Keysight customer service is awesome

[Pack34]

I bought an Agilent MSOX2024X off this forum over six years ago as a present to myself for my first real design engineering job. Just before COVID I turned it on and... nothing... a short back-and forth with their technical support showed an odd firmware bug.

I was finally able to send it off after Sunnyvale started to open up a little and the turn-around was only a week. Not only did they fix the issue, but upgraded the firmware, calibrated it for free, and updated the labeling on the instrument.

[NoisyBoy]

That has been my consistent experience with Agilent/Keysight for the last 20 years.  That's why I am always willing to spend more to get their equipment, especially if post-sale service is important to you.  Glad that you are finding this out yourself as well.

[Berni]

You do get a shortcut trough the process if you have a fault that Keysight admits is caused by a design issue. (guessing your scope had that well known flash memory bitrot corrupting the bootloader problem)

If you sent 1kV into the scope inputs and blew it up you can expect a different treatment where they might take a look at it and give you a likely rather pricey repair quote (On a scope like this you likely have to buy a brand new main board). But provided you pony up the cash they will get it fixed properly and quick.

I ended up being part of a handheld DMM issue where a few models of there DMMs would show wonky readings on Amps when subjected to certain common mode noise(Very high amplitude and in the MHz so very unlikely to actually have it happen). The community discussion over the issue really blew up so Keysight quickly offered a replacement DMM without this issue (Different model or the new revision when its ready) for free to anyone having this  problem. I did have such an affected DMM, filled out a form and sure enough a brand new DMM shown up a week later. This was more of a PR panic reaction than what usually happens, but still shows they are very serious about keeping a good reputation for the test gear and its support.

But all of this is the reason why Keysight, Tektronix, LeCroy, R&S... gear costs more. You are not only buying the scope, but also buying the support that comes with it.

[Fungus]

Basically you're paying up-front for "extended warranty".

[SilverSolder]

You are dealing with professionals, but they ain't cheap.

I find the same with e.g. Nikon (cameras), the Nikon service department will take good and professional care of you even with an older model, but don't expect it to be free!

[NoisyBoy]

Completely agree.  They are geared for the corporations, research, universities, government, and institutions markets, where those purchases are long term, and often for revenue-generating and mission-critical tasks.  If something fails, you can always count on them being there to support you to get you going, so your highly compensated engineers are not sitting around due to broken equipments.  On top of it, you have complete asset management, life-cycle transition planning, and extended service/calibration services.  The portal tells you everything you own, when was it last calibrated, all the calibrated certificates, when is calibrated due, recall/services notes, repair history, contract expiration reminder, etc...  And when something breaks, you can have their service come to your lab to pick up the equipment and carry it away in their specialized equipment van without having to worry about how to pack it and shipping damage.  Hence the support model is at a different league with the Keysight (I presume true with some other A-Brands), and the price reflects it.  But for those clients, price is just one of many factors that go into a buying decision.

For the B-Brand, their support is more akin to those of consumer electronics.  And for the C-Brand, it is more like buying something off e-Bay, you may be able to exchange it, but there may not be any warranty. 

For the hobbyist market, budget is often tighter.  So the premium may not make sense to some, and the B or C brands may make more sense.  Hence the beauty of the free market, we can all pick what we like and what we are willing to pay, there is no single right answer. 

[HighVoltage]

For many years I only have the best experience with the Keysight service.

Keysight even sells you repair parts, when almost all other test equipment companies have stopped supplying parts for repair.
 

[Berni]

For many years I only have the best experience with the Keysight service.

Keysight even sells you repair parts, when almost all other test equipment companies have stopped supplying parts for repair.

Didn't know about that. So that means you cant simply buy a replacement knob or membrane key for a 15 year old Tek scope?

Tho i have never bought any spare parts directly from Keysight before. I did want to buy a new PC motherboard for a MSO9000 once, but they needed the whole scope to be sent in for service on that one. I am guessing the reason for that was that they need to reinstall the special Windows 7 embedded edition license key.

But for my own use i don't tend to buy brand new Keysight gear anyway. Way too expensive to buy new, while there are some good deals to be had on the second hand market. But then again a lot of my gear is so old that it carries HP badges, so not only they don't make it anymore, but likely don't carry any spare parts for it anymore. Still those old HP service manuals are sex on a stick! Even Keysight had there service manuals devolve into the usual modern garbage of instructions on how to take it apart followed by a useless troubleshooting guide that always leads you to an answer of "Replace board A3"

[0culus]

Keysight will also still work on older HP stuff in some cases. In particular, I contacted them to get a quote on calibrating a 478A thermistor mount. I ended up not wanting to drop the cash right then but I still plan to do it in the future. The guy I talked to said they have a stash of replacement parts for them, too. So there is an outside chance a blown one could be fixed (for a hefty price). I could send my 8664A sig gen to them too, but the shipping costs are outrageous for something that heavy so I probably won't. But they were able to find and give me the thing's cal report from when it was last seen by them (2013 according to the sticker).

[HighVoltage]

For many years I only have the best experience with the Keysight service.

Keysight even sells you repair parts, when almost all other test equipment companies have stopped supplying parts for repair.

Didn't know about that. So that means you cant simply buy a replacement knob or membrane key for a 15 year old Tek scope?

Most likely not for a Tek scope.
But I have ordered many parts from Keysight before.
Even if they do not have it in stock or it was obsolete, they have been looking to find a used and working part for me and it was very impressive to get this kind of customer service.

Tektronix and Keithley have gone the opposite way for many years already. At least in Germany.