Heterogeneity in the subsurface creates conflicting types of dispersion of seismic waves. A laboratory and numerical experiment show that multiple scattering of elastic waves from isolated heterogeneities near the surface not only attenuates, but also delays coherent events. Because scattering off these impedance contrasts is frequency dependent, multiple scattering is a source of dispersion. If ignored, multiple scattering dispersion could be erroneously attributed to a model with horizontal homogeneous layers of different wave speeds.