Found yourself searching online for our products and come across a price that seems too good to be true? If it seems lower than what you would expect, you might want to do a little digging before making that purchase. It could be a knock off product of the brand you trust. We all know the saying “you get what you pay for” and it never hurts to do a little extra checking.

Knock off or counterfeit products come from unauthorized manufacturers wanting to take advantage of brand-name goods with a high reputation. The pricing undercuts the brand-name manufacturer and can seem like a good deal.  However, many buyers have made a purchase based on price alone only to find out the product is of lower quality, already used or open, or may even be harmful in some way from different or tampered with materials. In the example of septa, it may contain contaminants that it should not and produces avoidable peaks.  These inferior products can easily damage a company’s reputation on safety, quality, and customer support.

So, what you can you do to avoid purchasing such a product? Here are some tips to consider:

                Are you on the manufacturer’s official site?  This is the best starting point to find authorized sellers and to avoid “unofficial” websites.

Is the seller a distributor for the product? Check the manufacturer’s site to verify the seller is an authorized distributor. We have ours listed here or you can chat/email/call us to double check.

If purchasing on EBay or Amazon, read buyer feedback for potential red flags.

CRS supports any of our products purchased directly on our website or through any of our authorized distributors. If you have a question about any CRS product listing, feel free to contact us before making that purchase that seems too good to be true. We always try to support our legitimate distributors and it might just save you some laboratory headaches down the road!