I got two different reps in during the past two days for a company whose transfection machine I use, in regards to failures in the machine which are both strange and costly. The machine, which was pushed by another postdoc who since pulled his ripcord and disappeared one day, was forced upon me and now I am in charge of its problems as well. First machine failed several months ago, and I sent it back, and the replacement failed the same way and was replaced as well. I haven't tried the third out yet as I haven't had to (thankfully); it fails in the middle of a job which costs a crapload to set up; I talked the district rep into giving me a free kit for my troubles the last go-round.

He came by unannounced yesterday acting a little confrontational and when I showed him where we hooked the machine up, he said it was our power supply that was messed up. I told him it was an emergency outlet and that those are the least likely to be messed up because, well, it's an emergency outlet isolated from the regular mains. He said he'd tell customer service not to replace the machine again since he didn't like our outlet. I didn't have time to tell him what I thought of that since my boss pulled me away for something else just then. Today a sales rep (with a PhD: why?) came by to inspect the machine, etc. and was much nicer about it all. They're bought out by someone bigger and both will likely be out of a job by fireworks-day so maybe things will be okay in the customer service department after all..

Also I got my pipettors serviced (on my own dime) last week and boy oh boy they feel so clean and fancy; totally worth it.

In other news I had one of those happy moments where you find a fiver in your old jacket pockets, except it was 20 grand in an old savings account. Looks like I won't be eating ketchup packets just yet after all.