Poor Quality Plasmid Prep and No Solution Offered

CMM
University of Arizona
Assistant Professor

Overall

Quality of Results

Ease-of-Optimization

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Company:

Plasmid.com

Service Provided:

Plasmid Prep

I sent the DNA for three plasmids (pcDNA vectors) off to plasmid.com for transformation, amplification and purification (maxi size prep for each). At $99 each it isn't cheap but I needed them quickly and didn't have a kit on hand so thought I would take a chance on this specialized service. I got an email back saying that one of the plasmids only yielded 0.05mg of DNA and the quality based on 260/280 ratio was terrible. They said they tried to grow it and prep it a second time and it still didn't work (but no troubleshooting - that would be an extra 'custom' order). But, they charged me the full amount anyway. When I complained about the charge the rep responded that they do not guarantee results. Very disappointed.

Experimental Design and Results Summary

Downstream Applications

Transfections

Timeline

1 week

Nature of Service

Transformation and purification of plasmids

Technical Service

They did not offer any troubleshooting

Delivery

They weren't able to deliver and made no effort to troubleshoot but charged me the full amount of money

Results Summary

Being charged when they were not able to deliver on a simple plasmid prep is disappointing.

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Summary

The Good

I like the idea of specialized services like this and want to support these small companies.

The Bad

Poor Service

The Bottom Line

I won't be using Plasmid.com in the future.

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