A quote is a document you check, not a number you accept.

There is no checkout on this site. You build an order list, submit it, and receive a written quote by email, usually the same business day. The quote is not a formality between the form and payment; it is the document that fixes what you are buying, at what figure, and from which lot. Everything you later check on the dock traces back to it. Read it as the order, because it is.

Written means restated. A quote that says "as requested, see attached" and refers you back to your own form has not done its job. The point of the document is that a second person, reading it without the form, could rebuild the order exactly: each line, its fill weight, its quantity, its tier and its figures. The next section is that list.

Each line, by compound name and fill weight, with the quantity in vials. The tier that quantity reached, stated as a tier, so you can check it against the pricing page. The per-vial figure for that line at that tier. The line total. Where a line crossed the boundary rule, a note that the next tier was applied. Where a line exceeds 10,000 vials of a single compound, the word contract and the figure quoted for it.

Below the lines: freight, as its own figure, quoted against the delivery address you gave. Lot numbers where lots are already assigned, or a statement that the lot will be named at dispatch. A ship date for stocked lines or a production date for lines made against the order. A line saying the certificate of analysis and the safety data sheet for each lot are available on request. And, where the quote carries one, the date it is valid to; if it carries none, ask how long it holds before you plan against it.

If any of these is missing, ask before you do anything else. A quote without a per-vial figure cannot be compared with anything. A quote without lot numbers or a date cannot be matched to a certificate. A quote with freight inside the vial figure has hidden a variable that changes with the address. The desk would rather re-issue a quote than have you accept one you cannot check.

Put the two documents side by side and match lines, not totals. A total is the last thing to compare, because two totals can differ for reasons that have nothing to do with price. For each line ask four questions. Same compound? Same fill weight? Same quantity, and therefore the same tier? Freight inside or outside the figure? Only when all four answers are yes is the difference between the per-vial figures a price difference.

Fill weight is where most false comparisons start. A quote for a compound at a smaller fill will show a smaller figure, and it is not cheaper; it is a different vial. Tier is where the rest start. A quote for 1,000 vials and a quote for 900 sit on different tiers of the same ladder, and the second is not a worse price, it is a smaller order. Bring both quotes to the same fill weight and quantity before you read the figures.

Then compare what surrounds the figures. Does each quote name a lot, or say when it will? Does each state a ship or production date rather than a lead-time phrase? Does each say documentation is available for the lot? A quote that is a little higher on the vial figure and complete on everything else is usually the one you can actually receive against.

Freight is quoted against the address, which is why it belongs outside the per-vial figure. The same order to two addresses carries two freight figures, and a vial figure that swallowed freight would change with the ZIP code. When you compare, subtract nothing; just confirm freight is on its own line in both documents and that both were quoted to the same address.

Lot numbers on a quote let you request the certificate before you confirm, and let you match the certificate to the vials when they arrive. A quote can honestly say a lot is not yet assigned; it should then say the lot will be named at dispatch, and you should ask for the certificate at that point. Dates work the same way: the quote states them, and if a date on the quote has passed by the time you confirm, ask for a fresh one.

Two things. The first is any per-vial figure that depends on what you intend to do with the material. A figure on this catalog depends on the compound, the fill weight and the quantity on the line, and on nothing else. A supplier offering one figure for one purpose and another figure for a different purpose is pricing something other than a research reagent, and the document is telling you so.

The second is any statement about use. A quote for a research compound describes what is supplied: the material, its form, its fill weight, its lot and its documentation. It does not describe what the material does, what it is for, or how it should be handled once dissolved beyond storage terms. Every product on this catalog is supplied for laboratory research only and is not for human or veterinary use; a quote that says anything further about use has stepped outside that line, and so has the supplier who wrote it. The compliance page states the position in full.

Keep the quote with the purchase order and bring both to receiving. Count vials per line against the quote, not against the carton label. Read the lot number from a vial and check it against the lot on the quote or the dispatch note. Request the certificate for any lot you have not already received one for. The quality page says how a certificate is matched to a vial, and this site's guide to reading one takes it further.

A quote that survives this checklist is one you can pay against, receive against and audit against later. That is the standard this catalog holds its own quotes to, and it is a fair standard to hold anyone else's to. If a document you are looking at falls short, the fix is a re-issued quote, not a note in the margin. Ask in writing, and keep the reply with the rest of the file.