Capitol Scientific

The most appalling company I’ve ever dealt with!!! I own an Oil and Gas equipment purchasing company and I purchase large amounts of various chemicals to be used in the oil and gas industry. I called Capitol Scientific because I wanted to switch to a local vendor as I now reside in Austin. I called and spoke with a horribly abrupt man who hardly gave me a chance to even give him my information. He kept saying we don’t sell to individuals. I tried to tell him I am not an individual and he said he looked up my company on the S.O.S website and couldn’t find it. I have all the documentation to prove otherwise but the wouldn’t hear it and hung up on me. I do not see how they’ve been in business for 50 years. Obviously they do NOT need new customers so if you are thinking about calling them I wouldn’t waste your time because you will be wasting their precious time.

I recently called Capitol Scientific for pricing and delivery for a Hanna Instruments ph temperature tester. I spoke with someone in the morning and he said I needed to set up an account just to receive pricing information. This account rep was not very helpful or understanding. I sent my pricing request via email in the early morning but decided to call back after I had not received a response by late afternoon. I told the new account rep the situation and wanted to confirm if my resellers discount was off the MSRP or the «your price» on the website. He said «It’s off MSRP, good luck» and hung up the phone. I was just asking a simple question to confirm my pricing as I have never purchased anything from them in the past. All in all, terrible service, I will never call them again.

I work for a mid-​size environmental consulting firm, and have for almost 6 years. Ever since I can remember, we have used Capitol Scientific for all our chemical needs (we use acids, bases, buffers, and solvents) for our various large projects. When I first became acquainted with this company, I was happy with their personal customer service and delivery times. We do on average close to probably only $ 1−3k worth of business with them a year, so we probably are considered «small fish». Starting about 4 years ago, they first began enforcing a net-​30 payment terms, and aggressively pursuing anyone even a day over that. In the last two years, they have started assessing fees for purchases less than $ 150 (order amount less than $ 150) and increased their fees for shipping and hazmat materials. Recently, we had a situation where an invoice was paid one week late and three of our orders were held up (not fulfilled) due to the 35 day pay.
Some companies, such as the one I work for, operate off of a 4-​week accounting period, which means that even if we set a vendor for net-​30, depending on when the months fall, sometimes payments can delay a week or two depending on when the books close. We’ve never been delinquent other than due to not receiving invoices (lost in USPS) or one getting lost on someone’s desk (I’ll admit to that one).
I have canvassed far and wide and found all of these issues do not appear to be omnipresent in the industry, and have in fact found other vendors (Cole Parmer, Ricca, etc.) that are far more forgiving on terms, shipments, and fee increases.
If you need chemicals for your lab or business, you may want to steer elsewhere unless you want to pay more in fees or have difficulty if you have anything other than a 20 day TAT on your accounts payable.
I have gone from being a big fan of a local Austin company like this, to finding other companies out of state and in North Texas to do my business with thanks to their change in customer service and practices. Very dissapointing.