labX offers on realtime PCR machines - (Dec/01/2014 )

dear all, 

had any of you ever bought a heavy-duty, sensitive machine like : realtime PCR , from LabX ??

how much are they trusted to deal with ?,

the offerss they have are way less expensive than contacting the mother companies of the machines , though in times they sell unused ones ...

are they trustworthy ??

any experiences ??

overwhelmed.

Never bought there, but we looked there (and finally the bosses were too cowardly ). Anyway as far as I know they're trustworthy, but as every used equipment you never know how intensively the machine was used, how well it was maintained and when the first failure is coming and so on. So I'd make it dependent on the conditions, such as how or if the machine was maintained and calibrated by the manufacturer or by accredited personal (with a documentation). And if you get a warranty and/or contractual guarantee, right of return until a certain time (or whatever is possible according to your laws) to give you some security.

For expensive equipment I'd even ask for test runs with my samples...

many thanks Hobglobin :)

the machine we are interested in is new, in original box, they even sent me photos of it ... 

but the price is really less expensive than when we contacted my region's distributor of the machine.

the number given by labX : 20.000 $, while the distributor : 46.000$

warranty 90 days, return is accepted within one week of setting the order. 

when i asked if there is anything wrong with it, they replied : not used, no defects. 

what you kindly think ?

Did they also tell you why they have the machine? Anyway it's hard to tell and I'd ask for sufficient time to test it and also be sure that the model is one without known weaknesses and faults and still is supported by manufacturer if any support is needed (software, spare parts, etc).

We have e.g. one with software which only runs on old 32 bit windows xp computer and so had to install a virtual machine for this (but it's an old cycler, but the only we have and not a focus of our work).

i contacted Qiagen (mother company of the machine we are interested in) to ask about that exact serial number , labX offered ... 

to ask them about any info they know about this machine, and if they would provide any type of service on it ... 

no reply yet ... 

and labX claims that there is another customer interested in the same machine ... so we have to make our minds quickly.

we are not in "that" hurry -to be honest- we need to buy something worthy ...