Illumina Back Order Problems

[johndcurry]

I have been waiting for some time for some TruSeq SR Cluster Kit V5 (GD-203-5001) from Illumina. They keep telling me its back ordered and cant give a firm delivery date.

Is anyone else experiencing delivery problems with Illumina kits for their GAIIx machines?

I cant help to wonder if their recent layoff has affected their supply chain. These back order issues are certainly causing me grief.

J

[huguesparri]

We don't order anymore GAIIx kits as we moved to an HiSeq2000.
Nevertheless, we have not received our TruSeq RNA sample prep kit neither ChIP seq sample prep kit for 2 months now.

[ETHANol]

I'm in the same boat with the TruSeq RNA kit. What is frustrating is I can't get a date. They said it would be here a few weeks ago.

[johndcurry]

I think their customer service is deteriorating. For the price we pay for these kits, they should be more forth coming with supply issues.

[pmiguel]

I think their customer service is deteriorating. For the price we pay for these kits, they should be more forth coming with supply issues.

I would argue your first point. I deal with a number of companies of this sort and Illumina tech support and customer service seems like it is in another (better) league than any of the others. (Tech support, especially.)

As far as supply issues -- well all companies have their weaknesses. This is something Illumina seems to struggle with. Nevertheless, overall I don't think they are worse than Applied Biosystems or Roche. I blame it on overly ambitious "just in time" supply chain management. I am sure money is saved on warehousing and lowered expired kit loss, but at the expense of robustness.

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Phillip