Reading the replies screen

Once you have asked for quotes, the list of providers is followed by the replies, one service at a time.

The line at the top counts them: Asked 4 · Replied 2 · Waiting 1 · Could not be delivered 1. "Waiting" is everyone who has not answered yet. A provider who asks not to be written to again, or who has not answered after ten working days, is counted on the same line.

One card per provider, with where the conversation stands — Delivered — waiting for a reply, Quote received, Replied, Declined, Asked not to be contacted, Could not be delivered. When a provider has replied, the card shows what I read:

• Price, Turnaround, Valid until — each with the provider's own sentence under it, in quotation marks. "Not stated" means the reply did not say it; I never fill it in.
• Conditions and Questions for you, when the reply has any.
• Show original reply opens the provider's own words, with a machine translation beside them when the reply is in another language (labelled — it can contain mistakes).
• Attachments open once they have passed the virus check; until then they are listed without a link.

I do not add up, convert or rank quotes: you compare them yourself, with the provider's own words in front of you.

Answering a provider. On a card where the provider has written, you can answer in your own words. I show you the message first — translated, signed by us, without your name — and a person on our side reads it before it goes. You can answer the same provider up to three times.

The page looks for new replies every thirty seconds while anyone is still to answer; reload it later to see replies that arrive after that.

Elsewhere. When a reply arrives, the conversation says so in one line — A reply from … is in — see below — and on your home page the request reads Quotes requested until someone replies, then Replies in, with how many of the providers you asked have replied.