Asking providers for quotes

Under each list of providers there is an Ask for quotes button. When you press it:

1. You tick the providers you want written to — all of them, by default.
2. You see every draft before anything goes. One per provider, in the provider's own language where their country has one, with the English underneath. The text is built from the details on your request: the document, the countries, the languages, the deadline and delivery where you gave them, and the other steps on your request so a business that handles several can say so. It never contains your name, your organisation, your email address or the names of your files.
3. You agree to one sentence, and press Ask for quotes again. From then on the request is sent from our own address, signed by a named person, with a private reply address for each provider. During the pilot a person reads each message before it goes.

Under the list you then see each provider's status: Queued, Awaiting review, Sent, Delivered, or Could not be delivered. We write on working days during office hours, a limited number a day, so "Queued" on a Friday evening means Monday morning.

A few things we will not do: write to a business that asked not to be contacted, or whose address bounced before — you will see that beside its name; write more than once, plus one reminder, about the same request; or attach your documents. If you change the details or search again, the drafts are discarded and you preview again.

The reminder goes by itself after three working days (Monday to Friday) with no answer, and after ten working days the conversation is closed as "no reply". During the pilot a person on our side reads every message before it goes; if they send one back, you will see why under the provider's name and can preview again. Once a provider has written back, you can answer their question from the request page in your own words — at most three times; we translate it and, as always, leave your name out.

Or send it yourself. The Copy quote request and Open email app buttons on every card still work exactly as before. Nothing obliges you to let us write.