What to ask a supplier before your first order

Before a first order, ten questions are enough to see how a supplier works: four about the batch and the certificate, three about storage and shipping, three about invoicing and terms. They are sent in writing, before payment, and the answers are not scored; they are recorded. What they reveal is not only their content but whether they were given at all, how specifically, and how quickly.

This article accompanies the list of criteria for choosing a supplier in the same series. That list sets out what should be true; this one gives the wording of the questions that test it, and a way of keeping the answers so that they form a record rather than a memory.

Why in writing, and before payment

Directive 2011/83/EU sets out what a trader must tell you before you are bound by a distance purchase: the main characteristics of the goods, the trader's identity and geographic address, the total price including taxes, delivery charges, the arrangements for payment and delivery, and the withdrawal conditions ^[1]. It also provides that this information forms an integral part of the contract and may not be altered unless the parties expressly agree otherwise ^[1]. A written answer to a specific question does not always carry the same legal weight, but in practice it works the same way: it is what you were told, dated, by an identifiable sender.

Timing matters. Before payment, the supplier has every reason to answer. Afterwards, the same question becomes a support ticket in a queue. And a question asked by telephone, or in a chat window that disappears when the page is closed, leaves nothing you can rely on later.

The ten questions

1. What is the batch number of the material that will be shipped, and can I see the certificate of analysis for that batch before I pay?
2. Which laboratory performed the tests, what is the report number, and can I confirm it directly with the laboratory?
3. Does the certificate come from the manufacturer, from you, or from an independent laboratory — and was the analysis done before or after the vials were filled?
4. Can you send the full chromatogram and the mass spectrum, with the method parameters?
5. Under what conditions is the material stored between its arrival with you and dispatch, and is temperature recorded?
6. How is the shipment packed, with which carrier, and what happens if delivery is delayed or fails?
7. What is the retest or expiry date of the batch, and which analysis date is it derived from?
8. Which legal entity issues the invoice, under which tax or VAT number, and will the batch number appear on it?
9. Does the final price include VAT and delivery, and are there any charges payable on delivery?
10. What is the procedure if the material arrives damaged, wrong, or with a document for a different batch?

Questions about the batch and the certificate

The first four questions are the most revealing, because their answers can be checked by a third party. The batch number is compared with the label at receipt. The report number is compared with the laboratory's records. ISO/IEC 17025 requires every test report to identify the tested item unambiguously and to state that the results relate only to that item ^[3]; which is why a certificate that cannot be tied to a specific batch does not answer the first question, however good it looks.

The third question needs explaining. When a certificate is reproduced by a reseller, the ICH Q7 guide asks that the laboratory that performed the analysis and the original manufacturer be named, with a copy of the original certificate ^[2]. A supplier who answers "the COA is the manufacturer's, the analysis was done before filling, and here is the original" gives a good answer — not because independent testing would not be better, but because the answer is true and checkable. Where the report carries a QR code or verification link, remember that a QR code on a COA proves only where it points; the check is made on the laboratory's website, at an address you type yourself.

For the fourth question, the World Health Organization's model certificate is a useful yardstick: for each test it provides for the method, the acceptance criterion and the result ^[7]. A chromatogram with no axes and no integration table does not meet that standard; it is a picture. Where the laboratory runs a public verification page, the procedure is simple and is shown in the example of verifying a report on the laboratory's own page — with the caveat that a genuine report proves a sample was analysed, not that your vial was that sample.

Questions about storage and shipping

Questions five to seven show whether the supplier knows what happens to the material before it leaves their hands. The ICH Q7 guide asks that storage facilities provide appropriate conditions, with records where those conditions are critical to quality, and that retest or expiry dates rest on stability data ^[2]. A research-materials supplier is not bound by that guide, but an answer that states a storage temperature, how it is recorded, and a retest date with its origin is the answer of someone who has thought about the matter.

The sixth question is not about the carrier as such but about predictability: what happens if the parcel sits for two days at a sorting centre, who judges whether the material is still acceptable, and whether there is a written policy for failed delivery. The seventh tests something subtler: whether the retest date is a property of the batch, as it should be, or a date printed mechanically two years after the day of packing.

Questions about invoicing

Questions eight and nine look administrative, but they test whether there is a real business behind the shop. In Greece, the particulars an invoice must carry are set by Law 4308/2014 on Greek Accounting Standards and include the issuer's identity details and tax registration number ^[5]. For a supplier in another member state, the VAT number is checked on the European Commission's VIES system, which confirms whether a number is active for intra-Community transactions ^[6]. If the name on the invoice differs from the name of the shop, ask why; there may be a simple explanation, but it should be given.

The ninth question heads off the most common unpleasant surprise: charges that do not show in the basket, such as import VAT, customs duty or a clearance fee collected by the carrier on delivery when the material comes from outside the EU. Directive 2011/83/EU requires the total price including taxes to be stated and, where additional charges cannot be calculated in advance, the fact that they may be payable ^[1]. The tenth question, finally, is the test of the return terms: an answer with specific steps, a deadline and the evidence required is a procedure; an answer along the lines of "we'll sort it out" is an intention.

Which evasions are telling

Evasion is not an answer, but it is information. Some patterns recur often enough to be worth recognising — not as proof of bad faith, but as a gap to be recorded:

• "All our batches are the same" as a reply to the batch-number question.
• A certificate with no batch number, or with a number that will never appear on the label.
• "The laboratory does not deal with customers" when you ask to confirm a report.
• A link to a general FAQ page instead of an answer to the specific question.
• Moving the conversation to an instant-messaging app or the telephone as soon as the question turns technical.
• Time pressure — "this price is only valid today" — in reply to a question about documentation.
• Unsolicited information about administration to people, which was not asked for and has no place in a research-material transaction.

How to document the answers

An answer is only worth something if you can find it and rely on it. The WHO guideline on data integrity sums up what makes a record trustworthy: it should be attributable to a person, legible, contemporaneous with the event, original and accurate ^[4]. It was written for laboratories and manufacturers, but the same logic applies unchanged to a buyer's file.

1. Keep every answer verbatim, with date, sender and subject, in one folder per supplier.
2. Save attachments exactly as received, without renaming or re-saving them in a way that alters the metadata.
3. Mark each question "answered", "partly answered" or "not answered", without a score.
4. When the order arrives, compare label, certificate and invoice with what you were told in writing, and record every discrepancy.
5. Repeat questions one to four for every new batch; the rest only need repeating when something changes.

The answers are not scored because they are not all equivalent, and because context changes what they mean. A small supplier that replies late but precisely is saying something different from a large one that replies at once and vaguely. The file keeps the evidence; the judgement stays yours.