Agilent service - Contractors suggestions? SF Bay Area

[schpen]

Hi All,
Can anyone recommend a third party service and repairs for Agilent systems?

I recently had a nightmare experience with Agilent and our SL binary / MSD system. After about a year and 50+ onsite/telephone calls- Agilent finally decided to replace the units to see if it made a difference - everything works well now.

Now they want us to renew our service agreement. On their behalf they did (after some pressure) give us an extra 3 months on out service contract but taking into account the number of days of down time - they owe us a lot more. 17k/year - this includes consumables - thank God we got this option- we burned through a lot of needle seats and capillaries etc..

So we are exploring our options. Any suggestions? Experience, quality and Response time are major factors.

Thanks in advance,
K

[mbicking]

There are a number of service companies started by ex-Agilent employees. They have a loose association with each other, but they are not well organized. Of course, quality may vary depending on many factors. A Google search may be able to provide some ideas. There are also some Agilent partners who might be able to do this on their own (e.g., Quantum Analytics).

[schpen]

Thanks Merlin.