How we verify vendor records
A vendor record holds facts that can be checked by someone else, each with the date it was checked. It is not a review, a score or a recommendation, and the order records appear in never reflects quality.
The five checks on every record
- Operating history
- When the domain was registered and when the shop first appears in the web archive. Where the archive shows an earlier owner of the domain, we say so and date this shop from its own first capture.
- Source: Domain registration data (RDAP); the Wayback Machine
- Business registration
- Whether the site names the company behind it, and whether a state or national register holds that company with the same name, type and status. A company we find in a register but the site never names is reported as a fact, not as the operator.
- Source: State and national business registers
- Regulatory record
- FDA warning letters, recalls and import alerts naming the seller, its company or its domain. We search the name written several ways, because the FDA's index matches whole words.
- Source: FDA warning-letter index; openFDA enforcement data
- Testing transparency (COAs)
- Whether certificates of analysis are public before you buy, whether they name the laboratory that issued them, and whether each is tied to a lot or batch number. We open the COAs; we do not test products, and we do not confirm reports with the laboratory.
- Source: The seller's own pages and the COA documents
- Other sites using the name
- Similar domains registered by anyone, and what each one does: parked, redirecting, or running its own shop under the name. A copycat shop is reported with its registration date; we say when we could not establish a connection.
- Source: Domain registration data; each site, opened
Every finding carries its source link and the date it was checked, and every record ends with what we couldn’t verify. Records are re-checked every 90 days.
What the statuses mean
- Confirmed / None found
- The outside source supports the finding, or a search of it returned nothing on the date shown.
- Partly confirmed / Worth knowing
- Some of it is supported and some isn't, or there is something a buyer should know (a copycat shop, a mismatch in the register).
- Not disclosed
- The seller doesn't say, and no outside source fills the gap.
- Action on record
- A regulator has acted against the seller. The record leads with it.
A status describes what the evidence shows. It is never a judgement of the seller, and no status can be bought: a Featured listing pays to be shown first, not for any finding.
“None found” is not a clean record
Where a record says none found, it means a search of that source returned no result on the date shown. It does not mean nothing exists. A business can trade under several names, a regulator can act after our check, and an absence in a public database is not evidence of good practice — only an absence.
What we do not check
- Product quality. We do not buy, test or assay anything, and we do not confirm COAs with the laboratory. A published COA is a document, not a guarantee about the vial you receive.
- Customer service, shipping or refunds. Those are experiences, and we record facts.
- Anything a vendor tells us about itself that we cannot confirm somewhere else.
If a record is wrong
Vendors and readers can both flag an error. We re-run the check, and if the record changes we log it. See Corrections for how that works, or get in touch.