BEWARE counterfeit Minelab Dealers and Machines

[Woodland Detectors]

Please Beware of counterfeit Minelab products being sold on the internet and from unauthorized black market manufacturers and dealers. You may see some on ebay for great prices, but they are most likely, counterfeit machines. I am always looking out for YOU the consumer, so please read through.

Only purchase from Minelab authorized dealers Like us, Woodland detector Sales or listed on www.minelab.com

The high demand for quality Minelab gold detectors has seen an increasing number of poor performing counterfeit products being sold via websites and black market dealers around the world. For a purchaser familiar with Minelab products, some counterfeit products have been quite obviously not Minelab products, as seen by one example in Photos A - C ( BELOW)

Unfortunately a lot of people unfamiliar with Minelab products are still being ripped off by these criminals, paying full price for a GPX-4500, 4800's and 5000's, only to get a counterfeit detector. In some cases the criminal counterfeiters have even taken a cheap detector and put its very basic electronics into a counterfeit GPX-4500 housing so that it appears to work to an unfamiliar purchaser. In all cases the performance of the Counterfeit products has ranged from very poor to not working at all.

Counterfeit products now cosmetically difficult to tell from the real thing!

In recent days Minelab has become aware of more counterfeit GPX-4500 detectors and Commander coils, that are cosmetically difficult to distinguish from the real thing, see Photo D - H. These products may cosmetically look like the real thing but definitely do not work like the real product.

Most counterfeit products are being sold over the internet on websites like Alibaba.com and other similar selling and auction websites. Minelab strongly recommends extreme caution when buying from a website of this kind and from unauthorized dealers. These products are often then on sold by unauthorised dealers, including black market and street dealers.


A few examples of current listings for counterfeit Minelab products are listed below:

1. Top Detectors, Nakiye Argon Sok No:23 Daire 3 Osmanbey Sisli, Istanbul, Turkey.
Website: http://www.topdetectors.net

2. JUNHONG ELECTRONIC&TECHNOLOGY(DONGGUAN)CO., LTD., No.18, Xinjiuwei, Liaobu, DongGuan, Guangdong, China.
Tel:+86-769-89161705, 89161706, 89161707, 89161708
Fax:+86-769-88903075
Chinese website: http://www.jhking.net
English website: http://www.chinametaldetector.com
Arabic website: http://www.metaldetectors.ae

3. Hunter Group Dedektor Sistemleri Sanayi ve Dis Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Darulaceze Cad. Demirkaya Apt. No. 17 Kat.1 D.3 Sisli, Istanbul, Turkey.
Phone: 00902122207034
Fax: 00902122207035
Website: http://www.hunter-group.us/ar/index.php
http://mobbawaba.com/adprint.aspx?adnum=12472

4. Alibaba699 Wang Shang Road, Binjiang District, Hangzhou 310052, China
Phone: +86 571-8502-2088
Fax: +86 571-8981-5505
Website: http://www.alibaba.com

Advertising from ‘any’ company claiming to be a manufacturer of Minelab products is definitely counterfeit!

Minelab Products are only Made by Minelab in Australia or by Plexus Corp, USA in their facility in Malaysia.

BUYER BEWARE!! Minelab will not be held responsible for counterfeit Minelab products!

The only way to guarantee you are purchasing a true high quality Minelab product is to make that purchase through an officially authorized Minelab dealer as listed on Minelab.com

Finding an authorized Minelab dealer in your part of the world is very easy. Just go to Minelab.com, click on the “WHERE TO BUY” tab near the top of the CONSUMER page and select your country, state and Zip/Post code. The details of your nearest authorized Minelab dealers will appear.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Upgraded Night Vision Monocular Digital Infrared Monocular Telescope for 100% Darkness with 8X Zoom - Grab it through Amazon!

[crazyjarhead]

Thanks Mike...............and what timing with the Evil of China in Washington right now China is the counterfeit giant of the world and will stop at nothing

 

[Mackaydon]

Good to know; thanks for the info.
Buyer beware--for sure.
Don....

 

[dbsmokey]

Great information, thanks!

 

[JoelB]

It is great that you go to the extent you do to notify us of this. Thank You

 

[KEVTEC]

Mike, I'm curious as to why Minelab doesn't go after these imposters as Rolex did a few years ago. Copyright infringment.

 

[Iron Patch]

Mike, I'm curious as to why Minelab doesn't go after these imposters as Rolex did a few years ago. Copyright infringment.

No watch companies go after them, or at least not like they should. There's probably as many fake watch websites as there is real ones! The difference is if I see someone with a fake detector it doesn't bug me because they are just fooling themself... but if I see someone with a fake watch based on mine it would bug me a little more. Even so, it doesn't seem to hurt because look how many fake Rolexes are out there and it doesn't stop people from buying and wearing the real ones. I really just hate China and all their fake stuff no matter what it is.

 

[Ronfrommichigan]

Thanks for the headsup.

 

[JG]

15 years too late mate.

Back in the ‘90’s I went hook-line and sinker for a Minelab that included extras in gifts that were direct knock-offs of Minelab products. I was under the impression I was getting Minelab accessories (name, description and ML photo), but since I did not ask (who would have thought a dealer would do this?) I got burnt. Guess where they were made? This problem was seeded by a Minelab dealer . There is a reason they cannot sell Tesoros. The knock-offs back then excluded the ML logo that the true accessories had big as day. Who cared? I did.

The problem started here over a decade ago and the Chinese have the resources and skill to make monkeyshines of nearly anything. I will never buy from that outfit again and after finding out Minelabs “who cares” attitude about the dealer slipping me the phonies, I am not particularly empathetic to their plight. Big crock tears here for ML.

Minelab should have addressed the problem when I told them about it and now look at how it has grown. If they had put their foot down the message would have been clear. Now ML has to consider having all their products made in China in a resolution that will once again make them more profitable (some deal, huh?) . China has simply proved they are up to the task and will get the business one way or the other. ML is really at a crossroads but it is their own fault.

 

[Keppy]

15 years too late mate.

Back in the ‘90’s I went hook-line and sinker for a Minelab that included extras in gifts that were direct knock-offs of Minelab products. I was under the impression I was getting Minelab accessories (name, description and ML photo), but since I did not ask (who would have thought a dealer would do this?) I got burnt. Guess where they were made? This problem was seeded by a Minelab dealer who had exclusive internet sales at that time and has overseas resources to make their own brands. There is a reason they cannot sell Tesoros. The knock-offs back then excluded the ML logo that the true accessories had big as day. Who cared? I did.

The problem started here over a decade ago and the Chinese have the resources and skill to make monkeyshines of nearly anything. I will never buy from that Florida outfit again and after finding out Minelabs “who cares” attitude about the dealer slipping me the phonies, I am not particularly empathetic to their plight. Big crock tears here for ML.

Minelab should have addressed the problem when I told them about it and now look at how it has grown. If they had put their foot down the message would have been clear. Now ML has to consider having all their products made in China in a resolution that will once again make them more profitable (some deal, huh?) . China has simply proved they are up to the task and will get the business one way or the other. ML is really at a crossroads but it is their own fault.

Very good information.. Thank you..

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Bump

 

[Daedalus]

I have to say something here, after working as an Engineer for my adult life I found while working with a company that they got the reports of counterfeit products being sold on the market.
As being involved with the search and finding these products we found that it is not very easy to get it stopped. We had people getting angry at the company thinking that we where not doing anything to stop this. Well we were , but could not say anything about the case as we where under court order not to disclose .

When a case like this is against a large importer they bring a lot of money and power to get things stopped in till it can be sorted out. This case alone took 3 years to solve in the courts. all this while they kept on selling the product!
I flew out to one of the site stores and import stations to check this out, and to buy the product to bring back to see what they had done.
We found that they not only copied the machine , they copied it almost perfect, and it would fool almost anyone buying one with ease.

Also the biggest issue we found was where they were coming into the country at. The main place was the Duty free zone in Florida . This was almost impossible to stop . And it cost the company quite a bit of money to get this fixed.

Most people do not know of how this is done or even know about it , and then you get company's that will do anything to make a buck and will knowingly sell a counterfeit product to the public and will not stop in till a court order comes down for them to do so , then you will spend the next few years in court trying to get your money back that was taken from you by these companies and importers. And if the importer is in China then good luck, as if they are making money they will not do much of anything to stop this practice . That is in less it becomes an embarrassment and in the news.

Now I do not know about the case with Minelab , but I would venture a safe guess that they were under the same type of issue that our company was.

The main thing we found that we could do was to put out ad's informing the public about what was going on , and have them help in spreading the word about the products, and we had to do this without disclosing who the company's were that had and were doing this.

Anyway I will get off the soap box, but I just wanted everyone to know a little about what happens when a company comes up against something like this!

 

[JG]

Yepper. Minelab can kiss it goodby.

If it is made well enough there is no concern about any warranty issues, and if it is not, same goes.

GM built a factory in China to make hummers. The Chinese wanted the robotic technology even though they have a billion plus population to employ. GM said no. Then one day a GM Whiteman saw a strangely familiar vehicle and inquired. The Chinese proudly told the man that they had duplicated the factory elsewhere and the new vehicle was their answer to our Hummer.


http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/02/24/us-gm-hummer-idUSTRE61N5XE20100224

 

[Woodland Detectors]

 

[Badger 5]

I have heard about more then one person getting burned by the fake Minelabs, Sad how low some people go. You really have to look at them and buy from a dealer.
If it sounds to get to be true,Look out