Reagents - Frequently Asked Questions

How do I register?
How do I order a reagent?
How much does my reagent cost?
How do I pay for my order?
What will the shipping charges be?
Where is my order?
I have lots of questions about I.M.A.G.E. clones
I want more details about a particular I.M.A.G.E. clone (e.g. vector used)
Why is the I.M.A.G.E. clone I want unavailable?
How can I find out if we have a particular I.M.A.G.E. clone?
My I.M.A.G.E. clone has the wrong sequence
I need to translate my I.M.A.G.E. clone between the clone name and the I.M.A.G.E. ID.
I want an MGC clone that is not in your MGC Finder
How do I find the clone that I want?
How do you supply clones?
I need Product Information Sheets on a reagent that I have received.

How do I register?

You can register your customer details with us, a once only process for ordering any of our products, using the registration form found here.

How do I order a reagent?

For all orders customers must provide the following information to make processing and delivery fast and accurate.

1. Register your customer details with us, a once only process. (see above)

2. Use our index page to select the resource you wish to order, and follow the link to the description page to place an electronic order. As before our preferred method for placing orders is via the on-line web order forms, although we will continue to take fax and postal orders from registered customers. Please note that a purchase order number from your organisation is compulsory so that your finance department can relate this to our invoice. The advantage of using our on-line order forms is that you will immediately know if something you are ordering is not available and in addition the order will enter our in-house database directly, with no delays. If an order is place by fax or post it is essential that the name of the registered user is attached to the purchase order. If this is not done there may be considerable delays to the order being processed whilst we try to establish who the order is for.

3. You will be advised if a materials transfer agreement [MTA] needs to be agreed to for a particular resource just before you reach the actual on-line order form for the product of interest. This is a once only process for each type of resource and must be agreed to on-line.

How much does my reagent cost?

You can find out the price of each reagent by going to the Products, Prices and Delivery section. Select the class of resource that would contain your reagent and you will be directed to the prices page. Delivery charges can be found here.

How do I pay for my order?

When we dispatch the goods we will send your organisation an invoice, in accordance with the price list.

We also now offer the facility of credit card payments. If you would like to pay by credit card then you can supply Mastercard/Visa details on the actual on-line order form. However please note that the order form with these details is not sent on a secure server. Alternatively you can send your card details to us by FAX - on submitting your order on-line you will be directed to the appropriate FAX form, giving the details we require.

Payment is not taken from your account until we have dispatched the goods to you.

For invoiced goods our terms of payment are nett 30 days in GBP. To avoid unnecessary administration for both parties we request compliance with these terms, please. We prefer payment directly into our bank account details of which are provided on our invoice. All bank charges should be paid by yourselves.

Cheque payments should be made out to Geneservice and addressed to:

Accounts Receivable
Geneservice
2 Cambridge Science Park
Milton Road
Cambridge
CB4 0FE

What will the shipping charges be?

For full details of our delivery charges see our delivery prices
If you wish your order despatched by courier please let us have your courier account number. All shipments requiring dry ice are shipped by courier.

Where is my order?

If you have placed an order with us and would like to confirm that we have received it, or find out if the order has been dispatched please use our Order Tracking Facility. Please note that this facility is only available to registered users and requires you to enter your username and password.

I have lots of questions about I.M.A.G.E. clones

Go to The I.M.A.G.E. Frequently Asked Questions Page.

I want more details about a particular I.M.A.G.E. clone (e.g. vector used)

Type the IMAGE ID of your clone in the I.M.A.G.E Consortium I.M.A.G.E Query (IQ) tool. You will get information on the vector, and insertion sites, and more.

Why is the I.M.A.G.E. clone I want unavailable?

We receive regular shipments of plates from the I.M.A.G.E. Consortium. However this is after the corresponding IDs being placed in databases. Once we have replicated these plates we make those clones available for ordering by our customers. Our order form is designed to only allow users to order clones that we have in stock. We do not know in advance which particular clones we will receive, so cannot give a date when those clones will become available. Our suggestion is to look at our I.M.A.G.E. Availability page to see the date this was updated., and if there is a recent update try to order your clone again. Despite your clone having a lower I.M.A.G.E. ID than we advertise it might still be unavailable due to some batches of plates still not having been received by Geneservice.

How can I find out if we have a particular I.M.A.G.E. clone?

At the moment the only way is to place an order for that clone. If we have it you will get the success message. If you just want to try this out without actually placing an order leave out a required field (e.g. Purchase Order number) on the order form. This will result in the order receiving our "Sorry" message but if the only reason given is about the PO number then we do have the clone.


My I.M.A.G.E. clone has the wrong sequence

The IMAGE CONSORTIUM themselves recognise that there are an increasing number of reported cases where the sequence data does not match up with the clones. In fact the I.M.A.G.E. CONSORTIUM have set up a database to record such instances http://image.llnl.gov/image/html/badclone.shtml. You could search this database to see if any problems have been recorded for your clones. The I.M.A.G.E. sequences are maintained in public databases, over which Geneservice has no control. We cannot therefore be responsible for clones supplied as a result of errors in the reported sequence information in the database.


I need to translate my I.M.A.G.E. clone between the clone name and the I.M.A.G.E. ID.

You will have this translation both on your despatch note and in your email confirmation of your order. However you can easily get it again:
I.M.A.G.E. Translate: Use this tool to match the I.M.A.G.E. ID (e.g. 1226314) to the I.M.A.G.E. clone coordinate (e.g. 3083-n11) on our agar slope labels.
Plate Conversion Utility: This tool converts the clone name back to the I.M.A.G.E. ID.


I want an MGC clone that is not in your MGC Finder

If an MGC ID entered does not produce an IMAGE ID this does not mean we do not have that clone - just that the clone is not yet in an MGC plate at Geneservice. You can order the clone using the I.M.A.G.E. ID as usual and it will be supplied from the original plate.

How do I find the clone that I want?

This is a very general question that is hard to give one answer to. The following sites might be helpful:

Genecards - (Human)
Unigene - (several species)
Flybase - (Drosophila)
Genbank
SRS

How do you supply clones?

Individual clones are sent out streaked onto agar slopes, in bijou tubes. The appropriate antibiotic will have been added to the agar. If you wish to order a large number of clones we can supply these as glycerol stocks on 96-well plates if you prefer. Please email biohelp for advice.

I need Product Information Sheets on a reagent that I have received.

These are supplied in the packaging with your order. However the product information sheets that we send out with each resource are also available on our WWW pages in the description pages of each resource. Go to the Products, Prices and Delivery section, select the class of resource that would contain your reagent and you will be directed to the prices page. After your particular reagent you will find (more info) and that description page has all the Product Information sheets at the bottom of the page.