[3dem] Alternative service contracts for FEI microscopes

[Terje Dokland]

We have been offered a service contract for our FEI Tecnai F20 that  
is 25% below the FEI price through a company called REMI. Basically  
they operate like an insurance company and the service would be  
carried out by FEI engineers as usual, but charged directly to REMI.  
Apparently they have offered similar service contracts for a range of  
equipment from many manufacturers (centrifuges, spectrometers etc.)  
through this system, but they have only recently started offering it  
for electron microscopes. I was told that the University of  
California system has switched to this mechanism for their FEI  
contracts. Obviously there is a potential savings of 1000s of $$  
here, but does anybody have any experience with how this works in  
practice? Does it work as smoothly as REMI claims or has anybody had  
any problems getting their service and maintenance needs through this  
system? Any advice on this would be very helpful. Thanks,
Terje


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Terje Dokland, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Microbiology
University of Alabama at Birmingham
845 19th St South, BBRB 311
Birmingham, AL 35294
Tel:	(205) 996 4502
Fax:	(205) 996 2667

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