Frequently Asked Questions
Do you offer collection and delivery?
What is your turnaround time for calibration?
Do you send reminders when re-calibration is due?
Do you provide web access to calibration records and
certificates?
What do you do if instruments require adjustment?
What if an instrument fails calibration?
Does the calibration price include batteries and
fuses?
Do you subcontract any work?
Do you require a purchase order before starting work?
Do you offer collection and delivery?
We provide a full UK mainland collection and delivery service to business premises.
For Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man, you will probably find it is cheaper to arrange your own delivery to us. Please contact us for a current price for courier service.
Using our own transport
We offer free weekly collection and delivery using our own vans and drivers to business premises in the following areas:
Cheshire, Clwyd, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Shropshire, South Yorkshire, West Midlands, West Yorkshire.
Because we use our own vans and drivers there is no need for you to package your equipment prior to collection.
Using an approved independent courier
If you fall outside of the above areas we can still arrange collection and delivery using our approved independent courier. The cost for this is as follows:
Collection from yourselves (up to 20kg) £19.00 VAT
Delivery back to yourselves (up to 20kg) £12.00 VAT
If you prefer to send the instruments to us yourself and just pay for the return carriage, this is not a problem.
Because we are not using our own vans and drivers you will have to ensure that your instruments are suitably protected and packaged prior to collection. If packaging is a problem, for a small fee we can provide customers with robust plastic transit crates.
Domestic addresses
We do not normally collect from domestic addresses.
Delivery to domestic addresses would normally be by independent courier only and would be chargeable as above.
Insurance against loss or damage
Equipment collected and delivered by our own drivers and vehicles is insured against loss or damage.
Equipment packaged by us and being returned to a customer by a courier is insured against loss or damage.
Equipment which is collected from a customer by a courier which we have organised (3rd Party Collection) is insured for loss. But because we have no control over the manner in which the equipment is packed and/or protected we will not be liable for any damage in transit. Please ensure your equipment is adequately packed and protected.
Customers are responsible for any loss or damage to equipment which they courier to us whilst it is in transit. Please check after a couple days, that we have recieved any equipment that you have sent.
What is your turnaround time for calibration?
For items calibrated by ourselves our normal turnaround time is 5 working days.
There will of course always be the occasional emergency requiring urgent turnaround. If we can possibly do it more quickly, we will, just ask.
Any item that we have to subcontract will in most cases take longer. This is partly due to losing a couple of days due to the extra time the item spends in transit. Also, other laboratories simply do not turn calibrations around as quickly as we do. They may tell you they have a 5 working day turnaround target, but they seldom hit it.
Do you send reminders when re-calibration is due?
Monthly calibration recall notices and overdue reports are usually sent to customers approximately 2 - 3 weeks before the start of each new month.
We operate a database system which tracks and controls all of the work
through our company. For larger customers we can even allocate equipment to your chosen departments if you like so that recall and overdue notices are more meaningful.
Do you provide web access to calibration records and certificates?
Yes, we call it our Inventory Management Solution (IMS). You can use it generate your own calibration recall reminders and calibration overdue reports. You can access calibration certificates going back years. You can even export your entire inventory to a spreadsheet.
To access the system simply click on the IMS link at the top of the page.
Complete the on-line form and submit it. We will then review your details.
Once you have been approved we will activate your username and password and send you an email. You can then start using IMS.
We know you're probably very busy and don't have time to learn your way around a complicated new system. That's why we've made it really simple. There is a help section inside which will only take you a minute or so to read. Then you're away.
What do you do if instruments require adjustment?
Minor adjustments where possible, to bring an instrument back within specification are usually carried out free of charge. As are many minor repairs such as removal of burrs etc on mechanical instruments.
Some instruments requiring extensive or major adjustments, or where adjustment takes a considerable amount of time may be treated as repairs but this work will be quoted for separately. Examples are instruments such as inside micrometers where the majority of the rods require adjustment, or instruments that can only be adjusted by the manufacturer using their own software. It must be stressed though that such instances are the exception rather than the rule.
What if an instrument fails calibration?
Our usual procedure in the event of equipment failing calibration would be to issue a "Failure Notice" to the customer. The failure notice would include equipment details, nature of failure, price to repair or replace the item and an estimate of lead time.
The failure notice may be faxed or emailed.
There is a reply section where the customer is invited to sentence the equipment, Eg: Repair it, replace it, log as scrapped and return it, or log as scrapped and dispose of it. Once the customer has sentenced the equipment we will take the appropriate action.
If we do not receive a reply to a failure notice within 2 weeks we will usually send the instrument back to the customer with a "reject" label.
In cases where an instrument has to be sent to the manufacturer for evaluation a fee will usually be levied, though we would not proceed without first receiving permission.
Does the calibration price include batteries and fuses?
If necessary, we will usually replace common inexpensive batteries or fuses within the standard calibration price providing the cost is less than 5% of the value of the calibration.
We reserve the right to charge for changing common inexpensive batteries and/or fuses if we consider the proportion of instruments requiring new batteries and/or fuses is unreasonably high. In such cases the charge for fitting either new batteries or fuses will be £2.50 VAT.
If special or rechargeable batteries need to be replaced we will treat this as a repair and we will charge extra for this. We will however, seek your permission before proceeding.
Also, multimeter fuses for example, vary enormously in price from a few pence each to several pounds depending on the type. If more expensive special fuses need to be replaced we will treat this as a repair, and charge extra, but again will seek the your permission before proceeding.
We are a broad based calibration laboratory with a huge range of facilities and more than 95% of the calibration work we do for our customers is done in-house by our own technicians. However, with some larger contracts there will be times when the calibration of certain items is outside of our scope and has to be subcontracted to another calibration laboratory.
We have a large database of approved suppliers and can make the process almost as seamless as if we were doing the work ourselves. The only difference you may notice is longer turnaround time.
Rest assured though, we do not subcontract calibration work without the knowledge of our customers; and we do not pass off another laboratory's calibration results as our own.
Do you require a purchase order before starting work?
Ideally, customers should raise an official purchase order detailing their requirements before we undertake any work. We do not normally undertake any work for a customer without either...
1. An official purchase order. Or at the very least, a purchase order number.
2. Some other written instruction to proceed. This can be faxed or emailed. If you like you can use the "Place an Order" function on this website.
In the absence of the above you will be required to pay for the work prior to the return of your instruments.
For larger contracts, a limit of liability "call down" type purchase order would be the most efficient route. This type of purchase order would allocate an amount of money over a specific time period, say 1 year.
A specific amount of money can be allocated for calibration, and a specific amount of money can be allocated for repairs, replacements and other adhoc work.
This negates the need to raise individual purchase orders to cover repairs etc, and thereby speeds up the work.
There is no need to worry about us invoicing against such purchase orders in an uncontrolled manner as we will still seek your permission before proceeding with any work other than routine calibration work.
You can authorise repairs or replacements by completing the reply section on our "Failure Notice". To authorise other adhoc work or supply you can use the "Place an Order" function on this website.