Anti-HIF1 alpha antibody - ChIP Grade (ab2185)

I've just got a call from our customer Doublier, and she forwarded to me the e-mail you sent yesterday.
She is furious because she feels teased by both you and us as your official distributors here in Italy.
In a first e-mail Tanya proposed to send 2 vials as replacement (please see first attachment), then Tanya told us that ab2185 was out of stock and she proposes a credit note for the cost of two vials of ab2185 (please see second attachment). This is a very embarassing situation for, I know you can certainly understand. perhaps the first e-mail was misunderstood by the customer, but the second one is very clear: a credit note for the cost of two vials of ab2185.
I'm asking to keep what you have promised.
I'm looking forward to hear you soon.
Kind regards

ANSWER:

Sorry to hear about the customer disappointment. We will be able help customer as per their expectations.

I think Tanya has offered them a credit note but it is no clear if they will be getting an extra one. Tanya is out of office this week so I left this case for her to deal with. If you could hold the customer until Monday then Tanya will be able to give you an answer soon.

I hope this is OK. Please let me know if you have any further question.

I have answered your proposal a month ago and since I have not heard
from you. Is there any problem?
Best regards.

ANSWER:

My colleague Tanya is currently out of office. She will contact you with more details tomorrow morning, when she returns.

Many thanks for having patience!

Thank you very much for your response.
We accept willingly your proposal and confirm that we would like to
proceed with the outcome that you proposed: a new vial free of charge
from the same batch (1223874), and the free vial from two new batches
(1228032, 1283517) currently in stock. If you can send us only one of
the two new batches, please could you give us the one that gave the best
immune response of the host animal (Recommended dilutions: 25 µl/x
million cells).
Thank you for your collaboration.
Best regards,

ANSWER:

Thank you for response. I will certainly arrange the new vial as soon as possible.

Could you please confirm if you purchased this product directly from Abcam or via a distributor? It would be very useful for me to know the batch number and the date of the purchase.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

I agree with you on that there are some batch-to-batch variations for
polyclonal antibodies depending on the immune response of the host
animals. I also agree with you that it is necessary to use the
recommended cell numbers indicated on the product datasheet which is
regularly updated. However, in my previous mail and again here, I wanted
to precise that we cannot accept to buy the antibody (ab2185, lot
GR-70784-1), less efficient than the previous one (ab2185, lot
GR-42498-2) for the same price (€ 400). In other words, with the ab2185,
lot GR-42498-2, following the recommended cell numbers, we have used 25
µl/15 million cells (1.6 µl/million cells). Having a total volume of
antibody of 100 µl, we were able to perform 62 experimental points,
therefore a cost of € 6.45 for one experiment. With the ab2185, lot
GR-70784-1, following the recommended cell numbers, we will use 25
µl/million cells. This will allowed us to perform only 4 experimental
points, that is € 100 for one experiment.
The price/quality ratio is too different between both antibodies.In
these difficult times from an economic standpoint, we cannot afford to
buy a batch of antibody that allows us to do so a few experiments.
We look forward to your suggestion to solve this problem
Best regards

ANSWER:

Thank you for your response.

This antibody is not batch-tested for ChiP application in our own Lab. Based on specific publications (8 articles have been published so far) listed on the product datasheet, we indicate that ab2185 is suitable for ChIP.

Nevertheless, I fully understand your concern and would like to reassure you that our Abpromise applies to your complaint since you purchased this product within the guarantee period. This means that in the event that a product is not functioning in the applications/species cited on the product data sheet (and the problem has been reported within 6 months of purchase) we will happily offer a credit note/refund to the value of the product purchased.

I can certainly offer you a new vial free of charge from the same batch (1223874) you have tried recently since we have run out of the previous batches completely. I have just checked stock availability and currently we have two new batches in stock (1228032, 1283517), if you wish I could offer the free vial from these or any other antibodies which detect the same target HIF1 alpha.

I hope this would be a satisfactory outcome for you. I look forward to receiving confirmation that you would like to proceed with this enquiry.

To the technical service,
we used with sucess in a previous work (Doublier et al.
BMC Cancer 2012) the antibody anti-HIF-1 alpha ChIP grade
(ab2185, lot GR-42498-2), bought in june 2011. We just
ordered and received another sample (lot GR-70784-1) of
this antibody and encountered the following problem: The
datasheet provided with the antibody bought last june
indicated in Application notes to use 25 microlliters of
ab2185 for 15 millions cells for ChIP assay. The datasheet
provided this time indicated in the same section 25
microliters of ab2185 for one million cells. We wonder if
this could be an error and if not, this sample of antibody
will be sufficient only for few experimental points. Could
you please clarify this point?
Thank you very much for your collaboration.
Best regards.

ANSWER:

Thank you for your enquiry regarding ab2185 - Anti-HIF1 alpha antibody - ChIP Grade.

I can confirm that ab2185 is a polyclonal antibody and not affinity purified; it is whole antiserum. As you may be aware there is usually batch-to-batch variations for polyclonals (vs monoclonals) depending on the immune response of the host animals (rabbit). I would advise you to use the recommended cell numbers indicated on the product datasheet which is regularly updated with the most up-to-date information.

I hope this will be useful for you. Should you still have any question with this antibody, then please do not hesitate to contact our Technical Department again.