Whine whine
Feb. 9th, 2005 03:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zotzSince I've been working here we've had two motorised filter wheels in a box waiting to be fitted to the microscopes. The advantage of these is that they can be driven by a computer, so they make certain sorts of timecourse imaging possible. Last week, after most of a year, the supplier's service bod - from a big reputable company that you'll all have heard of - turned up, finally, to fit them.
One of them was DoA. The other got fitted and worked. For most of a week[1]. It, too, has now died. To be fair, the dud has already been replaced by a fresh one which arrived in the post on Monday, but that's small consolation at the moment.
Why is nobody capable of supplying kit which actually works? I got used to hearing, for years and decades, about how the private sector is wonderfully efficient and can make things happen and is kept lean and competent by competition and constantly armwrestling Adam Smith's invisiblepenihand. Can I please be put in touch with some of that competence now? Constantly dealing with these shitehawks is starting to get to me.
[1] Correction: Almost two weeks. Doesn't time fly? That's certainly good value for a grand's worth of . . . well, a motor, a position sensor, a bearing and some folded metal. I certainly don't feel that the taxpayer is being shortchanged.
One of them was DoA. The other got fitted and worked. For most of a week[1]. It, too, has now died. To be fair, the dud has already been replaced by a fresh one which arrived in the post on Monday, but that's small consolation at the moment.
Why is nobody capable of supplying kit which actually works? I got used to hearing, for years and decades, about how the private sector is wonderfully efficient and can make things happen and is kept lean and competent by competition and constantly armwrestling Adam Smith's invisible
[1] Correction: Almost two weeks. Doesn't time fly? That's certainly good value for a grand's worth of . . . well, a motor, a position sensor, a bearing and some folded metal. I certainly don't feel that the taxpayer is being shortchanged.
