Frequently Asked Questions

The vendor says they never received our purchase order, what do I do?

Please contact the buyer listed under “Purchased” on your purchasing portal request. They will reach out to the vendor with a copy of the purchase order and see if the vendor will need to fill out a form to update the purchase order distribution method for future orders.

The vendor says they have not been paid, what do I do?

Please contact the buyer listed under “Purchased” on your purchasing portal request. Include a copy of the invoice if you have it. They will look into whether University Payables has received the invoice and send it to them if not (and will follow up with the vendor either way to give them a status update). 

What if I need to return an item or an entire order?

Please contact the buyer listed under “Purchased” on your purchasing portal request and provide the following information:

1. Dept Order Number (and/or PO number if you know it).
2. Items and quantities that you need to return.
3. Reason for the return, (please be thorough).
4. Do you have the original packaging of the item and shipping cartons?
5. Do you want to do a straight return or a replacement?

They will reach out to the vendor with your provided information and coordinate the return/replacement on your behalf.

Can I purchase the items myself and get reimbursed?

We strongly encourage everyone to submit their requests through the purchasing portal, and the orders will be handled by the EBSC purchasing team. While there is a possibility of reimbursement, it's not guaranteed, and the associated paperwork is generally more complex than when we handle the orders initially. Please note that if you buy items yourself and tax is charged, the tax will not be reimbursed.

Feel free to head over to our Reimbursements page to review additional information.

Reimbursements

Can I request items from Amazon?

Yes, you can if the following requirements are met:

1. The items or similar items are not available from our iBuy punchout vendors, or they are available on iBuy but are significantly more expensive or the lead time is too long.
2. They are Prime eligible or fulfilled by Amazon
3. Furniture or food is usually not allowed to be bought on Amazon, so please source those items from another vendor.

I received an email saying my order had been purchased. How can I tell when it will get here?

Within a week of the order being purchased (and usually sooner), you should be able to see an order confirmation in the purchasing portal (under my orders, view order). This will generally have a delivery estimate on it. If you don’t see the confirmation within a week (or the confirmation doesn’t list an estimate) and it’s been a week without a tracking number being added to the purchasing portal, please contact the person listed under “purchased” on your portal request. They will reach out to the vendor with a copy of the PO to confirm the order and ask for a delivery estimate.

I'm not able to wait for my order, how do I request it sooner?

If you need an order very quickly and are willing to pay the extra shipping charges, when requesting the order, please change “delivery date requested” to the date you need the items by and change the shipping type from 1-5 business days to a different option (ex: overnight, 2 business days, 3 business days). Please also feel free to add more context under “comments/special instructions” if you have it (ex: This item is needed for an experiment on Tuesday, April 9^th and the vendor has it in stock.)

My order says "Processed", but not "Purchased". When will it be purchased?

If an order still says "processed" but is not listed as "purchased" 24 hours after it was processed, it likely needs to go through additional approval(s) by the University Purchasing & Contract Management Office. 

Examples:

• An order over $10,000 or for on-site services or software will need purchasing approval.
• An order for $25,000+ purchased on federal funds (Fund Range 400000-497999 & 600000-609999 or Federal Pass Through 500000-599999) will need UIUC PCM and Federal Funding approval.

You can reach out to the person listed under “processed” on your order in the portal for more information. They won’t be able to give you an exact timeline but will be able to give you an estimate based on the type of purchase. Please feel free to reach out to your normal purchaser while in the planning stages of a purchase that may take longer to be approved to see when it will need to be requested for best results.