Does Minelab understand the concept of Customer Service ?

[cobra_jet]

My Explorer II arrived at Minelab for repairs on Nov. 30th. There was a phone call to my dealer to let him know that the machine had arrived there at Minelab and would be checked over.

Two weeks before Christmas I called Minelab to check on the status of the machine and was told by the lady there that repairs were running 27 days from the time of arrival and they would be in touch soon.

Last week I called Minelab again and was told by a gentleman with a foreign accent that no one was available to take my call and he would take my number and have someone from the repair department call me back. It never happened.

On Monday of this past week, once again, I called Minelab and talked to a lady in the repair department who informed me that the machine was ready pending payment of $285.51. She also informed me that she "thought" she had already contacted me. At this time, she passed me on to a technician who was going to tell me what was wrong with my machine and why the repair bill would be $285.51 then take my credit card payment. Then the phone promptly went dead on their end.

I decided yesterday that I would just go ahead and pay the bill and get the machine back. So once again I called them and once again got the foreign gentleman on the phone who took my name and number ( this would have been around noon PST) and have someone call me. And as I suspected would happen, NO one called.

When I bought my machine from Minelab, I paid almost $1500.00 for the thing. It has less than 100 hours of useage and now I am looking at a repair bill of almost $300.00.

Maybe I'm wrong, but this whole situation speaks extremely poorly of Minelab on all levels. From product quality ( Longevity) to poor customer service skills.

Honestly, I can say that I will never buy another Minelab product again. This whole situation has really soured and saddened me regarding the metal detecting hobby in general.

I guess my next step will be filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in Las Vegas.

I apologize to the community for making this post. However, I sincerely do not want to see anyone else get treated in the manner that i've been treated.

L. Scott Hanes
Midlothian, Va.

 

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[John (Ma)]

Unfortunatly, we have been seeing and hearing more and more stories like this. When I purchase a detector, customer service is one of the priorities in deciding which brand to buy. Sorry to hear about your situation, especially after what you have paid for your detector to boot!

 

[oldbill]

No need to apologize for this is good information and I thank you for the post! As for me I was in the process of ordering a minelab detector when I get back to the states in March but after I have head from others about the poor service and how many minelab detectors are bad out of the box I believe I will not be ordering a Minelab but a fisher F75 as I have received many good reports about them as of late. Thanks again for being truthful! Bill

 

[sniffer]

well, Bill, all I can say is good luck on your Fisher, Teknetics, Bounty Hunter, Titan all made by First Texas

 

[chirper97]

With the very HIGH prices for Minelab products, customer service should likewise be consistently PREMIUM.

I will not purchase Minelab products, and will stick with White's, Garrett, and Fisher.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

My Explorer II arrived at Minelab for repairs on Nov. 30th. There was a phone call to my dealer to let him know that the machine had arrived there at Minelab and would be checked over.

Two weeks before Christmas I called Minelab to check on the status of the machine and was told by the lady there that repairs were running 27 days from the time of arrival and they would be in touch soon.

Last week I called Minelab again and was told by a gentleman with a foreign accent that no one was available to take my call and he would take my number and have someone from the repair department call me back. It never happened.

On Monday of this past week, once again, I called Minelab and talked to a lady in the repair department who informed me that the machine was ready pending payment of $285.51. She also informed me that she "thought" she had already contacted me. At this time, she passed me on to a technician who was going to tell me what was wrong with my machine and why the repair bill would be $285.51 then take my credit card payment. Then the phone promptly went dead on their end.

I decided yesterday that I would just go ahead and pay the bill and get the machine back. So once again I called them and once again got the foreign gentleman on the phone who took my name and number ( this would have been around noon PST) and have someone call me. And as I suspected would happen, NO one called.

When I bought my machine from Minelab, I paid almost $1500.00 for the thing. It has less than 100 hours of useage and now I am looking at a repair bill of almost $300.00.

Maybe I'm wrong, but this whole situation speaks extremely poorly of Minelab on all levels. From product quality ( Longevity) to poor customer service skills.

Honestly, I can say that I will never buy another Minelab product again. This whole situation has really soured and saddened me regarding the metal detecting hobby in general.

I guess my next step will be filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in Las Vegas.

I apologize to the community for making this post. However, I sincerely do not want to see anyone else get treated in the manner that i've been treated.

L. Scott Hanes
Midlothian, Va.

You say they showed it arrived on Nov 30, if they are running 27 day average repair time, then the 27 days isn't up till Monday the 11th, Friday would have been day 26. There was the Christmas holidays to contend with.

Your Explorer II may have only 100 hours of use on it (your guess) but it is still over 3 years old. You pay $20,000 for a car, and only drive it for 30 days and the rest of the 36 months it is under warranty you have it in storage, the warranty will still be expired the next time your car breaks down, even though it was only driven for 30 days....

Your call could have been disconnected on the call transfer, the person transferring the call would not have known unless they went back to check, which usually doesn't happen since they are answering other in coming calls. Why didn't you call Minelab back, I would have called them back. I work for a phone company, drop calls is common on some phone systems and drop calls happens often on call transfers.

I have owned 5 Minelabs, (3 Excals and 2 Sovereigns GTs) in the last 3.5 years, only one of them has been to repairs, once for a bad headphone, wire broke, same one was also in for repairs, but that was for a cracked coil, and could have been my fault as I do not use coil cover in the water here in Florida.......

As I said on your other post "I know Minelab is short handed as they laid off some people....Heck there are people waiting on repairs on tiger sharks and sand sharks for over 9 months and still waiting...Tesoro having problems getting one part for them.....

Personally, I would not hesitate for a second to buy another Minelab....Then again, I buy used, only one of the Minelabs were bought new, one of the Sovereign GTs...."

Every one of my 4 Minelabs I bought used arrived working perfectly, even though they were a couple years old. Out of the 5 Minelabs I have owned, only one has been to repairs, it was there twice, once for broken headphone wire and once for cracked coil, which could have been my fault.......Both times the turn around was under 30 days door to door, there and back. That speaks pretty good on the quality of workmanship and customer service. The only other detector I have had to send in for repairs was my Whites Beach Hunter ID, I sent it in twice under warranty for repairs because it leaked twice.

 

[chirper97]

Nice post Treasure_Hunter.

It's always good to see diverse experiences posted!

 

[jeff of pa]

I Would have Definately Called back
They may have thought the Problem was at your End.

and Wondering if you Thought "Screw It, I'll
Let you's have it before I Pay That"

or that you were going to mail in payment.

I Recently had my Sovereign in & Got impatient
& Thought they had it Longer then they Promised,
& Also thought their Phone Lines & Customer
Service could have been better.
but impatience can do that

As far as the High Bill, it seems
Definately different then Old Minelab
But Since I Don't know what was Wrong,
or their opinion of Why.

perhaps They think You Damaged it,
and your Conversation with them
when you get through, could Clear this up.



GOOD LUCK !
Jeff

 

[XT18000]

GUYS GUYS; lets be fair, it's not Minelab we should be blaming,its
the Co. that bought them out and are calling the shots . There the
ones that cut there staff, there the ones that ran off there best help.
I had my wait for repairs like the rest of you but you really can't
blame the poor guy in the service dept ( THE ONLY ONE ) and as
was ststed in other posts things happen with phones and no one
knows why. Enough all ready.

 

[chirper97]

GUYS GUYS; lets be fair, it's not Minelab we should be blaming,its
the Co. that bought them out and are calling the shots . There the
ones that cut there staff, there the ones that ran off there best help.
I had my wait for repairs like the rest of you but you really can't
blame the poor guy in the service dept ( THE ONLY ONE ) and as
was ststed in other posts things happen with phones and no one
knows why. Enough all ready.

Good Lord,

Your post confirms my concern with Minelab!

Thank you.

 

[oldbill]

You can count on minlab quality falling and customer service not as the old minlab was with Codan now running the show! Codan is just interest in the profit margin.


Adelaide based Codan Limited will expand its operations with a $70.5 million acquisition of a metal detection and electronics business Minelab Electronics.

Codan specialises in remote area communication equipment exporting to more than 150 countries.


The SA based Minelab businesses are expected to deliver up to $10 million of earnings and up to $50 million in revenue in the 07-08 financial year.


Codan CEO Mike Heard said Minelab added the growing global consumer leisure market to the markets Codan already serves.


“There is an exciting opportunity to apply the combined electronics manufacturing skills and requirements of all of the Codan and Minelab businesses to achieve substantial improvements in productivity across the entire enlarged Codan group,” Mr Heard said.


“Significantly, Minelab brings to Codan major technology, market and product diversification which is expected to reduce volatility in Codan group revenue”


The acquisition will be funded entirely from debt and is expected to be earnings per share positive for Codan shareholders.


Minelab is best known for its penetration of international markets with world-leading handheld gold and treasure detectors and landmine detecting technology and equipment.

 

[sniffer]

that sale of minelab was completed March 6th 2008. anything negative since then is all on Codan

 

[John (Ma)]

I saw several detector manaufacturers mentioned above with good customer service. Don't forget Tesoro, they are top notch as well!

 

[chirper97]

link to article re: minelab's acquisition:

http://www.independentweekly.com.au...ral/codan-70m-takeover-of-minelab/419592.aspx

I wonder if Codan hit profit goals for 2007-09?

Addendum: I checked out Codan's corporate rating:

Mediocre.

 

[Iron Patch]

You left out a big part of the story, at least I didn't see if the detector was still under warranty? Being an Explorer II I don't think it could be so not sure why you would expect it to be fixed for free. That said, several years ago I sent my perfectly working explorer in for a new plastic housing and that was it! ...a 5 minute job. I made it very clear what I wanted including a note, but the next contact I received was a bill owing for over $300 for a new circuit board! I seriously lost it on the dude over the phone and I would have fought it the rest of my life before I would have paid a nickel towards a repair I neither asked for or needed. I have absolutely no doubt Minelab screws people either directly, or indirectly from repair center being competent which, as you know, is always behind. I've never sent another detector back again and don't really plan to. I'd rather take a loss and move on than to be scammed by BS repairs. If you send a unit to them you'd better expect to pay for a new board, it just seems to be their way.

 

[cobra_jet]

You say they showed it arrived on Nov 30, if they are running 27 day average repair time, then the 27 days isn't up till Monday the 11th, Friday would have been day 26. There was the Christmas holidays to contend with.
If they were running 27 days behind on repairs, then in my opinion that in itself doesn't speak well for product quality or the speediness of the repair department.

Your Explorer II may have only 100 hours of use on it (your guess) but it is still over 3 years old. You pay $20,000 for a car, and only drive it for 30 days and the rest of the 36 months it is under warranty you have it in storage, the warranty will still be expired the next time your car breaks down, even though it was only driven for 30 days....
Yes, but it's not a car. It's a piece of plastic with circuit boards and capacitors. Having worked in the automotive industry for several years, I have seen similar scenario's happen and seen them handled in manners that were favorable to both the customer and the dealership.


Your call could have been disconnected on the call transfer, the person transferring the call would not have known unless they went back to check, which usually doesn't happen since they are answering other in coming calls. Why didn't you call Minelab back, I would have called them back. I work for a phone company, drop calls is common on some phone systems and drop calls happens often on call transfers.

Yes, the call could have been accidentally disconnected. But what about the calls that were never returned ? How many calls do I need to make ?

I have owned 5 Minelabs, (3 Excals and 2 Sovereigns GTs) in the last 3.5 years, only one of them has been to repairs, once for a bad headphone, wire broke, same one was also in for repairs, but that was for a cracked coil, and could have been my fault as I do not use coil cover in the water here in Florida.......
Your very fortunate to have had nothing but good experiences with Minelab.Hopefully you will be blessed with continual good fortune.

As I said on your other post "I know Minelab is short handed as they laid off some people....Heck there are people waiting on repairs on tiger sharks and sand sharks for over 9 months and still waiting...Tesoro having problems getting one part for them.....

If they have had to lay off people then that's their problem. As a consumer, it should not affect me nor should I be expected to have to make but so many allowances for a their issues.

Personally, I would not hesitate for a second to buy another Minelab....Then again, I buy used, only one of the Minelabs were bought new, one of the Sovereign GTs....
Every one of my 4 Minelabs I bought used arrived working perfectly, even though they were a couple years old. Out of the 5 Minelabs I have owned, only one has been to repairs, it was there twice, once for broken headphone wire and once for cracked coil, which could have been my fault.......Both times the turn around was under 30 days door to door, there and back. That speaks pretty good on the quality of workmanship and customer service. The only other detector I have had to send in for repairs was my Whites Beach Hunter ID, I sent it in twice under warranty for repairs because it leaked twice.

Well, the reason that I purchased a NEW minelab was so that I could use the machine without worrying about buying a used one, not knowing what it had been subjected to, damage that it may have received etc. If I had known it would have turned out like this then I would have just bought a used one from E-bay for half the price.

[/quote]

 

[cobra_jet]

You left out a big part of the story, at least I didn't see if the detector was still under warranty? Being an Explorer II I don't think it could be so not sure why you would expect it to be fixed for free. That said, several years ago I sent my perfectly working explorer in for a new plastic housing and that was it! ...a 5 minute job. I made it very clear what I wanted including a note, but the next contact I received was a bill owing for over $300 for a new circuit board! I seriously lost it on the dude over the phone and I would have fought it the rest of my life before I would have paid a nickel towards a repair I neither asked for or needed. I have absolutely no doubt Minelab screws people either directly, or indirectly from repair center being competent which, as you know, is always behind. I've never sent another detector back again and don't really plan to. I'd rather take a loss and move on than to be scammed by BS repairs. If you send a unit to them you'd better expect to pay for a new board, it just seems to be their way.

Actually, I don't expect anything to be fixed for free. I returned this morning to the dealer who I purchased it from and Minelab told him to charge me $359.15 to replace the circuit boards. He, the dealer, told me that he could not ethically charge me that amount as Minelab was charging him only $259.15

I'm pretty dissapointed in this hobby....don't get me wrong it has been fun but I just can't afford to continue with it. It took me a long time to save the $1500.00 to buy the machine and now to have this happen..like I said, I just can't afford it any more and what if it happens again?

Please accept my humble apologies if i have offended anyone.I'm not trying to come off as a jerk but I just don't feel like Minelab has treated me right on this deal.

My dealer did loan me a Fisher F75 to use until this mess gets straightened out. he is a great guy and I have bought 3 machines from him over the past 20 plus years. And if I should be so blessed, will continue to do so in the future.

 

[John (Ma)]

Not trying to start a brand war, but Tesoro has a lifetime warranty and great service. rather than leaving the hobby, check them out. No I don't have stock with them, but have been very happy with their products and a pinpointer I sent them was fixed and sent back to me in a short time. Top notch and a lifetime warranty if you buy the detector new. Good luck

 

[Iron Patch]

Since when are dealers suppose to make money off repairs? Can't a person send their detector directly to Minelab? Why would a dealer be involved after the warranty, and even hint at making a profit? There is something that is definitely wrong with this picture with two different prices!

 

[sniffer]

I'd like to know why anybody should repair anything for cheap.
question you have to ask. was it broken ? yes. did they fix it ? yes.
pay the bill. if you weren't willing to pay to have it fixed, you shouldn't have sent it in
no company is going to fix something out of warranty and not get paid
have the dealer charge you an extra 100 bucks is nothing short of theft