Paul, This is an interesting problem since many of us have Coherent lasers and using Evergreen to re-tube them is significantly less expensive. One alternative is to put out the exorbitant cost to BD (not sure how Cytomation and Coulter handle service contracts) for a service contract that covers the lasers to make this a non-issue, as we are fortunate enough to be able to do in our lab. However, if Coherent maintains their position, I would think those without the ability to pay for a service contract will find a source for all the replacement parts and a secondary service provider willing to bypass Coherent. Would be very good business for Coherent to go ahead and still service the laser and just charge an extra fee since it uses "non-manufacturer" parts. Randy T. Fischer NIH/NIAMS Building 10, Room 6D57 9000 Rockville Pike Bethesda, MD 20892 (301) 594-3537 fischer1@mail.nih.gov > ---------- > From: J.Paul Robinson > Reply To: jpr@flowcyt.cyto.purdue.edu > Sent: Tuesday, August 6, 2002 3:02 PM > To: Cytometry Mailing List > Subject: Interesting laser issue with Coherent Laser > > > Colleagues > Two years ago I had a Innova 300 5 watt Coherent laser retubed by > Evergreen at half the cost of Coherent and this year I had a problem with > the > water flow meter in the powersupply. I replaced this from a non-Coherent > source myself (1/5 th cost but the identical part) but it seems that I > need to > now get Coherent to re-program the eprom to recalibrate the powersupply. > Coherent won't give me an eprom to put in myself - they insist it is a > service > call even tho it is a very easy task and replacing the flow meter on this > powersupply is actually quite difficult!! > > I eventually placed the service call and the Coherent serviceman told us > last > week that that they will not service a laser that has been serviced or > repaired > by any one other than Coherent - they indicated that they knew it was > retubed by Evergreen so they would not support the laser. I am quite > suprised about this and frankly a bit miffed having a large number of > Coherent > lasers. > > I am now wondering why I would place my laser order for a 2P laser with a > company that maintains such a policy. > > Has anyone else experienced this and if so, how did you resolve the > problem? > > Paul Robinson > Purdue University > J.Paul Robinson, PhD PH:(765)4940757 > Professor of Immunopharmacology > Professor of Biomedical Engineering > Purdue University FAX:(765)4940517 > EMAIL:jpr@flowcyt.cyto.purdue.edu > WEB: http://www.cyto.purdue.edu > >
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Jan 05 2003 - 19:26:18 EST