Test Equipment Complaints
UsedThis is a website for all those who would like to voice their dissatisfaction with the service policies of the major test equipment manufacturers.
Right To Repair website: We have an update on the “Right to Repair” bill (for cars—similar to what we want for repair equipment).
If you or your company is involved with purchasing or servicing of test equipment made by Agilent, Advantest, Anritsu, Keithley, Quadtech, Rohde & Schwarz, Tektronix or others you probably have already had some undesirable experiences getting your valuable test equipment serviced. This is the site to voice your dissatisfaction. If we have a loud enough voice, we will be heard, and they will change their way of doing service. You can complain anonymously or you can sign off on it.
These companies built their reputations on quality, accuracy, reliability, and serviceability, and in years past they actually provided all these things. In most cases they used to provide detailed service schematics to help you or outside service companies repair the equipment and parts availability for equipment 10-20 years old or more. In addition they provided troubleshooting help over the phone and reasonable rates for repair. Unfortunately, over the last 5-10 years the service from these manufacturers has become more and more user unfriendly. This site is primarily for complaints on service, but feel free to vent any complaints you may have. Some of the problems are:
- No more service manuals with detailed circuit schematics, making it difficult to impossible for the enduser or outside service companies to repair the units.
- Parts in many cases are no longer supplied for the units, but instead they sell modules or boards that can cost thousands of dollars each, if they supply the parts at all.
- Firm Price Repairs are all they provide in many cases, which can cost thousands of dollars for even minor problems that might only take a few hours to repair.
- Good technical help troubleshooting repair problems over the phone is difficult to find anymore, but instead they request you to send the unit to them for firm price repair — costing thousands of dollars in many cases.
- They no longer support the equipment at all after 5-10 years in many cases, and refuse to repair it themselves. In many cases the equipment becomes “beyond economic repair” or unrepairable due to their policies.
This is valuable equipment which may have cost $10K-$100K or more when bought new. Can you imagine paying that much for a new car and finding out later that nobody except the manufacturer can service the car, and every time it needs repair you'll be charged $5,000 regardless of how minor the problem is. Furthermore after 5-10 years the manufacturer will refuse to repair it themselves and you'll be stuck with a car that's essentially not repairable. This is the way the test equipment business has been going for several years now!
Of course the manufacturers have advantages in these strategies:
- It increases their service revenue considerably since they are essentially the only place it can be repaired.
- They have you over the barrel with firm price repairs. If you want the equipment repaired you'll have little choice in the matter.
- You are forced to buy new when they drop support and make the equipment obsolete, since the equipment you have is unrepairable.
All these work to the advantage of the manufacturer and to the disadvantage of the user and outside repair labs.
Here are a couple of typical scenarios:
You buy a real nice high end new R&S Spectrum Analyzer for $50,000 or you get it used for $25,000 from a used test equipment dealer. It works fine for a few years, then after the warranty expires it develops an error code whenever you turn it on and will not work properly. You call R&S and they tell you to send it in for repair for firm price repair fee of $6,000. You feel this is exhorbitant and call some other repair labs to see if they can repair it. They tell you they'd like to, but can't get schematics from R&S or modules for a reasonable amount.
So you are faced with either sending it to R&S and paying the $6,000 or letting it stay dead and buy a new one from R&S for $50,000 or a used one from a used test equipment dealer for $10,000. Or worse yet — you send it to R&S for repair and they inform you it has multiple problems and give you a new estimate of $20,000 to repair.
You buy a nice high end new TDS O’scope from Tektronix for $20,000 or a used one from a used test equipment dealer for $9,000. It works fine for a few years and then develops a problem which says "Aquisition failure" whenever you turn it on and doesn't work properly. You call Tektronix and they quote you $2600 firm price repair or, if it's a little older they tell you it is no longer supported and they won't repair it. You call other outside repair labs and they tell you they can't repair it because schematics aren't available and the boards cost too much “if they are even available anymore”.
You are stuck with a dead O’scope that you could now buy used and guaranteed for 3 months from a used equipment dealer for $2500. This is 4 years after you bought the first one. It's not really economical to repair, if it can be repaired at all, so you are stuck with it, and either buy a new one from Tektronix or a used one on the used marketplace for about $2500.
These policies are unfair to the end user and to outside service companies, but clearly working to the advantage of the manufacturers. Why can’t the manufacturers repair the products they make for a reasonable price? It doesn’t cost them much. Why can’t they supply parts and schematics? The parts don’t cost them much, and they already have the schematics? Why can’t they help you troubleshoot over the phone anymore? Their service has clearly deteriorated over the last several years for the sake of profit. It's clearly more profitable for them to control the service of their products and charge whatever they want for parts and service and to make it difficult if not impossible for anyone else to repair.
Please feel free to post you complaints here under the various manufacturers you are having problems with.
In many cases used test equipment dealers can service the equipment because they have parts for the units which can be used to repair otherwise broken units. In some cases even they can’t help, because schematics aren’t available and the manufacturers have made some of the boards and modules such that they can’t be switched easily from one unit to another. They can usually repair older units where schematics are still available but are finding it increasingly difficult to repair the newer units for which the manufacturers won't provide detailed schematics. This is a shame because many of these units are still worth thousands of dollars in good working condition.
For a list of used test equipment dealers go to sites like Used Line or KitMondo or LabX and find the models you are looking for in their search engines. Many of these used equipment dealers not only sell and rent used test equipment, but warranty it for 3 months to a year, and provide repair services at reasonable rates as well.
You may notice that under Other Links
a similar scenario is playing out with diagnostics in cars: Right-to-Repair Law To Get DRM Out of Your Car.
Questions or comments, email us, we respect your right to privacy. Please feel free to express yourself on our forums as well.
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