Updated 6/29: Minelab USA Service Experience, Completed

randy said:

How is this at all relevant to the story? No one cares here about _your_ ethics or your business, but Minelab machine owners do care about the experience others are having with getting their Minelab machines repaired.

And who cares if he is working out of is basement or a large modern facility? All we care about is if the machines are fixed or not, and what the process is.

And what actual evidence do you have that "at best he has some kid in the neighborhood making $10 / hour a couple days a week".?

Some people actually do have pride. And why are you so negative? We know, because you are a garden variety forum troll. We are not discussing you, we are (at least me), ignoring you going forward. You are uninteresting.

Good luck, and I hope you actually find stuff with your metal detector.

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Savage


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randy said:

How is this at all relevant to the story? No one cares here about _your_ ethics or your business, but Minelab machine owners do care about the experience others are having with getting their Minelab machines repaired.

And who cares if he is working out of is basement or a large modern facility? All we care about is if the machines are fixed or not, and what the process is.

And what actual evidence do you have that "at best he has some kid in the neighborhood making $10 / hour a couple days a week".?

Some people actually do have pride. And why are you so negative? We know, because you are a garden variety forum troll. We are not discussing you, we are (at least me), ignoring you going forward. You are uninteresting.

Good luck, and I hope you actually find stuff with your metal detector.

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How is it relevant? I just told you how small one man operations like that operate, and the possible reason for the OP'ers repair delay!

My impression was the OP was not thrilled by his repair experience.

Who cares if he's working in his chicken coop? As I've stated, there are a lot of potential pitfalls when someone is working out of their garage at home. Having had experience importing/exporting and arranging dealers to do repairs, I've seen a lot of the negative aspects of one man operations trying to do it all.

What evidence do I have? None. But do you think he's paying someone top $ with benefits working out of his garage? One person previously stated this was an excluding repair facility. With my business experience I felt that was highly unlikely, so I checked into it. And as usual, I was correct. It's basically a dealer/importer handling repairs also. Also, when I asked the owner if he also owned the repair facility, he was very hesitant, I could tell he did not want people to really know he owned it also. He kept saying "its a separate company"

Pride won't pay the bills. Having dealt with customers they have no loyalty. It's all strictly business, it's not a touchy feely emotional thing. Why am I negative? I say I'm correct. The one poster said all the place does is repairs, implying my intuition was wrong. Well, upon further research, I was right!

Give you an example of the pitfalls of a one man operations. We had a company and was using a credit card processor with great software. Turns out it was a one man operation. He got sick, could not update the software. Caused us a lot of problems.

One man operations tend to cut corners always trying to save a $ because the $ is coming out of his pocket. Bigger companies, are usually more liberal in their policies, and not "squeezing" the consumer as much.

And as I have stated before, contacting the manufacture will usually get the dealers butt in gear. Was just trying to help the OP get his product repaired quicker.

About 8 years ago it would have taken months for a repair, and that was when KellyCo did the repairs.

Little history on the repair center..
2017.....Keith of Fort Bedford detectors stepped up and took on the job. A Minelab rep came into town and approved the new repair center once it was built. Keith turned things around for Minelab USA repairs, from Months to weeks.
I would imagine right now they are fairly backed up for it being the busiest time of year and I was told some time back they were having backorders on supplies, not sure about now. And I do know he likes to keep the two businesses separate, at one time he had 3 employees and himself..

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009050094833

OBN said:

About 8 years ago it would have taken months for a repair, and that was when KellyCo did the repairs.

Little history on the repair center..
2017.....Keith of Fort Bedford detectors stepped up and took on the job. A Minelab rep came into town and approved the new repair center once it was built. Keith turned things around for Minelab USA repairs, from Months to weeks.
I would imagine right now they are fairly backed up for it being the busiest time of year and I was told some time back they were having backorders on supplies, not sure about now. And I do know he likes to keep the two businesses separate, at one time he had 3 employees and himself..

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009050094833

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Just how I remember it OBN!

OBN said:

About 8 years ago it would have taken months for a repair, and that was when KellyCo did the repairs.

Little history on the repair center..
2017.....Keith of Fort Bedford detectors stepped up and took on the job. A Minelab rep came into town and approved the new repair center once it was built. Keith turned things around for Minelab USA repairs, from Months to weeks.
I would imagine right now they are fairly backed up for it being the busiest time of year and I was told some time back they were having backorders on supplies, not sure about now. And I do know he likes to keep the two businesses separate, at one time he had 3 employees and himself..

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009050094833

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Once again the "CENTER" is out in the country, basically in his back yard. I mean if my kid buys the lot next to me in the country.. did my child really move away from home?

I just don't think there are enough minelabs being repaired in the USA to cover the operating expense of a building, the owner, plus 3 full time employees. Even if their service rate is $85/hour. This is why everything has turned into a replace it when it breaks. Cost of repairing items is just to expensive, cheaper just to replace. You can tell by the flow of traffic on the message board, this isn't a huge hobby. And the majority of detectors sold, people buy them, use them a few times, and turn them into ornaments in their closet.

I'm not bashing this guy, this is just the reality of todays consumer market.

I hope AirmetTango gets a satisfactory outcome with his Nox diagnosis and repair soon.

I have had nothing but positive experiences with Keith and Minelab USA Repair since he took over even when parts were hard to come by.

I also wish people would stop just completely making things up and expressing unfounded opinions based on zero experience with Minelab USA Repair. As AirmetTango has said in this thread already......none of that stuff is helpful. Neither is trying to contact Minelab's Corporate Office. I have tried that and it wasn't pretty.

jmaclen said:

I hope AirmetTango gets a satisfactory outcome with his Nox diagnosis and repair soon.

I have had nothing but positive experiences with Keith and Minelab USA Repair since he took over even when parts were hard to come by.

I also wish people would stop just completely making things up and expressing unfounded opinions based on zero experience with Minelab USA Repair. As AirmetTango has said in this thread already......none of that stuff is helpful. Neither is trying to contact Minelab's Corporate Office. I have tried that and it wasn't pretty.

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ManInTheWaLL said:

Once again the "CENTER" is out in the country, basically in his back yard. I mean if my kid buys the lot next to me in the country.. did my child really move away from home?

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I don't understand what point you keep trying to make in regards to the location of his building or business? He's obviously made a sizeable investment into his operation. I've operated an e-commerce business out of my home since 2011. I have about 1000 sq ft of basement that houses the entire operation. Do you realize how much less it costs having the business at the same location as your home? Obviously you do not. I'm already paying for the space, utilities, taxes and everything else that goes with owning/renting a structure. I'm already paying to heat and cool it too. If I tried to go into "town" and rent/buy a place it would never work. You are making a LOT of assumptions about this business and how it is actually operated when in reality you don't have a clue.

Diabolik said:

I don't understand what point you keep trying to make in regards to the location of his building or business? He's obviously made a sizeable investment into his operation. I've operated an e-commerce business out of my home since 2011. I have about 1000 sq ft of basement that houses the entire operation. Do you realize how much less it costs having the business at the same location as your home? Obviously you do not. I'm already paying for the space, utilities, taxes and everything else that goes with owning/renting a structure. I'm already paying to heat and cool it too. If I tried to go into "town" and rent/buy a place it would never work. You are making a LOT of assumptions about this business and how it is actually operated when in reality you don't have a clue.

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CallMeGrey stated " Actually, Minelab has a REPAIR center here in the US. It is all they do, so I'm sure they don't hate doing repairs."

Thats not true, didn't think it was based upon my import export experience, and I did research and proved I was right.

I know XP ( I don't think its was this location) really ground their teeth just to send me a replacement bolt out for my XP. The dealer said they are also sticky on requiring proof of purchase when they honor the warranty ( to me thats just another sign of a company looking to wiggle out of warranties)

Location? out in the country like that, you can run into logistics problems. If he's getting containers of products, it can make it hard to get there, especially in the winter. But my main point was, it's not "JUST a repair center". It's a combo house/fort Bedford metal detectors/detector center, and who knows what other businesses he's running from his farm.

Do you want 3 employee in your basement? Do you want customers showing up at your house at 3am? Do you want the UPS driver, or trucker coming into your house to use your toilet?

Apparently the owner thought it's important to make people think it's a big separate company, when I asked him about it, it was obvious he wanted to keep the façade up. He did not even want to admit it was his company, or on the same property at first.

There is nothing wrong with running a business like that if you want to accept some of the things that go alway with it. My whole thing is, a one man operation like this is juggling many different things at once, and the main ball he's probably keeping an eye on is SALES. I support that theory with the fact he answers his Sales line almost all the time, but the repair center 98 percent of the time is. "Leave a message'. He's clearing( snow) the driveway for pickups, deliveries, going to town to get supplies, handling sales, managing the receiving/packaging/shipping and damages of repairs coming to him.

I've made multi millions out of my house/house business. I prioritized what made me the most $ also. Answering the phone for some broke person who wants to waste my time to buy a .50 cent fuse is not the way to make $. I was busy on the phone with the company I made $1,500 off of a product, and made sure his product was getting out the door, and he was happy.

I was simply giving my theory and solution, from years of importing / exporting.

now that we know all about this SERVICE CENTER and trained staff, what about the other companies?

Hey AMT, get that machine back in service so we can see your stories again! (When it cools off)

As an aside, anybody, how do you use that ignore function of which others speak??

teotwawki12 said:

Hey AMT, get that machine back in service so we can see your stories again! (When it cools off)

As an aside, anybody, how do you use that ignore function of which others speak??

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You just ignore a person's post, that's all.

Another problem facing "one man" operations that repair Minelab detectors is a guy not in need of repairs, who doesn't even appear to own a Minelab detector, calling you asking 100 different questions about the structure and operation of your business for no good reason.

No wonder it is taking so long for AirmetTango to get his rig back!

Diabolik said:

Another problem facing "one man" operations that repair Minelab detectors is a guy not in need of repairs, who doesn't even appear to own a Minelab detector, calling you asking 100 different questions about the structure and operation of your business for no good reason.

No wonder it is taking so long for AirmetTango to get his rig back!

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Here is a picture of my detectors. I had one simple question, is this also "Detector Center". He beat around the bush, so I had to ask 10 more questions from him to get the answer. Blame the time wasted on his deceptive nature.

And.. as you can see in the picture, one of my 4 detectors is a CTX-3030, so according to your criteria, that makes it ok for me to call. Personally, if he's open to the public, thats the "cost" of doing business, answering questions about your business.

I just got back in from comparing the CTX with the DEUS 2 on a few hard to detect dimes. In good conditions, the Deus picks up on them faster, with a faster sweep .. you could cover more ground. Under iffy conditions, the Deus won't detect it, but the CTX although it may not give an audible alert, you'll see it on the screen. That screen sure supplies a lot of useful info on the CTX

As you can see, I own the best of the best!

teotwawki12 said:

Hey AMT, get that machine back in service so we can see your stories again! (When it cools off)

As an aside, anybody, how do you use that ignore function of which others speak??

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Yeah, I have read enough of this drivel too.

If you are signed in go to UserCP next to Chat, under Settings and Options click on the last one Edit Ignore List and carefully type in….watch the capital letters by the way…..ManInTheWaLL and click Okay……..Whoopie………..

When I sent mine in I got it back super fast. I doubt the turn around could have been any faster than it was. It was right after the U.S. service center opened though. I might have been 1st in the queue.

I have two 800's no issues with highly fluctuating I.D.'s or up averaging. The reason for my second unit is strictly to avoid having to be without a Nox if one does need to be repaired.

It pays to have a backup detector.
In this day and age, you never know how long a repair will take with pandemics, interruptions in the manufacturing of parts and shipping problems.

jmaclen said:

Yeah, I have read enough of this drivel too.

If you are signed in go to UserCP next to Chat, under Settings and Options click on the last one Edit Ignore List and carefully type in….watch the capital letters by the way…..ManInTheWaLL and click Okay……..Whoopie………..

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Jeff I did that yesterday. I hope enough members follow suit so that lack of attention and comments will send him packing. Unreal what some people will do. for attention. I quite sure he is living in a fantasy world. Mark

Added to my ignore list

Steve

ManInTheWaLL said:

Here is a picture of my detectors. I had one simple question, is this also "Detector Center". He beat around the bush, so I had to ask 10 more questions from him to get the answer. Blame the time wasted on his deceptive nature.

And.. as you can see in the picture, one of my 4 detectors is a CTX-3030, so according to your criteria, that makes it ok for me to call. Personally, if he's open to the public, thats the "cost" of doing business, answering questions about your business.

I just got back in from comparing the CTX with the DEUS 2 on a few hard to detect dimes. In good conditions, the Deus picks up on them faster, with a faster sweep .. you could cover more ground. Under iffy conditions, the Deus won't detect it, but the CTX although it may not give an audible alert, you'll see it on the screen. That screen sure supplies a lot of useful info on the CTX

As you can see, I own the best of the best!

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I'm surprised since you own the best of the best and with all the millions you've made that your grounds keeper can't keep up with all your dandelions in your yard. I could have one of my people fly back there and put a little weed and feed on that wreck.