My Minelab experiance....

[Southernstyle]

I have mixed feeling about my last two Excalibur II's. One is 1 year and 2 months old and the coil started to separate causing the unit to lose depth. My newest one, which is 2 months old has numerous problems aside from the normal things we don't like about the Excals(headphones, knobs and design of shaft). My pinpoint/Disc knob still turns and changes from disc to pinpoint, but it feels stripped inside the unit, meaning it does not have a distinct click when changed, and it will continue to turn. My battery after one month of use stopped working, dead cold, will not take or hold a charge.

Now today I go out and when I submerged underwater I realized my headphone shut off, I couldn't hear anything, so when I came up out of water and the water started to drain out of the headphones, it would lightly shock my ear and the headphones would turn back on. So I picked up the phone and called Minelab and told them what was going on with my 2 month old Excall 800. The Operations manager heard me out, sent me a email for UPS to ship my unit back to them (their dime) and as soon as they receive it they will send me out a brand new one. I am VERY pleased with the way this is being handled and wanted to share this unfortunate problem/solution with you guys on the forum.

Here's a little tip for all who buy a new or have just bought a Excal...... C.Y.A. (cover your a$$) and SEND in your Warranty info or register it online with Minelab!

Still a happy Minelab customer,
Chris

 

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[John (Ma)]

It is sad to hear, as I have an older Excal and have had very good success with it and have heard so many different things about the 2's. Even the dealer I deal with said I am better off with my older detector and he promotes Minelab.

 

[flbeachboy]

I have had mine for over a year and have had no problems outside of the knobs stripping. I replaced the shaft for comfort purposes but outside of these two issues it has worked great.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Although yours is 2 months old to you, not sure how old it is in build. Minelab knows they had an early batch of bad excal IIs....I do know this, they are trying very hard to correct problems and care a great deal about customer service. I have talked to them on multiple occasions the last year.....

 

[search and recovery]

Sorry to hear yet another story about excalibur problems. Good to hear service is improving. I was going to buy one, but just could not make myself pull the trigger on the deal because of the quality issues. So I bought the Whites Dual Frequency. So far no issues, and I am impressed with this machine. If the excal ever gets to the point of solving their QC issues, I will buy one happily.

 

[mikeinOC1]

Well this is my experience a bit. I just had two repairs done. One a White's PI pro and the other my older Minelab 1000. Sent both around middle of April. Neither under warranty unfortunately.

Whites out and back within 5 weeks repair cost about $125. One or two calls. Very helpful.

Minelab USA Chicago just got the unit back last week cost over $185. Three or four calls. Sort of like pulling teeth with these guys.
I should say I am on the West coast and White's is up in Oregon but still Minelab really need to increase the staffing, quality and turn around time for repair service.

Whites customer service superior to Minelab as far as I can see forthose of us using older units of these manufacturers.

Have also had repair service by First Texas/Fisher on my CZ20/CZ21. Thank good for that old tank. Has kept me going a couple times while the Excalibur pooped out and the PI never seem to satisfy. Experience with Fisher has been something between Whites and Minelab. Maybe a bit more costly, turn around time ok but they did do a nice upgrade for me on coil size upgrade one time at pretty good price and then warranty service repair at no cost a long time after a previous repair had been done. I think Fisher is trying to do better. Not sure about Minelab.

 

[fmrUSMC_0844]

For a detector that is only 2 months old , they better have handled it like that!!

 

[Rockin Chairs Gold]

Bought my Excal II back in March 2011. First time out I find a crack in the left front mounting wing on the control housing. I called Minelab, they Emailed me a UPS shipping tag. Shipped the next day asking them to return the unit as soon as possible as we had a trip planned for water hunting in three weeks. Got a call two days latter saying they had received it, and they would be shipping me a new unit the following Monday. Received it on Thursday, and as they promissed it was a brand new unit in a sealed box.

Where I really made out here is they told me to ship only the control housing, loop, and headphones. So I now have spare parts including a spare battery pack and battery charger. Was not happy about such a quick problem, but couldn't be happier about the quick and carring service. Rick

 

[Les West Central Fl]

The only time I had a problem with Minelab was before they had the Las Vegas shop. I had to send it to Western Treasures in AZ. This was just after they took the buisness away from Gary Storm. 6 months later I got it back and they had put a used coil with a short cord. I had to send it back again.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Well this is my experience a bit. I just had two repairs done. One a White's PI pro and the other my older Minelab 1000. Sent both around middle of April. Neither under warranty unfortunately.

Whites out and back within 5 weeks repair cost about $125. One or two calls. Very helpful.

Minelab USA Chicago just got the unit back last week cost over $185. Three or four calls. Sort of like pulling teeth with these guys.
I should say I am on the West coast and White's is up in Oregon but still Minelab really need to increase the staffing, quality and turn around time for repair service.

Whites customer service superior to Minelab as far as I can see forthose of us using older units of these manufacturers.

Have also had repair service by First Texas/Fisher on my CZ20/CZ21. Thank good for that old tank. Has kept me going a couple times while the Excalibur pooped out and the PI never seem to satisfy. Experience with Fisher has been something between Whites and Minelab. Maybe a bit more costly, turn around time ok but they did do a nice upgrade for me on coil size upgrade one time at pretty good price and then warranty service repair at no cost a long time after a previous repair had been done. I think Fisher is trying to do better. Not sure about Minelab.

Minelab has one repair facility in North America, Whites has 3...........

 

[birdman]

I sent my used excal in for a new set head phones ,knobs ,decals and seals and it came back in a month with a new battery pack free of charge and also some promotional stuff. The thing is like new.