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On Sat, Sep 3, 2011 at 9:27 PM, John Weymouth (john@medisurg.com) wrote:
Hello group!

Biomed from 1975 Columbia Maryland! Our group was called BMET Baltimore Medical Equipment Technicians. Clever huh. Now located in Carmel Indiana.

I service eye surgery equipment and been having a devil of a time getting a copy of AMO Allergan Medial Optics, now call Abbot Medical Optics service manual for the cataract equipment . AMO makes cataract surgical equipment and disposables used in Cataract surgery. The systems are relatively simple to work on, and the manuals are difficult to get a hold of. I signed up for their $10,000 class and at the last moment, they cancelled my course. I really think they are just going thru the motions of having service training, only to cancel at the last moment so that they can protect their depot service.

I love working with the other major players, ALCON and B&L, both companies tech service are polite and very accommodating. AMO will not divulge information on their equipment, nor sell replacement parts, even if you OWN the equipment.

How can we reward the “Good” companies and “punish” the bad ones?

Warm regards,
John
–
John Weymouth, President
MEDiSURG
2701 Enterprise Drive
STE #7
Anderson, IN 46013-6103
(317) 663-3158 ofc
(408) 668-1396 fax
http://www.medisurg.com
john@medisurg.com

On Sun, Sep 4, 2011 at 9:01 PM, John Weymouth (john@medisurg.com) wrote:
Michael,

Thanks for the feedback. The details:
I arranged to attend their course, sent in funds, they called and asked what hospital I worked for, and I gave them several names. They wanted to know who owned the equipment and I stated that I owned the equipment. They said I had to work for and be employed by a hospital before I could go thru the training. One of the hospitals presidents said they would “put me on employment” as a favor. I felt that would not be honest. I asked AMO to reconsider, they had their lawyer contact me and stated that they would not sell me any parts, offer me any service courses because I would be a competitor to them in their service sector. I own the phaco, why do I have to pay $1500 for a service tech to come to my facility to replace a simple part that costs $500? His comeback to me was, if we sell you parts, then we would have to sell everyone parts.

Mike, if you are saying I have to send them this discourse so that they can respond? They do not care. They do not sell parts. I do not know of any hospital that would send a biomed to service training for a $40K piece of equipment for a one year agreement at $10,000. Yes, at the end of one year, you lose your certification and have to take the course again for an additional $10,000. Annual service contract is $6000. This is all a ploy to keep all of the service revenue in house.

All I am looking for is a person who has a service manual and that means they went thru training. Do trained Biomeds on the AMO products even exist?

Do you think AMO’s practice is fair?

regards, John

PS, I will post this on any site that AMO monitors. I have all the facts and figures. They have their policy. Heck, you sell parts from machines you take apart, is that in violation of any of the OEMs policy’s? Does the OEM have any recourse on the parts they designed and we resell? The way AMO operates, it could be a potential problem that would make us to be out of integrity.

Alcon, who is 10 times the size of the AMO in this product category, sells me and anyone parts.

On Mon, Sep 5, 2011 at 10:17 AM, Acosta, Hector wrote:
Mickey has this worked for Intuitive Surgical? This company is also monopolizing their product.

Thank You

Hector L. Acosta, CBET
Biomedical Equipment Technician III
Erlanger Health System
Work (423-778-2015)
Cell/text: (423-208-2759)
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