For senders
Sending an enquiry — what it costs you in attention rather than credits, what the business sees before it decides, and what you get back when it does not go anywhere.
You are asking one business for something. Not broadcasting a requirement, not generating leads for a platform — writing to one company you chose, who will decide whether to spend their own credits answering you.
That framing explains almost every design decision below.
What sending involves
Writing it
The difference between a requirement that gets quoted and one that gets a call asking what you meant.
After you send
What happens while you wait, what you can see, and what comes back if it fails.
Picking the kind
Product, service, general or franchise — the choice that decides what you are asked for.
Closing it
Ending it properly, and rating the business you dealt with.
What the business sees before it decides
Not your phone number and not your email. Those appear only if it accepts.
What it does see is enough to make an informed decision: your requirement in full, who you are in outline, that you are verified, and your standing on the platform. It is deciding whether to spend credits on you — and it decides on the requirement, not on how persistent you are.
This cuts both ways
You cannot be contacted by a business that has not committed to your enquiry. You also cannot expect a reply from one that never opened it — which is what the response date and the response score exist for.
What it costs you if it goes nowhere
Nothing. A decline refunds you and so does silence.
That is the point of paying to send at all. The charge is not rent — it is a commitment that makes the enquiry worth a business's attention, and it comes back when the business does not hold up its end.
Rates are on the pricing page; what is charged and what is refunded is on Costs.
Where to send from
Almost always from the thing you were looking at — a product, a service listing, a franchise offering. Arriving that way carries the context with it, so the business knows which of its offerings you mean without you describing it back to them.
Starting from a blank enquiry is possible and is usually the wrong move: you end up retyping something the platform already knew.
Sending as yourself, your business, or on behalf
Who you appear as changes what the receiving business sees and what weight it carries. An enquiry from a verified business reads differently from one sent by an individual, and a sales agent acting for someone else is a third thing again.
Pick before you send — it is not editable afterwards. See Acting contexts.
The habits that get enquiries accepted
The four kinds
Product, service, general and franchise enquiries — what each one asks for, what it makes you fill in, and how to pick the right one so the business receiving it can answer without a call.
Writing a requirement
What separates an enquiry a supplier can quote from one they have to phone about — units, specifications, scope, timing — and the failure modes that make good requirements unanswerable.