Excal repair update

[erikk]

Here is an update for all who are thinking of sending in your excals for repair. Spoke with them yesterday about the excal that I had sent in and they had received on July 2nd.
Seems that it will take a minimum of 40, yes that is 40 WORKING DAYS before someone will even get around to open the box to see what is wrong and then who knows how long to call, fix the unit and get it in the mail
Now don't get me wrong-the excal is a great machine but in order to hunt like we do down here in FL one machine just will not stand up to constant use and that is why I have 3 of them. It just seems a shame that when you pay over $1000 for a detector that they can't be made to keep running a while or if not get repaired in less than a couple of months.
Garrett, Whites and Fisher can do it in a few weeks-what is wrong with Minelab? I really don't need to hear that crap that they are behind because of the confusion of moving the operation from NV to IL because I sent mine to NV and that is where it is being repaired.
And the BEST PART....when you call you get "Welcome to Minelab where we make the best detectors in the world" They should also add "But they are the most expensive, we can't keep them running and if you need them repaired-GOOD LUCK"

 

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[Bobbie]

I understand the problems Minelab is having, hopefully they will straighten things out soon. But on the other hand, the new Excal II and it's design flaws may be because they no longer want to pay patent rights to original designers of the machine. Once they make changes, the patent owner no longer gets paid because his registered work is no longer used. Big corps have a lot of ideas, but their stupidity sometimes is unbelieveable. "If it ain't broke......don't fix it" apparently big corporation has never heard of that quote!!

 

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[Indasurf]

I understand the problems Minelab is having, hopefully they will straighten things out soon. But on the other hand, the new Excal II and it's design flaws may be because they no longer want to pay patent rights to original designers of the machine. Once they make changes, the patent owner no longer gets paid because his registered work is no longer used. Big corps have a lot of ideas, but their stupidity sometimes is unbelieveable. "If it ain't broke......don't fix it" apparently big corporation has never heard of that quote!!

I don't know about any patent issues, but there definitely seems to be problems with the newer Excal IIs.
Is this due to the recent move to Asia or new ownership? I can't really say, but the reality is this type of thing has happened with many
large corporations once they're sold!

The only way I see it is to find an older Excal and take extra care with it!

 

[erikk]

LOL as of last night Mine was in Jacksonville,fl UPS in Transit to Orlando Hub... Whoopsies...

But, I think they said the truck was heading to the West coast of Fl... you know where Erikk lives....

Forget about the BBT heading to the west coast at least for me. Been on the phone 5 times today trying to get someone who #1 knows anything, #2 will answer the phone #3 return messages
My last conversation with the tech last week (after I threatened to just have them send it back to me) was that they had just got into it and I need some new parts, Would be finished by Monday and out the door by Tuesday, repaired under warranty since they had it so long . Well today is Wednesday & I called trying to find a track # since no one called me. Finally got through to Kathy and she had no clue what was going on except they were GOING TO GET TO IT and it SHOULD SHIP BY END OF WEEK (which one who knows) Asked to speak to tech and she said sure and transferred me and guess what ANOTHER F------ ANSWERING MACHINE for me to leave another message to have some non existent person call me back.
I WOULD LIKE TO START A BUSINESS SELLING ANSWERING MACHINES TO MINELAB
Am I pizzed-U BETTER BELIEVE IT

 

[davest]

weekend is Labor day, three days off for many, the last day of summer for some. Looks like you got the runn around.

Jeez, what happened to our country. It's not only minelab that is doing this stuff, it seems to be every company. Maybe they can't find American to do this type of work?

 

[FloridaBill]

Jeez, what happened to our country. It's not only minelab that is doing this stuff, it seems to be every company. Maybe they can't find American to do this type of work?

Thank you, I have been saying this all along, what the hell happen to customer service and people giving a crap, sure not like the old days......

 

[davest]

let's see. Sell 1,000,000 machines (yeah our hobby is that big), cash all the checks,move manufacturing to China, hire three service techs to handle problems, by pre recorded answering machines from India. Give run around to consumers. Wonder why sales slumped.
Blame techs, fire them.



Now back to detectin. Hopefully this works out before you're too old to walk.

 

[Indasurf]

weekend is Labor day, three days off for many, the last day of summer for some. Looks like you got the runn around.

Jeez, what happened to our country. It's not only minelab that is doing this stuff, it seems to be every company. Maybe they can't find American to do this type of work?

Well.........not every company! Garrett & White's still provide "GREAT" customer service and they're still made in the good ol USA!!!

 

[John (Ma)]

Don't forget Tesoro with great USA service!

 

[Silver Surfer]

Ditto about Whites.... I didnt even have a problem with my Dual PI and simply wanted to know if it had a volume control...... First person that answered (yeah, a REAL person, spoke english and everything) couldnt answer the question, but told me a tech would call me... 15 min later the tech called, and confirmed that there was a volume control in the battery compartment and asked me if there was anything else he could do for me...
Now THATS the way to handle customer care...

Minelab emailed me wanting my number so their tech could walk me through the tones of the Excal.... No, I am not kidding... Emailed back my phone number, and have not heard back from them...
I am still finding nails, fish hooks, and it is even sounding off on small chunks of iron.. Two quarters yesterday were sounding off so broken, that I almost didnt dig them.. All I can do is shake my head.. I would probably be better off just using the Dual PI, since I am having to dig about everything anyway.. I have to wonder what the Excal IS nulling out I do hear the threshold go silent quite often, as it is supposed to do when passed over iron... Maybe that could be gold chains or something..... Or maybe now, it will just null out REALLY big pieces of iron?

 

[erikk]

Ditto about Whites.... I didnt even have a problem with my Dual PI and simply wanted to know if it had a volume control...... First person that answered (yeah, a REAL person, spoke english and everything) couldnt answer the question, but told me a tech would call me... 15 min later the tech called, and confirmed that there was a volume control in the battery compartment and asked me if there was anything else he could do for me...
Now THATS the way to handle customer care...

Minelab emailed me wanting my number so their tech could walk me through the tones of the Excal.... No, I am not kidding... Emailed back my phone number, and have not heard back from them...
I am still finding nails, fish hooks, and it is even sounding off on small chunks of iron.. Two quarters yesterday were sounding off so broken, that I almost didnt dig them.. All I can do is shake my head.. I would probably be better off just using the Dual PI, since I am having to dig about everything anyway.. I have to wonder what the Excal IS nulling out I do hear the threshold go silent quite often, as it is supposed to do when passed over iron... Maybe that could be gold chains or something..... Or maybe now, it will just null out REALLY big pieces of iron?

SS
If you are still digging that crap you know it isn't working properly unless you have it in AM (PP) Try messing with that knob as they may have installed it improperly. Other than that either send it in. send it to that guy Max posted about (Bill Brann) or trash it.
If I don't get any answers by next week I am going to send them a registered letter demanding that they send back my detector -fixed or not and I will send it to Bill and pay him to have it repaired I will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER buy another Minelab product
I will also keep a data base of all these posts and will send them to anyone new who is asking about buying a metal detector

 

[JOE(USA)]

I'm not a Minelab dealer but it still saddens me to see this happening to this product. Minelab apparently is focusing on some business logic from it's top people instead of focusing on it's end users (us). Are they reading these post? Are the complaints made by phone documented and passed to the managers? I don't think they have a "customer service" department, but if they did, it would be swamped with angry calls. I just hope the current problems we are seeing are not an indicator of some CEO's greed to destroy a great company and product for his own personal gain.

Joe

 

[FloridaBill]

[By Erikk quote]I will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER buy another Minelab product[/quote]


And I would say they are losing a good long time customer' and that's not all of them ....