California Cryobank – Los Angeles

For reference, I bought ten vials and a level 3 donor subscription. During this time, shipping was mandatory despite inconsistent “pending” wording on the website regarding possibility of pickup locally. They charge astronomically, and a driver in a personal vehicle handles your box tilted in the back seat and wobbling all the way to your front door. Then, without communication, it seems like sperm storage was moved to Arizona? Now shipping went through ups with an even higher rate. Here’s the best (worst!) part. I signed a discontinuation form before cutoff date and sent it back to the email I received the form from— no response and I was charged for renewal. I’ve had to call multiple times and submit email receipts and screen shots that I indeed submitted this form on time. A month later, I’m still following up to receive my refund and it’s now “pending my manager’s approval”. I’m almost positive I’ll have to call back AGAIN to take care of this. In all my email responses, I’ve continued to ask about the “buyback program” which was advertised when paying roughly $24k+ easily so far to this company. No response, of course. Finally, I got a verbalized instruction to submit a specific form. And now— I’m sure I’m past the “3 year after initial purchase buyback limit” date… how convenient! I get the correct process instructions AFTER the date passes despite multiple emails and phone calls before this. I don’t write reviews often, but PLEASE try a different company. There are serious ethical, shady, unprofessional concerns that I’ve personally witnessed and went through. Through this process, I’ve also seen cost of vials increase regularly. We had friends go through Seattle sperm bank and had a fantastic (and cheaper!) experience. There are so many other options. Just do your research first. I do NOT recommend using California cryobank.

Applied to be a donor here and once my application was accepted and we scheduled an appointment, it was complete radio silence. They said that’s send me a zoom link for an initial appointment and I never got it. I tried calling to see why that was and they said they’ll get back to me and they never called back. Why even accept my application?

Have been waiting for 6 MONTHS for buyback refund when it is supposed to be 4-6 weeks. I started this process in March, and the phone rep told me "unfortunately it has to be a mailed form" when I asked if there wasn't a way to electronically submit the buyback form. So I mailed it and after 6 weeks of waiting, I emailed and called again. I was then told the form has to be emailed! So on May 29th I submitted the new form and like the phone rep advised, asked them to expedite it because of what happened. I received confirmation receipt the next day. I waited another 6 weeks then emailed again. It was now mid July and I received the reply/excuse that they had been shortstaffed and my check was scheduled to be issued "within" 3 weeks, which would be the end of the first week of August. On August 20th, I finally received an email stating that they had "put in a request with our Accounting Department for a check to be mailed to the address on file" and "expect the check to arrive via FedEx in 1-2 weeks. It is now September 10th, 3 weeks later, and no sign of a check. This is all after a huge fiasco when originally purchasing the vials in which there was an error on their part which caused issues with paperwork and them repeatedly lying about how they guaranteed and promised they would fix it- only to ultimately have their department manager personally call me at work and aggressively chew me out stating they owed me nothing and would not rectify or refund my nearly $7000.00 This is the shadiest, scummiest, unethical and fraudulent company. They deserve no stars. Not only are they all about money, but they are completely unscrupulous in their pursuit of it.

We initially bought sperm from California cryoBank back in 2018, right before the pandemic hit. as I initiated my fertility treatment I was able to actually walk into their office in Los Angeles to pick up vials. Then covid hit and they stopped allowing pickups, so you have to pay for shipping from the same city you lived in for 100.00. And it was obvious they hired johns to deliver locally. Because the carrier was literally in his old compact car, with a tank of vials delivering it to my home. I was able to conceive on the 4th attempt with my last vial in 2020. I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl in Dec of 2021. After a few months of having baby girl we decided to try again for baby number two. we purchased all of the donors last five vials. And in 2022 I had them ship another vial to my home for about $100. Sadly it was not successful and just now we decided to try again in 2025. And guess what?? the news is that they are no longer in California !! they moved my sperm to Arizona without notifying me and now have quadrupled the shipping cost to $400. not to mention the cost of sperm also went up $500 or more!! To say they are ripping you off is the least you can say. I called customer service and they kept directing me to go on their website to find the information on what I was inquiring about. like what? I'm calling you for that information, are you not trying to do your job ? I'm highly disappointed in this sperm bank! thank God I'm transferring my vials and will no longer be dealing with them.. beware they're not in California they're no longer local in the Los Angeles area for sperm storage!!!

California Cryobank was easy to navigate, easy to contact when customer service was needed, and very knowledgeable when me and my wife had questions! With so many donors to choose from they made it easy to have options until we picked out our perfect donor based on everything we wanted or did not want in a donor. Once we purchased, the process of storing and shipping was made easy as well. We would 100% recommend California Cryo to anyone we know going through fertility treatments to start their family!