Great news from Minelab

I received the following email from Minelab:

Minelab Warranty: Transferable from July 1st, 2011

Minelab, an ISO9001 quality accredited company, currently provides a comprehensive three-year warranty for the majority of our products*. In an ongoing effort to improve our services to our valued customers, this warranty will now be transferable for new products purchased from July 1st, 2011 going forward. This means that any remaining warranty period from a product can be transferred to a legitimate subsequent owner within the original country of purchase. For complete details on our warranty, please refer to our full Limited Product Warranty Conditions www.minelab.com/warranty-registration/limited-product-warranty-conditions.
If you have purchased or have a Customer that has purchased a second-hand Minelab detector they are encouraged to register the detector’s details with Minelab Americas. To do so please provide your serial number directly to your regional Minelab office so we are able to transfer any remaining warranty. Our online warranty registration is only able to accept details from the initial purchase


You can view the full announcement by following this link:

[minelabforums.com]

Regards,
The Minelab Forums Team.

Meh - not impressed. I'd prefer they spend that $20K on R&D.

I think it is cool. White's has been doing this warranty transfer forever. Sometimes we buy a unit, and it may be a great machine, but it doesn't spin our propeller. The buyer of a current used Minelab unit will now have peace of mind. I think it's GREAT. Beside's........White's figured out a long time ago, multiple owners have nothing to do with a detectors reliability. So why punish the next owner during the warranty coverage?

i agree and although it IS better than nothing,2 years
passes like "gas"! happens,then it's gone!..just sayin!

Well, I'm impressed!------The only thing I would say is----ABOUT TIME!------I've thought for years that all the detector manufactures should have transferable warranties.

I think Garrett is ISO-9001. To the average detectorist......this may not mean much; however, it is a big thing. This can mean each individual component meets strict tolerance requirements for a MUCH better unit. And.......this is also to say.....the differences..............unit-to-unit are MUCH closer in performance. Longevity, durability, reliability become 'standardized'.

Having a transferrable warranty is good, but individual component tolerance is huge in the age of black market knock off components.
Can't imagine any Mfg not having this.

NASA-Tom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think Garrett is ISO-9001. To the average
> detectorist......this may not mean much; however,
> it is a big thing. This can mean each individual
> component meets strict tolerance requirements for
> a MUCH better unit. And.......this is also to
> say.....the differences..............unit-to-unit
> are MUCH closer in performance. Longevity,
> durability, reliability become 'standardized'.


yes!..this is a "real" possibility.and was overlooked by me!
absolutely!..a better built unit could be possible, with an extended warranty from the factory.
hence,the longer warranty,although not guaranteed WITHOUT "insider" knowledge.,it does
make perfect "sense" from a manufacturer,AND end user perspective.

Yep I got that email too.
Great news.

If Minelab, an ISO9001 quality accredited company now, "DOES THAT MEAN, THEY ARE GOING TO HIRE SOME ISO9001 REPAIR TECHNICIANS TO FIX THERE LOUSY TURN AROUND TIME ON REPAIRS"

"A Bird in the hand, is worth two in the bush"

Good point. Well stated.

Certainly a plus especially for the guys that like to try the latest unit or for that matter will hold its worth if one decides to sell. Took a while but I guess Minelab saw the light that has been shining for Whites products but now to work on service after the sale in Whites fashion as its the next step...Minelab service seemed to slip when they moved and hope they are moving in right direction to improve and lets hope this is a step forward..

Is there any chance this means a new unit is on the horizon? I mean it is about time. Minelab is really losing sales to the Deus in Europe and I wonder if the V3i is impacting its sales much in America.

Small correction Dan, before the move and after ML was bought out, the new owner did some gutting of
good support people.
So the lousy repair was the fault of the new management even while they were out West.
I heard that it is better now but I had a not so positive experience on a repair before the move,
It took about 6 weeks before I got my detector back and I felt at the time they overcharged for the repair.
They replaced a CB in the Xterra 70 that I had.....after I got it back, I decided to sell it off as I didn't want
to deal with their repair service again.
The problem with companies nowadays is they don't listen well to customers and decide they don't need input
from the outside.
They seem to think we are privileged to buy and use their product, where they got that idea is beyond me.
I am not just speaking of ML alone but most companies are like this now, not only in Metal detector business but
other industries as well.

Yet this is a welcome direction for ML but if they don't start listening to their customers, hopefully the other brands
will step up and offer comparable products.

They have always had the strike against them in that they are not a US based manufacturer but because they
have offered very competitive products, folks were/are still willing to buy ML.
Make no mistake either, the reason ML is still in business is because they make very good detectors and have
been doing so since entering the US market....it doesn't matter whether one hates them or loves them.....
they make very good detectors.

Isnt a 3 year warranty an up grade also? Im thinking i only got a year on the SE when they first came out back in 06? That non transferable warranty was the one thing that really bothered me when i bought new.... what if i didnt like the machine? It had to hurt the value on a trade or resale. I was wondering if i should trust their equipment if they didnt. That along with only having one location for repairs was a concern as well. Im at least getting a warm fuzzy from this move that they might be listening.

Dew

I have been thinking about adding another detector... an E-Trac. In shopping around I see the have a 3 year warranty. But several dealers add an aditional 2 years for free.
I wonder if the 2 year additional warranty is transferable?

Every metal detector manufacture that sells product in Europe has to be ISO 9001 certified.
So that means that Garret, Tesoro, Fisher, Teknetics and Whites are also all ISO 9001 certified.

HH
Mike

I think that is wrong Mike, but they need to be EC approved.

Products have to comply to EC regulations.

ISO is no more then an outside source controlling that YOU manufacture YOUR products after YOUR own set standards and quality and the businesses Policy.

It is not a controlling source that controlls that you manufacture your products to their standards. They only control that you do it as you said you would and have that documented in every part of the chain.

Garrett is also using a different and more giving system of manufacture. Toyota system or lean thinking.

And that is the reason why we had the low priced yellow buggers.... Not ISO9001

frnifo,
How do they get the approval for the CE mark which is required for marketing/selling in the European Union?

HH
Mike

@ Mike

Many categories to look into, but we talk about trensmitting electronic device.

I would guess that they will have to comply to regulations as to what metals used ( no lead ) and frequencies in use and to what power.

I remember when the DFX was delayed in europe and ended up with a ferrite on the coil cable close to the housing contact , i think.

ISO is a marketing gimmick, we export to european union too and we had the ISO but threw them out cause we could do the same without the expense of external control of our own control system.

So to me.....

Great news isnt that great. But its great advertising.

Look into customer service policy cause under ISO the customer service policy must be documented.

The ISO in itself just guarantee that they follow their own policy so if it says there to screw Mike if he complains they gotta do it to not lose their ISO.

Letting the warranty run on the product and not the owner isnt new. In many european countries that is the law. In my country the warranty runs for 2 year no matter who owns it and on TV sets it is 5 years . And have been so for many years.

On the other hand , life time warranty isnt allowed. You have to give a spesific date no less then the regulations minimum



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2011 07:46PM by frnifo.

I think it's great even though it wouldn't aply to me I bought my machine 1 month after the E-trac came out. But it wouldn't matter anyway because I would never part with mine!

Mike Hillis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Every metal detector manufacture that sells
> product in Europe has to be ISO 9001 certified.
> So that means that Garret, Tesoro, Fisher,
> Teknetics and Whites are also all ISO 9001
> certified.
>
> HH
> Mike

I believe you may be confusing ISO900x with ROHS compliance, which is something completely different and is required of all electronics in Europe, but I do not believe ISO900x is.