Uniformity of 2-photon illumination?

[rjpalmer]

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The key(s) here are: warranty and service contract.  Both are  
contractual obligations.   Without one or the other, you would have a  
hard time finding an attorney to take this case, even the staff ones  
on campus who likely have little else to do.....

One can hear horror stories like that related by Marco (and worse!)  
every day.  Unless you have some genuine leverage with the company,  
legal or reputation-based (yours, not theirs), you are dead in the  
water.  Whether you call it "insurance" or "extortion" is dependent on  
your perspective. How about it Marco?  Have you been paying the  
Godfather?

On Sep 1, 2011, at 2:46 PM, Cammer, Michael wrote:

> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
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> *****
>
> First I'd like to say that we have excellent service support from  
> Spectraphysics, so this is not about them in any way.
>
> But as a general policy, any company that does not successfully  
> address service issues for equipment under warrantee or under a  
> service contract within the terms of the agreement or in a  
> reasonable time should be sued.  The company should be expected to  
> remedy the situation, pay damages, and cover all attorney's fees.  
> Your institution either has in-house counsel or a retainer with  
> attorneys standing by waiting for your call.
>
> -Michael
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 5:34 AM, Sylvie LeGuyader <[hidden email]
> >wrote:
>
>> *****
>> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
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>> *****
>>
>> Ouch!
>>
>> I guess the strong stand you are taking now is the obvious  
>> desperate next
>> step!
>>
>> Best of luck with it all!
>>
>> Med vänlig hälsning / Best regards
>>
>> Sylvie
>>
>
>
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[rbroide]

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Unfortunately, I don't have an answer to your final question...but your story is very informative.  We are in the process of deciding on an MP laser.  There are obviously 2 companies out there - SP & Coherent - and both are very competitive.  From what we've heard so far - mainly from collaborators who have both systems - SP appears to have better service and follow-up than Coherent.  I'm not sure what that says in your situation.  But I agree with the other users that the service for either company may be area specific.  If you're not getting proper service in your area, you may want to contact someone higher up at SP and file a major complaint.  As one of the other users mentioned, you can threaten with a lawsuit...that might get them to respond faster!

Ron

-----Original Message-----
From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of CCI
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2011 4:17 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Newport MaiTai 2-photon laser maintenance

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Dear Colleagues,

Do you own/you want to buy a two photon laser from Spectra Physics/Newport?
I would like to share my experience with the Spectra Physics/Newport service :

15.03.2011 Our MaiTai laser has a very low output power and doesn't pulse. I contact the  service engineer.

29.03.2011 After two weeks of mail exchange with the engineer trying to solve the problem in remote,
it turns out that this is something more serious. The engineer comes over, collects the laser  and promise we will have the laser back in 1,5-2 months. End of May then. That is the only Multi Photon laser in the facility and I start already to have worried users around asking when the laser will be back.

03.06.2011 I write Spectra Physics (SP) urging news about the laser.

27.06.2011 SP informs me that they will start to work on the laser "this week" and the laser should be back in the week of the 11th of July. They added "If it is possible to do it any earlier we will".

01.07.2011 SP informs me that there are good news: the laser will be really back by the middle of July.

14.07.2011 No news from SP. I write them asking about an update. SP answers quickly: new installation date, the 3rd of August. 2011? My bad, I forgot to ask them.

05.08.2011 Again no news and no laser back. I write this time the Sales Director a complaint letter asking when we will have our laser back and if it is possible to have a replacement instrument, as we are without laser since more than 4 months now.

17.08.2011 Receiving no answer from the Sales Director I call him, and receive assurance that the laser will be back next week.

26.08.2011 Still nothing. I write a new complaint mail to the Sales Director. He answers that there were more delays, but by the 31st of August he will surely be able to know more about when the laser will be back and he will contact me.

01.09.2011 No news from SP (to be continued).

Now it might well be that all of it is absolutely normal, I just would like  to get a feedback from the community if there is anything else I can do in order to have the laser back.
Thanks for reading this overly long post and for your feedback.

Cheers,

Marco


Marco Marcello
Imaging Manager
Centre for Cellular Imaging, IIB
University of Liverpool
UK
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[Andreas Bruckbauer]

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 We also have an excellent service from Spectra Physics in the UK, but i have never had to send back a laser for repair to the US. The story makes me worry a bit in case we have to send one back. All service contracts i know only state a first response time, not the time until the problem is solved. So it is really a case of what is reasonable time to fix such a laser.
When we negotiated the service contracts, i asked if there will be a loan laser available, which would be the case in the UK, but this laser might then stand in somebody else's lab...

Before taking legal action, i would ask to get the money back for the service contract (or a free of charge service for the laser afterwards) and compensation for your additional work.  

 
When i worked in a factory yesrs ago, they had three instruments of each, one was sitting in the lab, one in case the first one breaks down and the third one as a spare if they had to use the second one. Maybe microscope/laser companies should thik about this when they sell service contracts.

best wishes

Andreas


 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Cammer, Michael <[hidden email]>
To: CONFOCALMICROSCOPY <[hidden email]>
Sent: Thu, 1 Sep 2011 19:46
Subject: Re: Newport MaiTai 2-photon laser maintenance


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First I'd like to say that we have excellent service support from

Spectraphysics, so this is not about them in any way.



But as a general policy, any company that does not successfully address service

issues for equipment under warrantee or under a service contract within the

terms of the agreement or in a reasonable time should be sued.  The company

should be expected to remedy the situation, pay damages, and cover all

attorney's fees.  Your institution either has in-house counsel or a retainer

with attorneys standing by waiting for your call.



-Michael





On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 5:34 AM, Sylvie LeGuyader <[hidden email]>wrote:



> *****

> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:

> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy

> *****

>

> Ouch!

>

> I guess the strong stand you are taking now is the obvious desperate next

> step!

>

> Best of luck with it all!

>

> Med vänlig hälsning / Best regards

>

> Sylvie

>





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original message. Please note, the recipient should check this email and any

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[Johannes Helm]

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I sincerely hope that Marco will have this truly embarrassing laser
problem fixed before long.

This said and having read the contributions to this thread, I should like
to add that, being in charge of - among other things - eight ultrafast
laser systems, partly by Spectra, partly by Coherent, the service and help
I so far have received from both companies' local reps - in the few cases
it was required - was excellent.

Have a nice weekend!

Johannes

--
P. Johannes Helm, M.Sc. PhD
Seniorengineer
CMBN
University of Oslo
Institute of Basic Medical Science
Department of Anatomy
Postboks 1105 - Blindern
NO-0317 Oslo

Voice: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

WWW: folk.uio.no/jhelm

> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> *****
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> Do you own/you want to buy a two photon laser from Spectra
> Physics/Newport?
> I would like to share my experience with the Spectra Physics/Newport
> service :
>
> 15.03.2011 Our MaiTai laser has a very low output power and doesn't pulse.
> I contact the  service engineer.
>
> 29.03.2011 After two weeks of mail exchange with the engineer trying to
> solve the problem in remote,
> it turns out that this is something more serious. The engineer comes over,
> collects the laser  and promise we will have the laser back in 1,5-2
> months. End of May then. That is the only Multi Photon laser in the
> facility and I start already to have worried users around asking when the
> laser will be back.
>
> 03.06.2011 I write Spectra Physics (SP) urging news about the laser.
>
> 27.06.2011 SP informs me that they will start to work on the laser "this
> week" and the laser should be back in the week of the 11th of July. They
> added "If it is possible to do it any earlier we will".
>
> 01.07.2011 SP informs me that there are good news: the laser will be
> really back by the middle of July.
>
> 14.07.2011 No news from SP. I write them asking about an update. SP
> answers quickly: new installation date, the 3rd of August. 2011? My bad, I
> forgot to ask them.
>
> 05.08.2011 Again no news and no laser back. I write this time the Sales
> Director a complaint letter asking when we will have our laser back and if
> it is possible to have a replacement instrument, as we are without laser
> since more than 4 months now.
>
> 17.08.2011 Receiving no answer from the Sales Director I call him, and
> receive assurance that the laser will be back next week.
>
> 26.08.2011 Still nothing. I write a new complaint mail to the Sales
> Director. He answers that there were more delays, but by the 31st of
> August he will surely be able to know more about when the laser will be
> back and he will contact me.
>
> 01.09.2011 No news from SP (to be continued).
>
> Now it might well be that all of it is absolutely normal, I just would
> like  to get a feedback from the community if there is anything else I can
> do in order to have the laser back.
> Thanks for reading this overly long post and for your feedback.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Marco
>
>
> Marco Marcello
> Imaging Manager
> Centre for Cellular Imaging, IIB
> University of Liverpool
> UK
>

[Marco Marcello]

Dear confocal list users,

I just would like to thank all the people who have written to me and I can now offer a final, positive update about the  repair of our MaiTai Newport/Spectra Physics multiphoton laser.
In the same day (1st of September) in which my post was published I was contacted by Spectra Physics.
It turned out that actually the laser was already fixed and ready to be shipped from Germany to UK.
On the 6th of September the laser was succesfully installed back in the facility.
To answer some questions I had from this list, our laser was bought in 2007 (approximately 5000 working hours) and we never had any problems until March 2011.  
My impression is that Spectra Physics took  the incident seriously and will do everything possible to
avoid this sort of things to happen again.

Thanks again!

Marco

Dr. Marco Marcello
Imaging Manager
School of Biological Sciences
University of Liverpool
L69 7ZB
Liverpool
UK