the carrier, and where the carrier's failure means you did not receive what you paid for, we will put it right.

Nothing in this policy excludes, restricts or modifies your rights under the Australian Consumer Law. If a product or service we supply fails a consumer guarantee — for example it is faulty, or not supplied with due care and skill — you are entitled to a remedy regardless of anything stated here.

If your refund has not arrived within 14 business days:

• Re-check your bank account.
• Contact your credit card provider — there is often a delay before a refund posts.
• Contact your bank, as clearance times vary.

If you have done all of the above and still have not received it, contact us and we will follow it up.