This policy is part of the TrustPoint Analytics website terms and may be incorporated into accepted services where applicable. Read it together with any Accepted Scope or signed agreement.
1. Approval required
Do not send material until TrustPoint issues written acceptance, a submission number, and current shipping instructions. An intake request, automated confirmation, quotation request, or prior project does not authorize shipment.
2. Client responsibilities
- Accurately identify the sample, matrix, amount, hazards, storage needs, legal status, lot or batch, and known contaminants.
- Confirm lawful ownership, possession, shipping, testing, transfer, and disposal authority.
- Use compliant primary and secondary containment, labeling, documentation, and carrier services.
- Send only the approved material and quantity to the approved destination.
- Maintain a representative reserve sample when comparison, repeat work, or dispute resolution may be important.
3. Prohibited or restricted material
Unless specifically reviewed and accepted in writing, TrustPoint does not accept patient or human diagnostic specimens; protected health information; infectious or potentially infectious material; radioactive material; explosives; select agents; DEA-controlled substances; illegal drugs; regulated biological agents; unstable or acutely hazardous material; sharps; live organisms; or material requiring special licenses, permits, containment, or disposal. Acceptance may be withdrawn if received material differs from its description.
4. Receipt and accessioning
Receipt records document the package and sample as received, including visible condition and client identifiers where practicable. TrustPoint does not warrant that client-provided identity, concentration, homogeneity, storage history, or labeling is accurate unless verification is part of the Accepted Scope. Ordinary accession records are not forensic chain of custody.
5. Insufficient, damaged, or nonconforming samples
TrustPoint may pause, reject, quarantine, return, or dispose of a sample that is insufficient, leaking, damaged, unsafe, unlabeled, inconsistent with the Accepted Scope, or accompanied by incomplete documentation. TrustPoint will seek client direction when reasonably practicable, but may act without delay when safety, law, facility rules, or degradation risk requires.
6. Consumption and alteration
Analytical preparation and testing may consume, dilute, dissolve, destroy, contaminate, or otherwise alter all or part of the sample. TrustPoint does not guarantee that material will remain after testing. The client should not submit unique or irreplaceable material without discussing limits and reserve requirements in advance.
7. Retention
Unless the Accepted Scope states otherwise, TrustPoint may retain residual material for up to 30 days after final report issuance and then dispose of it without further notice. Different stability, safety, partner-lab, legal, quality, or storage conditions may require a shorter or longer period. Retention is not a guarantee that sufficient or suitable material will remain for repeat testing.
8. Return
Return must be requested and accepted before testing is completed. The client is responsible for compliant return packaging, carrier eligibility, shipping charges, insurance, and risk of loss. TrustPoint may refuse return when unlawful, unsafe, impracticable, inconsistent with facility policy, or prohibited by a partner laboratory.
9. Disposal
TrustPoint may dispose of residual, rejected, abandoned, or unsafe material using a method reasonably appropriate to the known characteristics, applicable law, and facility policy. Specialized handling or disposal charges are the client’s responsibility. Samples are considered abandoned if the client fails to provide requested instructions or payment within 30 days after notice, unless law requires a different period.
10. Shipping and storage events
TrustPoint is not responsible for loss, customs action, delay, temperature excursion, degradation, contamination, leakage, or damage occurring before documented receipt or after transfer to a return carrier. Storage conditions are those stated in the Accepted Scope or facility procedure; unusual requirements must be approved in writing before shipment.
11. Legal holds and disputes
If a timely written dispute or legal hold is received before disposal, TrustPoint may preserve available material for a reasonable period, subject to safety, stability, capacity, and payment of storage or handling costs. Preservation does not guarantee analytical suitability or availability.