Does Minelab understand the concept of Customer Service ?

[sniffer]

you also have to remember, the machine he sent in to have fixed was out of warranty.
I also don't believe he gave them enough time to fix it, they said 27 days repair backup
right before christmas. from working with businesses on a regular basis, nothing gets done for about a week before christmas until after Jan 1st. that's just the way it is.
as far as the price to get it fixed, if you have someplace else to fix it, go for it.
any machine you buy, no matter who builds it, will charge you to fix it after the warranty is expired
that is the risk you take when you buy anybody's Metal detector

 

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[Iron Patch]

Well you people are scaring the life out of me.

I thought about trying a new ML but it was just a whim, not something I would take to the bank. Fisher, Bounty Hunter, and Teknetics may be made by the conglomerate First Texas - but the high price for a Minelab machine that requires extra coils and extra frequencies to do the same thing that Fisher does with one..? Isn't that a rather silly idea to begin with? That may be something I'll have to think about a bit more.. Right now the F-75 on steroids sems to be the real powerhouse/vs cost detector with the new GoldBug looking mighty attractive in many ways.

Right now Fisher and Teknetics seem to be up-and-coming and leaders in sales - with Whites at a close third. Fisher seems to have the lead in popularity and depth and cherry-picking. Garrett is a mediocre brand for cherry-picking and discrimination, too heavy, but with a respectably deep all-metal in it's higher-priced group.

It's not necessary to have more than a 3 freq machine, and actually with the right circuitry only one freq is needed anyway. A 7.5" coil on my Garrett Deepseeker back in the mid-70's got the best depth in the worst soil in All-metal - and it only had a single freq with a puny 7.5" coil. The Fisher 400 and 500 series were a close match. And that was 35 years ago! They Garretts aren't a whole lot better now, but the Fishers are.

When Minelab decides to make a detector that has no more than 3 freqs to run and weighs less, and does so with a flip switch like the 80's Compasses did (52 Khz or 17.77 Khz) with really decent depth and tiny nugget-hunting capabilities - plus good relic and salt/black sand beach hunting capabilities - I'll buy one. But right now I'm having some serious thoughts about whether the current ones are worth the $$, and whether I want to deal with a company that might really P-x-x-S me off because of poor customer service.

Time to put my thinking cap on. And have a good cup of this Arabian/French roast coffee

There is 3.5 feet of snow outside so no metal detecting today.

LL

I really don't see how you can compare with freq. or anything else. All detectors react different and it's up to the user if it works for them. I prefer an Explorer because the disc. works very well at knocking out, and not fooling me on small iron. I couldn't care less if there's 100 freq. or a hamster running in a wheel to make it go. The bottom line is it works.

It's not possible to talk comparisons of high end detectors and high end users on paper. Basics, yes, and we all agree on those, so detector debates are really only beneficial to the new users.

 

[sniffer]

amen, Iron patch

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

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.

Cobra I am not trying to come down on you, and I am truly sorry for your trouble, but I also believe a lot of your anger is simply frustration because you became impatient to soon and your frustration snowballed from there..

You say Minelab got your detector on Nov 30 and 9 working days after they received it you started calling checking on the status, you found out then that the repair time is running 27 days and that is frustrating....You called again last week to check on it, which is still less then the repair time you were told (Monday Jan 11, 2010 would be 27 working days), no one was in that could help you and they were suppose to call you back and didn't. ....It happens, and you got more frustrated. (Do you know how many times I was suppose to be called and advise about something Dr test results, car repairs and never was called)

On the warranty, okay it is not a car it is electronic, then try getting a computer that you bought 3 years ago repaired for free after it is out of warranty.....Only way you will is if a friend built it for you....

How many calls do you need to make...... I count 4 calls made, the first one was only 9 working days after they received it and at that time you were told repair time is 27 days. One call last week when you were not able to reach anyone that was in the repair (lunch time?) and they were suppose to return you call and didn't. Last week when Minelab was transferring you to the repair department and the line went dead. (I would have called right back then if it had been me.) You called yesterday again at lunch time...It appears your calling during lunch time which means it is very hard to reach repair. I would suggest not to call around lunch and instead call about 2pm PST.

I don't buy many new detectors, but that is only because of the depreciation and is my personal choice, I can buy a good used detector for $600, and sell it 2 or 3 years later for close to what I paid for it, so I let the original buyer take the deprecation loss. Nothing was meant against you for buying new, but your warranty had expired.

I bet you will find 20 happy Minelab customers for every one that isn't. I know lots of hunters that love their Minelabs, and I only know a couple that didn't like them and sold theirs.

I have no problem with the weight of any of my Minelabs, I use a shoulder harness on all my detectors. I get great depth out of my Sovereign GTs and Excalibur's, they may get less depth in the Northwest due to soil conditions i don't know.

I have sent my detectors twice to Minelab repair in 2009 and was very happy with customer service on both accounts, but I also called them, found out the "time to repair", and I did not call them back till the repair time was almost due. I paid what they told me it would cost to repair my detector and I had no complaints......I also was told on one occasion they would return a call and when they didn't I called them back, no big deal, companies get busy, techs get busy, especially when they are busy repairing equipment.

If someone doesn't like Minelab's multifreq detectors, Minelab makes good single freg detectors if you wish to use them, the E-Trac has great user reviews.

Cobra, I am sorry for your bad experience, and I hope what ever you decide you are happy with it. I think you got frustrated because of the time it took to repair, and that it was going to cost you to have it repaired, it sucks to have to pay to have something fixed, but fact is it was out of Warranty, 10 hours, 100 hours or 1000 hours it was still out of warranty....

Minelab makes great detectors, I am primarily a beach hunter but I do some land hunting, I love the Minelabs I use, they work fantastic.......

 

[Iron Patch]

That all being considered, there is ABSOLUTELY no need for multi-frequency detectors, nor heavy ones, nor a wide variety of coils for them, regardless of who is operating the metal detector.

So multi freq is just for the hype? I find that rather hard to believe it does nothing more than just being a selling point.

It's true you don't need all of the above, but unfortunately those are the detectors that perform better and the ones that most of us use. If none of it mattered don't ya think someone would build a super light unit that did it all to steal most of the market share? Maybe I'm missing your point but don't see how because I can't disagree more with what I quoted.

PS... So why would you use more than 30 detectors? Doesn't that tend to contradict what you just said? (or do you own them but don't use em?)

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Well, here is the bottom line again.

That all being considered, there is ABSOLUTELY no need for multi-frequency detectors, nor heavy ones, nor a wide variety of coils for them, regardless of who is operating the metal detector. Garrett could update it's 1980's technology too, but they cater to a less mineralized soil clientel overall and have no need to spend the $$ on new engineering. This is no military secret either. Minelab wants you to think that you need the toys, and that's part of why they charge so much money for their "systems", because people then think they really have something extrordinary, which they do not.

If a company has bad customer service and I am aware of it, I want no part of it, and that is a fact.

I hope this clears up any misunderstandings I may have projected.

Oops! Gotta run. Chicken's done.

LL

larry saying "Well, here is the bottom line again.........there is ABSOLUTELY no need for multi-frequency detectors, nor heavy ones, nor a wide variety of coils for them, regardless of who is operating the metal detector"...................... This is still your own personal opinion.....

So you are saying the extra frequencies from Minelabs BBS or FBS technology does not provide any additional information over a single frequency?

There are many Minelab owners who would disagree with you on this......

 

[godisnum1]

After reading through this thread, as well as watching Minelab take exactly a month to repair and send back a detector to the guy whom I'll be buying his Explorer XS from... as well as being kinda sketchy over the phone and responding... I can't say they have the best customer service ever. Even so, after reading up some on Minelab's and corresponding with some people over in Australia who use them on a daily basis, they seem to be great machines!!! And as far as I've been able to tell by the finds produced by Minelab users, the electronics & (multi)frequencies seem to play a huge part in their success. I can't say from experience (yet), but I do believe that Minelab makes high caliber machines, regardless if the company itself have sold-out. I still think you should use what works for you. If it's a Minelab machine, then great... if not, and it still works great for you, then keep on swinging it!!

Bran <><

 

[Iron Patch]

After reading through this thread, as well as watching Minelab take exactly a month to repair and send back a detector to the guy whom I'll be buying his Explorer XS from... as well as being kinda sketchy over the phone and responding... I can't say they have the best customer service ever. Even so, after reading up some on Minelab's and corresponding with some people over in Australia who use them on a daily basis, they seem to be great machines!!! And as far as I've been able to tell by the finds produced by Minelab users, the electronics & (multi)frequencies seem to play a huge part in their success. I can't say from experience (yet), but I do believe that Minelab makes high caliber machines, regardless if the company itself have sold-out. I still think you should use what works for you. If it's a Minelab machine, then great... if not, and it still works great for you, then keep on swinging it!!

Bran <><

To me, what counts most is my finds at the end of the day and I'll use the tool that works best (even if the customer service sucks). The Minelab service center would have to be pretty bad (to the average customer) to be as bad as the explorer is good, which is why I haven't changed my detector of choice in about 9 years, and may never switch.

 

[godisnum1]

To me, what counts most is my finds at the end of the day and I'll use the tool that works best (even if the customer service sucks). The Minelab service center would have to be pretty bad (to teh average customer) to be as bad as the explorer is good, which is why I haven't changed my detector of choice in about 9 years, and may never switch.

I agree... the performance & the positives definitely out-weigh the negatives when it comes to these machines.

Bran <><

 

[cobra_jet]

Right up until the machine broke, I really enjoyed using it. After learning it, I could easily find things that my friends would miss. The machine was a great machine there is no question about that.

I was never angry about this situation at all. Mostly I was and am irritated. When I heard Trina tell my distributor on his answering machine that he needed his "cut of the money for the repair" I pretty much decided that was it for me and Minelab.

Anyway, it doesn't matter. When and if the machine comes back it's going up for sale and I'm getting out of this hobby.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Right up until the machine broke, I really enjoyed using it. After learning it, I could easily find things that my friends would miss. The machine was a great machine there is no question about that.

I was never angry about this situation at all. Mostly I was and am irritated. When I heard Trina tell my distributor on his answering machine that he needed his "cut of the money for the repair" I pretty much decided that was it for me and Minelab.

Anyway, it doesn't matter. When and if the machine comes back it's going up for sale and I'm getting out of this hobby.

I don't understand how your dealer got involved with the repair unless he said hecould get it fixed through his store. I perfer to buy used, I am able to get close to, if not all my money out of a detector when I resell it and it does not take long for a detector to pay for itself.

Sorry to hear your giving up the hobby..........

 

[chirper97]

This thread is re-defining 'pithy'.

Good posts; food for thought.

 

[chirper97]

Cobra_jet posted

"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."

This is a far different reality than the posts reporting the copacetic 'wonderful and responsive' repair policies.
See http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,256840.0.html

Minelab is on my 'do not buy new' list.

 

[sniffer]

Chirper, no offense, but you need to read the whole post.

 

[chirper97]

Chirper, no offense, but you need to read the whole post.

No offense taken. Yes I've read the entire thread, and consider it a good one.

 

[sniffer]

sorry, I just thought you missed the part, when he sent it in right before christmas

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Cobra_jet posted

"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."

This is a far different reality than the posts reporting the copacetic 'wonderful and responsive' repair policies.
See http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,256840.0.html

Minelab is on my 'do not buy new' list.

I dealt with Minelab repair twice between June and October of 2009, very positive experiences, (1st repair was 2 weeks, 2ND was 3 weeks) I know of other hunters who have also dealt with Minelab repairs with positive experience. The primary complaint always seems to be the time it takes to get repairs done and back to them, but people don't take into consideration the repair times vary depending on the time of the year.

In the middle of the summer turn around was under 3 weeks, why is that, it is because no one sends a detector in for minor repairs in the spring and summer unless they absolutely have to because as long as it is working they will keep hunting with it. I myself hunted with only one ear of my headset working for a long time, why, because if I did, I had no back up detector if something happened. Once the ground freezes, snow starts flying people start thinking about getting repairs needed done, then the repair time goes up.

As stated before he was advised repair time was 27 days, that would have been this coming Monday January 11Th, and that is based on Minelab only taking off Dec 24-25, Dec 31 and New Years day. Many business shut down longer then that for the holidays.......

Minelabs customer service is no better or worse then any others. I had to send my Whites Beach Hunter ID in twice for leaking while under warranty. I had to pay the shipping both times even though the unit was under warranty. Whites came out and admitted they had defectives gaskets, but they never offered to refund my shipping charges on my BHID. Tesoro Tiger Shark and Sand Shark owners who sent theirs in for repairs are still waiting on their units to be repaired. Cotton I believed said Tesoro has had his Tiger Shark for almost 9 months.... Tesoro has a lifetime warranty and that is great, but it is only good to the original owner as stated by Tesoro...

Bottom line is Minelab detectors rock, customer service is no better or worse then any others. When i am in the water hunting I don't give a second thought to another hunter entering the water near me unless I see he has a Minelab Excal, then I think darn, there goes some of my finds................

 

[sniffer]

I figure just in shipping it to them and them shipping it back, you lose 8 days.
that still doesn't include diagnostic time, parts acquisition, installation, testing and repackaging

 

[Keppy]

Yes TH and Iron...

The Minelab multiple-freq metal detectors DO NOT achieve any more depth, success, or advantage over those with 1, 2, or 3 freqs, otherwise the Fisher F-75's, Nautilus's, and Garrett 2500's, 1200's, Nexus, GoldMaxes, T-2's, my super-Compass that I boosted the power in, my old Garrett Deepseeker with it's single freq, etc would not be able to keep up with (or out-do) them.

Minelabs with so many freqs riding piggy-back and later converted to useable and transformables do so for reasons of selling points, (mostly) because otherwise they would have a superior detector running one or two freqs, and they do not. In fact there are federal regulations as to how much power a metal detector is allowed. This is why in nearly every case save for a bit of well-engineered circuit design there is seldom more than 1" difference depth between a $500 metal detector and a $1,500 one, single freq, or 128 freq. I know, I have tested them side-by-side and there really is little to zero difference.

In an even more simple way of putting it; "Why build something with multiple or many multiple frequencies and many, many different coils when we can see already that an 11" DD coil running in 1, 2, or even sometimes 3 freqs is not just keeping up with larger and smaller coils and multiple frequencies, it is also outdoing most of them". And a small coil for nugget hunting should take care of the really small stuff too. Right now, the 11" DD is the azimuth of searcoils, bar none, finding very tiny stuff to very large stuff, quite easily. And it's because it took nearly 100 years of experimentation to get this far. It's called "progress".

That's why we don't really need so much extra weight and extra junk to haul around with us. Look at the Tesoro Tejon with it's simple operation and how deep it goes in mild to medium soils, isn't there some sort of explanation for it? And isn't it lightweight too? It certanly whipped my Sov and the various Explorers I put it up against, and in all different soils. Yes, the difference wasn't but an inch or so, but why bother with many freqs when they aren't needed? It just isn't logical at all. And how about the F-75 and T-2, they don't need a bunch of different frequencies or coils to operate well. And how about the Nauties, simple, yet effective? Why should they be able to walk all over most everything out there for all-out depth? Sure, one inch is about all they get extra (at best) but that's not the issue here, it's about whether or not we need a lot of frequencies or not.

A proponent of Minelab would have some sort of way to try to explain his or her way around that question - but the truth always speaks for itself.

In a short while we won't even need all this hardware anyway, we will be using nano-human-tissue technology with the operation of metal detecting incorporated within out own human flesh. Even now we (science) have developed mental control over certain mechanical operations, and we don't have to touch a thing to do some tasks, we merely "think" to do them.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/11/001116080512.htm

Question: Why do you think that metal detectors have changed very little in the last few years? Is it because something is about to change? Or is it because of money? I think we all know the answer.

LL

><><><>< SO RIGHT YOU ARE...

 

[Iron Patch]

Yes TH and Iron...

The Minelab multiple-freq metal detectors DO NOT achieve any more depth, success, or advantage over those with 1, 2, or 3 freqs, otherwise the Fisher F-75's, Nautilus's, and Garrett 2500's, 1200's, Nexus, GoldMaxes, T-2's, my super-Compass that I boosted the power in, my old Garrett Deepseeker with it's single freq, etc would not be able to keep up with (or out-do) them.

Minelabs with so many freqs riding piggy-back and later converted to useable and transformables do so for reasons of selling points, (mostly) because otherwise they would have a superior detector running one or two freqs, and they do not. In fact there are federal regulations as to how much power a metal detector is allowed. This is why in nearly every case save for a bit of well-engineered circuit design there is seldom more than 1" difference depth between a $500 metal detector and a $1,500 one, single freq, or 128 freq. I know, I have tested them side-by-side and there really is little to zero difference.

In an even more simple way of putting it; "Why build something with multiple or many multiple frequencies and many, many different coils when we can see already that an 11" DD coil running in 1, 2, or even sometimes 3 freqs is not just keeping up with larger and smaller coils and multiple frequencies, it is also outdoing most of them". And a small coil for nugget hunting should take care of the really small stuff too. Right now, the 11" DD is the azimuth of searcoils, bar none, finding very tiny stuff to very large stuff, quite easily. And it's because it took nearly 100 years of experimentation to get this far. It's called "progress".

That's why we don't really need so much extra weight and extra junk to haul around with us. Look at the Tesoro Tejon with it's simple operation and how deep it goes in mild to medium soils, isn't there some sort of explanation for it? And isn't it lightweight too? It certanly whipped my Sov and the various Explorers I put it up against, and in all different soils. Yes, the difference wasn't but an inch or so, but why bother with many freqs when they aren't needed? It just isn't logical at all. And how about the F-75 and T-2, they don't need a bunch of different frequencies or coils to operate well. And how about the Nauties, simple, yet effective? Why should they be able to walk all over most everything out there for all-out depth? Sure, one inch is about all they get extra (at best) but that's not the issue here, it's about whether or not we need a lot of frequencies or not.

A proponent of Minelab would have some sort of way to try to explain his or her way around that question - but the truth always speaks for itself.

In a short while we won't even need all this hardware anyway, we will be using nano-human-tissue technology with the operation of metal detecting incorporated within our own human flesh. Even now we (science) have developed mental control over certain mechanical operations, and we don't have to touch a thing to do some tasks, we merely "think" to do them.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/11/001116080512.htm

Question: Why do you think that metal detectors have changed very little in the last few years? Is it because something is about to change? Or is it because of money? I think we all know the answer.

LL

I think you're lost in tech. know how if you think an Explorer offers nothing over a GTI 1500 because I have used them both and there is obvious differences. The Explorer is DEFINITELY deeper, has better tone ID at depth, a better modulated audio to determine depth, better coverage, better deals with salt and mineralization, over all better iron disc., sees targets on edge better, is more sensitive to small targets, and sees through iron better to pick out non ferrous items. Those are the only two detectors I have ever used so will be the only two I will comment on, but I guarantee it to be the case. (and will gladly bet 10k and a plane ticket home if anyone wants to fly in and take the wager )