I also posted the below information/opinion on a similar thread in the Metal Detecting Forum. If that's not OK I hope the moderators will sort it out for me. Thanks.
My Lobo repair took about 3 weeks. I called to ask and got the man whose contact details are listed below. He said he would check and called me back with the progress report. He then followed up with an email a few days later. I was satisfied with the service I received and think the charges to replace the battery clips, furnish replacement battery holders and check and calibrate the detector and coil were $50.
Reid Schilling
tesorosupport@hotmail.com
928-771-2646
Tesoro is a small business and probably has a normal repair lead time measured in weeks, not days. They are willing to undertake diagnosis and repair at pretty low labor rates and charge a reasonable amount for component level replacement. They also stock repair parts for their older machines.
For example, on my original Lobo - probably out of production for 15-20 years, I had some dirt under the control panel decal. I asked if they could replace it. They had a new decal for the control panel! The charge for installing it was $25 (this was in addition to the $50 that I mentioned above) - that included providing the new decal and the labor to remove all the knobs and switches, remove the old decal, clean up where dirt had got under it and reinstall everything. Cheap in my opinion.
I notice on other Forums that another leading manufacturer's out of warranty repairs usually involve board replacement at costs in the many hundreds of dollars. The same manufacturer also officially cuts off support of discontinued models at some point. This is a perfectly reasonable business practice and the purpose of running a business is to make a profit. As a customer, I do prefer Tesoro's approach however.
As far as how large the various manufacturers are,
A quick online search shows the following for approximate annual revenue and # of employees:
Tesoro - $4 million - 25 employees
Whites - $20 million - 100-200 employees
Garrett - $27 million - 50-200 employees
First Texas - $73 million - 500 - 1000 employees
Minelab - $90 million - no data on total employees
Minelab USA - $1.8 million (included in the $90 M) - 11- 50 employees.
You guys are not going to believe this. Just got a call from Tesoro. It was not Rusty on the phone. The man said that my Compadre is being tuned to the coil and it should ship out to me on Friday. (Today is Monday) Go figure.
