Warranty vs. Guaranty, What is What - Read the agreements.

How do you purchase the asset you need. Some words to consider.

Used equipment prices change daily. Pricing of equipment or instrumentation is a hard task. 

1. Supply and demand:  Are you looking for a popular item which may be hard to locate? The price of a fully refurbished asset can be as high as 40-70 cents on the dollar. Sometimes you need to think of the Real Estate or Computer marketplaces.

2. Age of equipment:  Newer instrumentation is more costly than older ones, two or three series back.

3. Original Manufacturers Sale price:  This may be the only true benchmark to use when buying previously used equipment. What was the original list price when the asset was purchased? What was it purchased for? What is the List price today?

4. Technology obsolescence:  Older technologies usually mean cheaper prices. Just because the instrument or system original costs were very high doesn't mean that the system will obtain high value today. For example, a large HTS Robotic system sold to a pharmaceutical company only two years ago for half a million dollars may be virtually useless as a system today. These are very specific, custom systems. Again, think of the Computer marketplace. An IBM PC with a 5 1/4 floppy drive can still write a one page memo on a daily basis. So why do we require a Pentium 5 based computers?

Quality of the equipment or instrumentation:

1. Price vs. Performance: Unfortunately what may seem to be a good deal is not always the case. Used laboratory instrumentation comes in three levels of quality:

2. Refurbished: What does this truly mean. Just about anything. It's the difference of two people saying "Quality". Refurbished should mean the replacement of non working components and that the reseller has replaced all moving parts, upgraded firmware and software and even repainted the asset. We like to call it "Frame-Off" Full Refurbishment. The difference will be reflected in the pricing of the asset you purchase.  (Generally 30-60 cents of new, and including longer Guaranty).

3. Tested and Complete: This asset will power up when received. It may not have the most recent version of firmware or software upgrades and it may need minor work if the manufacturers specifications are not met. (Generally 20-40 cents of new). Parts may be missing. Many resellers, like those on LabX or eBay have no idea what the asset does or how it should be configured to perform the study. It was given to them or found in a warehouse. 

4. "As-Is": This asset  may be working and it may be in need of minor or major repair. It is generally the least expensive. Be prepared to have a qualified engineer install and possibly repair the asset. Generally these are good buys if you want to pay for extra costs such as the engineer. People sell "As-Is" for many reasons. The number one reason is because they actually don't know what the asset does. That's all right, just be ready, don't be upset when you receive it and it doesn't work. These are perfeet eBay types of sales.

Warranty vs. Guaranty:

Many times the buyer is miss led by today's various jargon that different companies use in selling there equipment or instrumentation. Be careful you have the terms in writing before you purchase the asset - not after-word, or say good bye to proper follow-up.

1. Warranty: This term is used way too loosely. The actual term Warranty can ONLY be offered by the Original Equipment Manufacturer or OEM. These are world class companies that sell the asset first hand. They are the original companies that made the asset. Companies like; Beckman, Applied BioSystems, Perkin Elmer, Zymark, Molecular Devices, Sorvall, etc. These companies have worldwide direct sales, distribution and service offices around the world. A WARRANTY is NOT a GUARANTY ! ! !

2. Guaranty: This term is offered from a owner or broker of an asset that promises to replace the asset, refund completely, partially refund to fix the problem, replace the broken part, etc.   Be very careful of this and make sure you understand what it means for your purchase. 

WARRANTY  VS. GUARANTY:  Many Previously Owned Equipment Dealers/Brokers tell you there is a set day 30, 60 ,90 or One Year Warranty. This is far from the truth unless they have field service engineers located around the world to guaranty 24 hour service to repair the asset. ONLY the OEM's can offer Warranties. Dealers offer Guaranties. The only time a Dealer/Broker can offer a warranty is if backed up in writing in your purchase order. Stating that the One Year, or less Service Contract is being included from the OEM or that in some cases the Dealer/Broker is local to your company and is willing to drop everything to take care of your problem. Ask how many service engineers they have on pay role. Make sure you receive a copy of the quotation from the OEM with your Dealer/Broker instrument quotation. Otherwise - Buyer Beware. Too many times researchers have been told "We offer a completely One Year Warranty". Then you have to extract the part and send it back to the Dealer for replacement. The Dealer then  searches around the world to find the part. If and when they locate it, they ship it to you for you to install. How much is this DOWN TIME worth to your organization??? This has been known to take up to nine months in some circumstances because of the "great deal" the buyer received in the first place. The greater the deal usually means the greater the headaches if something goes wrong. Just be careful.

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