Frequently Asked Questions

Scientific Support Services sell a comprehensive range of analytical instrumentation that meet the needs of research, quality assurance and quality control to a broad range of industries including clinical, pharmaceutical, energy, environmental, food and beverage. Our advanced instrumentation includes gas chromatographs, XRF analyzers, optical instruments, lab gas generators and a range of calibration solutions.

SSS are proud to have customers from a range of sectors. Shell, Esso, SGS, ITS, Baxter Healthcare, Absolute Aromas, Expro North Sea are just a few of the customers we are delighted to support.

SSS distribute solely to the UK and Ireland markets, if you would like some help outside of this area then please contact the relevant supplier directly through our website.

Please email the administration team at support@scientificss.co.uk with your requirements for instrumentation, support cover or parts & consumables, and they will then contact you directly to arrange the next steps.

SSS will endeavour to respond to a quotation in the same day.

Yes. We offer a choice of support contract cover options depending on how comprehensive your cover requirements are. Our most comprehensive Gold Cover includes unlimited breakdown call-outs covering all labour, travel and accommodation, all service parts, telephone and email technical support. There are also Silver and Bronze options available.

In addition to our support contracts we also offer annual Preventative Maintenance and Performance Verification contracts to ensure your instrumentation is kept in a good, efficient working condition.

Yes. We offer a choice of support contract cover options depending on how comprehensive your cover requirements are. Our most comprehensive Gold Cover includes unlimited breakdown call-outs covering all labour, travel and accommodation, all service parts, telephone and email technical support. There are also Silver and Bronze options available.

It is also possible to arrange an engineer visit for a breakdown without a support contract in place. These visits will be organised around any contract customer scheduled visits or breakdowns. Should you require this service please contact SSS directly for a discussion about your requirements and a quotation.

Please always contact us immediately to report any problems on support@scientificss.co.uk or on 01420 592475.
When you contact us please include the serial number of the instrument.

A Preventative Maintenance visits is essentially a service visit carried out by one of our experienced engineers. They are typically annual planned events, although can be more frequent if required by the customer or recommended by the manufacturer.

During a Preventative Maintenance visit our fully trained professional Fields Services Engineers follow a predetermined series of checks on the instrument in order to verify that the instrument is operating correctly and to minimize unscheduled downtime. Following the visit a detailed Visit Report Form of the work carried out and any recommendations made by the engineer is sent to the end-user or supervisor.

Performance Verification is carried out following the successful completion of the Preventative Maintenance.

The engineer will run a customer or manufacturer supplied reference sample or samples, and may also include a full re-calibration using the full range of customer or manufacturer supplier calibration standards. The results of the performance verification are included in the Visit Report Form sent to the end-user or supervisor following the visit.

The administration team will advise of all the parts and consumables recommended for a service visit, specific to the instrument, as part of arranging the service visit. The customer can then make an order for the parts and consumables and the order will be sent before the agreed visit. SSS recommend that customers keep these items in stock.

Yes. We would ask that you run the relevant standards for your instrument prior to our engineers arrival.

After every visit, our Engineer will write a Visit Report Form and you will receive this within 6 days of the visit for your records.

SSS hold an extensive inventory allowing us to fulfil most orders within 7-10 working days. Should an item or items not be in our stock we do offer an express delivery service shipped directly to customer site.

Yes. Depending on the availability of the part or parts from our supplier, SSS can organise an express delivery directly to our customers site from our supplier at an additional charge which will be included in the customer quotation.

SSS are proud to only supply genuine parts from our suppliers and valued partners.

SSS are always happy to assist our Customers wherever possible, however the fitting of consumable items including columns is the responsibility of our Customers and is not covered by our SSS Support Contract.
Should you like consumables to be fitted we would be able to arrange this as a chargeable visit.

Unlimited means you can call on us as many times as you need to during the year, its unlimited technical support by email and telephone and unlimited site visits if necessary to affect a repair.

Yes. SSS offer a best effort repair service for obsolete instruments.

A calibration certificate can be sent with the Kruess instruments and one is supplied after every service visit.

Our standard payment terms are 30 days by Purchase Order. However we offer a number of alternative payment options such as Flexible Finance or Card Payment. In exceptional circumstances SSS can offer flexibility on alternative payment terms, please contact us directly to discuss.

We have a standard carriage cost based on goods being shipped from a supplier to a UK address.
If the goods are heavy or bulky then the cost will reflect this. The carriage charge applied to each order is listed separately on all our quotations.

The dangerous goods fee applies to all liquid standards which are transported via air freight.
These standards have to be declared for safety purposes and cost extra to transport. Where a dangerous goods fee applies this will be listed as a separate line on the quotation.

We offer a 5% discount on spare parts and consumables to all our Silver and Gold contract customers. We offer a range of Multi-instrument discounts and Multi- site discounts for all new support contracts. We offer a range of discounts on new instruments, contact SSS directly for more information.

Yes. SSS is proud to hold this certificate for quality assurance of our products and services and staff training.

Our engineers are trained to a very high level of expertise and have training certificates for all the instruments they work on, they regularly visit our suppliers across the globe for update training.