Again, it is the Minelab Repair Center or Authorized Repair Center East, also known as "ASC East' physically located at Kellyco.
Minelab sales are not be driven down, in fact Minelab's 2016 sales was up 35% over 2015 as shown below.
Straight from Codan's annual report for 2016.
"Minelab revenue increased 35% to $99.2 million and segment contribution increased 55% to $29.8 million." http://codan.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/27-2016-Codan-Annual-Report-23.09.2016.pdf
Minelab still makes the best detectors on the market.
Repair center works on non-supported ML detectors the other centers would no longer work on, a major advantage to owners of the older detectors.
Repair center has to wait on parts at times so that adds to the back log as many times spare parts are unavailable in the states.
Owners could also help reduce the back log as reported by my contacts at the repair center,
1. Stop using non waterproof detectors in the water, sooner or later your going to trip, drop it or get hit by a wave.
2. If your going to hunt wet salt beaches use an environmental cover, there is salt in the air that will get inside the detectors through the speaker openings and through the switches and start corroding your pcb and switches..
3. Stop sending in "everything but the kitchen sink" when you send in your detector. Repair center reports many owners send in everything that came with their detector, paying extra shipping for accessories they don't need to send. You don't need to send them the shafts to excals, xterras, sovereigns. If you have an issue call and find out what you need to send in. Example, If your screen on your 3030 is bad you don't need to send in the entire detector, just the upper handle that holds the screen. Put it in a smaller box when you ship it, don't ship the original box. They have to inventory every item sent in with every detector, that takes a lot of time.
4. Today's detectors are not like yesterdays detectors, they are basically computers that detect, don't treat it like it is a shovel and just throw it in the back of the truck, treat it like a computer. Dave says they get detectors that like they have been thrown around and dragged behind a truck through the mud.
5. Clean your detectors, especially the water detectors. On excals put them in the shower and let the hot water wash off the salt residue, spay the cables with silicone spray like McNitt Silicone spray regularly, it is an UV inhibitor and will help protect the cables. On 3030s clean them, disconnect the coil cable and remove the lower shaft and wash the upper and lower shaft out to remove the salt and especially the sand, it is a carbon fiber shaft, sand will sand the shaft down over time causing it to slip even with new pressure blocks. When installing coils on 3030, look for the connector key, it belongs at the top, if it is anywhere else your going to bend and break a pin in the connector.
6. On excals don't mount them on waist belts or chest mounts, it causes shorts in the cables over time and since you cant replace the cables that means your buying a new coil and or headphones and paying labor to have them mounted.
7. Get a tracking number when you ship and save it, use it to track when your detector was delivered, every time someone calls to ask them if they received your detector they have to go search for it which takes time, may not seem like much to some people but multiply 10 to 15 mins x 10-15 times a day and they are spending hours checking what could be found by just checking your tracking number.
8. Dave in the repair center says they constantly get detectors in with no notes in the box, no names, phone numbers or description of the problems.
