We've designed the Waters.com ordering experience to be simple, and easy-to-use, but we know that sometimes you may have questions about how to buy online. We've compiled a list of the most frequently asked questions that you may need answers to as you shop, place orders, and track your orders in Order History.
Yes, all users who want to make a purchase must have an account on Waters.com.
Click on Create Account in the My Account menu in the site header. It is recommended that you use your company or business email address for your registration.
Yes, we will need your shipping and billing address information to verify your account before you place an order. You will add your address information during the checkout process when you place your first order. There will be a short delay in order fulfillment as your account information needs to be validated.
Your email address is your unique identifier on Waters.com. Every email address may only have one registration.
All orderable products can be accessed from the Shop menu in the site navigation or from our Shop All Products page. Orderable products may also be found via product pages on Waters.com.
SKU (stock keeping unit) is an ecommerce industry standard terminology for buying single units online. The SKU listed is the same as the product part number you will see on the product labeling.
All our products and materials have part numbers. The SKU terminology allows us to differentiate between part numbers that can be purchased online and other part numbers that are used in a variety of other contexts.
We have tried to ensure that the majority of products have at least one standard image. We are constantly working to update our product listings with more images.
If you are not signed in to Waters.com the product List Price will be displayed. Once you are signed in you will see Your Price which reflects your customer-specific, contracted pricing. If you have a discount on a product, you will see both the list price, crossed out, and Your Price.
Your account may not have customer-specific pricing for all items.
We check to see that the spreadsheet is the correct file type (.csv) and that your file contains no more than 50 rows of data.
Check to confirm the following:
Not all products are available for sale on Waters.com. If you mis-key the SKU number or enter a product that is not sold online, you will get an “invalid SKU number” message. If the added product has approached the end of it’s lifecycle, it will add to your Shopping Cart, but we will inform you it is no longer available or has a replacement.
We show the combined total of any customer discount (the difference between List Price and Your Price) and promotional code savings in one line.
When the promo code is entered in the Have a Promotional Code? field in the Shopping Cart or during Checkout, an accepted promotional code will appear in a gray box below. Clicking on Details within that box will give specific Terms and Conditions. The promotional code discount will be added to the Savings line only if the user is signed in.
If a promotional code is incorrectly entered, expired, or already used (in some cases), the promotional code discount will not appear in your Order Summary. Promotional codes might not apply to your Shopping Cart if your customer discount is higher than the discount applied in the promotional code, or if you have multiple promotional codes that apply to the same items.
Shipping & Handling is estimated in the Shopping Cart based on your default shipping address and shipping method. It is recalculated as part of Checkout as choose shipping options.
Estimated Tax is calculated as part of Checkout. Estimated Tax may change depending on your shipping options and/or if you are tax exempt.
Your Waters account may be blocked from ordering products online. There are multiple reasons why your account may be blocked. Customers that experience such blocks should Contact Waters for assistance.
If an item is no longer available to purchase it to be added to the Shopping Cart with specific messaging to indicate why it is not orderable. There will be a recommended replacement item, if one is available.
Yes, all products in your cart will be processed with your order and delivered once they are back in stock.
Yes, items will remain in your cart for up to 30 days. If there is no activity after 30 days, the products will be removed.
To share your Shopping Cart you should use the Download Cart option and share the spreadsheet with your colleague. The receiver of the downloaded Shopping Cart can then upload the file on the Quick Order page and add the items to their Shopping Cart for purchase.
Yes, the account will need to be created and validated by Waters before your first order can be processed.
If you do not see the saved shipping address you expect, you may be associated with multiple Waters customer accounts. You can Switch Account in the My Account menu during Checkout.
Yes, you can add a new address or edit your existing addresses during Checkout. This change will apply on the current order and go through our address validation process which may delay order processing.
All new addresses need to be validated and verified before it is added to you customer account. This usually takes anywhere from 2-24 hours and the processing of your order may be delayed.
You may only save one credit card for reuse during Checkout.
Some business processes require a Purchase Order or Tax Exeption Certificate document to process an order. By offering this as part of the Checkout process, it will allow the order to be processed more quickly.
Every order with additonal comments goes on hold and needs to be manually reviewed by our team. Please, only include comments if it is neccessary for us to process your order.
Orders will be available immediately after you receive your order confirmation. If you are a new customer and your account needs to be verified, there may be a delay while your first order is processed before you can see it in your Order History.
You will see Reorder options on both the Order History page as well as on any Order detail page.
Clicking on Reorder will add all items from your previous order to your Shopping Cart.
If a product from a past order is no longer for sale, it will still be added to your Shopping Cart with a message noting that item is no longer available. The item that is no longer for sale is required to be removed from the Shopping Cart in order to proceed to checkout.
A quote is used as an intermediary step before committing to an order. They are often used to confirm a price or get internal approval before purchasing.
You must be signed in to Waters.com to request a quote. The quote will reflect your customer-specific pricing. If your account does not offer a discount on a particular item, the quote will show List Price.
Yes, every quote that is generated is forwarded to your sales representative.
This is a future enhancement that we hope to have available soon.
Promotional codes cannot be applied as part of a quote, but for most situations, promotional codes can be used in conjunction with a quote if manually entered by a sales representative.
Quotes are good for 30 days from point of issue.
Yes, the quote generated on Waters.com can be converted to an offline order. Please contact your Sales Representative.
The Request a Quote functionality (not available in all regions) in the Shopping Cart auto-generates a price quote for ONLY products currently orderable on Waters.com.