Every thing I do, I do it for you
Wednesday, September 7th, 2005Our Institute changed tip suppliers over the summer. As you might imagine, with 400 scientists it’s not a small contract. The lucky people (STARLAB) who won the contract to supply our Stores don’t distribute the best tips on the planet, but I don’t really care since The Powers That Be wouldn’t stock the low-retention plastic ones I’d like in a month of Sundays. If I want them I’ll order them myself, as it would be a bit expensive to have them as our routine supply.
While the trials were ongoing (you think we don’t trial them before Admin make a cost-based decision anyway? Shame on you), the STARLAB reps picked up on the fact that many of the people who tried their tips were complaining that they kept falling off their pipettes. So when they landed the deal they came in and said right, we’ll calibrate and service all your pipettes (Gilsons and others) and replace the barrels if necessary. For free.
That was nice, and they steamed through hundreds of the things in jig time. I don’t know how thorough the service was, but my pipettes got new ‘O’ rings and seals, and the calibration certificate is pretty.
Of course, the day I got my Gilsons back from the STARLAB guys I got (yet another piece of) junk mail from Anachem, offering to service my Gilsons at a reduced price. Ha. Thing is, the service from Anachem is hardly cost-effective; after three years it’s cheaper to dump the old ones and get replacements, rather than having them serviced. Someone needs to wake up to this.
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