Thanks very much to all of you (28 responses!) who replied to my query concerning BD service contracts (original post below). The general consensus indicated a slowed response time from BD for those with out a service contract (BDSC). However, there were also a few without BDSCs who indicated no problems in response times from their BD Field Service Engineers (FSE). There were several who felt response times by FSEs was totally dependent upon the area, individual FSE, and number of service calls occuring during one's time of need. Some respondents felt service contracts in general were a waste of money, and then others who couldn't imagine working without one. There was a general consensus that the BDSC was overpriced. I learned that there are other independent flow instrument service providers besides BD out there (Tritech, Inc. 1-800-886-7004) and that Coherent (http://www.cohr.com/clg/clg_home.html) also offers an extended warranty on it's lasers. Others were very interested in the University Hospital Consortium (UHC) and it's CAMP program http://www.radsci.ucla.edu:8000/uhc/index.html University Hospital Consortium 2001 Spring Road, Suite 700 Oak Brook, Illinois 60511-1890 Tel: 630/954-1700 Fax: 630/954-4730 Several of you suggested that we present our quote from the UHC to BD and offer them a chance to compete. We did. BD responded with a very competitive offer that we are strongly considering at this time. Thanks again for everyone's comments and opinions - you have been a tremendous help! barry _______________________________________________ Fellow flowers and BD instrument users, In the never ending quest to decrease instrument costs we are exploring the possibility of dropping the relatively expensive BD service contracts (BDSC) on our FACScan and TSO Vantage for something called the "University Hospital Consortium Capital Asset Management Program" (CAMP). The CAMP program appears to be a "self-insured" style of effort where, instead of paying BD, we would pay the CAMP general fund a lesser amount (40 - 80% less than BD!) each year. Should a machine require repair service or routine preventative maintenance we could simply call BD and request service or maintenance as usual and the cost of these repairs or maintenance is covered by CAMP. According to the information, there is no prior "approval" process required by CAMP. On the face of it, CAMP appears to offer a tremendous savings over the BDSC and seems to be a no brainer. Under CAMP, we would continue to receive the excellent (in our experience) BD service at reduced cost, without the delay of an up front, third party approval process. Yet, there may be a darker side to this equation. Without the official BDSC we fear we may fall prey to vastly increased response times from our BD Field Service Engineers (FSE). It has been reported that so called "billable accounts" ie; those folks not on a BDSC, are placed "on the bottom of the priority visit list" by a FSE - and that this may in fact be a BD company policy. So, my question is have any of you out there in BD flow land without a BDSC experienced slowed service call response times? If so could you please relate your experiences and opinions. Thanks in advance, <+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+> Barry Grimes FACS Laboratory Manager Hematopoiesis Center Univ. of Kentucky Medical Center Blood and Marrow Transplant Rm.cc418 Markey Cancer Center 800 Rose St, Lexington,KY 40536-0093 lab) 606-323-8193 fax) 606-257-7715 e-mail) bagrim1@pop.uky.edu <+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Apr 03 2002 - 11:54:00 EST