I repair Computed Tomography (CT (Cat)) Scanners and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners. One would think that these live saving diagnostic tools would have a grand supply of parts available and ready to have on a bird at the drop of a dime … but you’d be wrong. You would also think that the suppliers would realize that hospitals are there to help people as best they can with the money they have (I’m talking non-profit hospitals, not the rape your wallet ones) … but you’d again, be wrong.

Example:
Circuit board, 2.5″ wide by 1.75″ tall, 1/16″ thick, dual-layer. Contains 2 diodes, 1 resistor and 0.0002 Grams of gold/tin alloy for the contacts.

I could build it for $50. From the Manufacturer it’s $3,857.23.

And people wonder why their healthcare costs are soo high … It’s not because the people are out to steal their money that are there to help make the feel better, it’s because we are at the mercy of the equipment manufacturers and their after-sale parts which drives up the cost of care at the local level.

What all this boils down to in this response is this, I feel your pain boss.

As I scramble to find an alternate fix – “Are there any more of these presses somewhere that someone isn’t using that we can get this part off of?”

“No – there were only ever 2 of these made. A demo and the one you guys bought.” Beautiful.

Since the entire plant will shut down in 3 days I say “Send me the part as soon as you can”. The Italian manufacturer says “Sure. As soon as people come back from vacation.” “When will that be?” I ask as I need this part badly. “Well, holiday just started so it’ll be about 30 days before we can get started.” WTH!! Evidently, Europe takes the month of July off and those that don’t, take August.

I make the press work with duct tape and bailing wire for exactly 34 days. Long enough for the Italian company to get back from vacation and make the part. I call them to get a status update and ask what flight the part is on as I needed this part a month ago. “Oh, we put it on the freighter this morning. Should arrive in the US port in about 3 weeks.” WTH!! After failing to get the part off the ship, I quickly have them make another part (3 days) and pay to have someone board a commercial airline flight and hand carry the part to us.

I thought that I had finally made it through this issue. Then the phone call. “Sorry but US Customs has held the part as it does not have the proper paperwork.” Someone just spam moonfire now and get it over with…

Then there’s the time I used PayPal to purchase airfare on American Airlines (right when they first came up with the idea) but I’ll save my venting for another time…

Man I feel your pain!……I work for a Jeep/Chrysler dealership….I fixem broke cars! lol…..we have a very similiar issue with our parts Dept………..”all I need to fix this $40,000 car is tis lil springy thing…right here…..” ” oh that springy thig??? ….hmmm…..lets look it up…….nope not under that column……..hmmm not in there either……oh wait…here it is…under a completely unrelated topic…….and….its part of this huge assembly”…….”but ALL I NEED is this lil spring thingy, NOT the whole friggin contraption!!!” ” nope….only way we can get it is to order the WHOLE assembly” ” so to fix a less than $5 part….I must order, and charge the customer $6 bazillion dollars for an assembly I don’t really need…but has this 1 lil spring that I do?????” ” Yes….” lol………and of course there is the ever favorite……”we can’t find it in the parts catalog….so it must not exist!”….”but I am holding it right here in my hand….look it even haz part numbers on it…” ” ahhh….but those numbers aren’t in our system…they aren’t good” ” let’s call the parts specifiers……ok?” 2 weeks go by …….” they don’t have those numbers either….that part doesn’t exist” ” but I am hilding it…..here….in my hand!!” 1 week goes by…… ” oh look there is a Technical Service Bulliten……..and it hazez parts numbers…..now we can order it” ” but I thought it didn’t exist???????” ” It does now!” Grrrrrrrrr…… oh and btw….that goes for all auto manufacturers/dealerships…….it can be funny too when the manufacturer sends out a “fix” for an issue that is hokeyer than the actual repair ” cut here….trim this….install ghetto parts…..cover with goo and tape…all fixed” ” but it doesn’t take long to fix it the “right” way…and you want me to hack it up????” ……… lol…never mind the fact that there are over a few million individual parts that go into any auto……and we , as auto techs, are supposed to ALWAYS fix it correctly the very first time, knowing EXACTLY what is wrong with the vehicle, at the leastt amount of $$ possible. but that alas is another rant/story!!! :)
If at first you don’t succeed, MacGyver the hell out of it!!…..if that doesn’t work…grab a bigger hammer!!!

always love the blog BBB….keep it up!

This is why you took Engineering as an in-game profession, right?

You know, because you could possibly build a real flying machine?

I’ve been dealing with a microscopic version of that, on a 500 laptop order I’m making. The rep from the company we usually go with is on extended leave, her husband was very badly wounded in Iraq. So I end up with this third string asshole who doesn’t know what he is doing, and while he’s busy jerking off, we are going to end up having to buy a lesser machine from another vendor because of heavy time constraints.

Too bad everyone is not like us.

BTW, coming up with a conveyor running on a variable speed motor? Not exactly groundbreaking, but still freaking impressive stuff! Yous is a smart cookie.

And it was an amazing visual. Just throwin’ that out there.

I would buy the car, take a nice vacation to Germany and bloody a bat with a preplanned route to the US embassy.

But as stated before, I hope having gotten that out helped a little!

Hopefully some bastard in Germany, that you pay the WoW account for, reads your blog also.