When Will I Get My Nox? Long Answer And Short One Too

[MontAmmie]

The long answer first.  Disclaimer-I have no personal knowledge whatsoever about the business dealings of MineLab.  The following is just educated guesses, personal observations, and UT Economics 101. If any of this is far off the mark, or pure insanity on my part, then I'm sure Steve will delete it.  I'm just putting it out there to hopefully help others deal with our present situation in an objective way.

As most of you know I've been little peeved at Minelab for the past few days over the whole Cabela's thing.  And then it hit me last night that it's nothing personal with them, it's all about money, supply and demand, and corporate profit.  It seems they are bypassing their dealers and selling most of their Equinoxes through Cabela's, and perhaps even some other big box retailers that I don't know about.  It appears to me that at some point in the roll-out, someone at MineLab realized  that they could have sold the Equinox unit, especially the 800, for far more than the $899 price tag they originally put on it. And maybe, just maybe, with all the hype surrounding the release, they didn't actually need MineLab dealers to sell the Equinox, the marketing department had done its job almost too well. But they had already put the price sticker on the thing, so what to do? 

Enter Cabela's.  Now I have no idea what kind of profit a MineLab dealer would make per unit for an Equinox, but I have a sneaking suspicion it would have to be far more than what a Cabela's would make on one.  Your friendly neighborhood MineLab dealer simply can't compete with a large retailer on volume, but they can sacrifice some of their profit margin to offer special "deals" to their customers. Cabela's is merely providing a selling platform right now, they are not actually incurring the expense of keeping and supplying them in their stores. Maybe a $200-$300 dealer mark-up vs a $100 Cabela's up-charge? Again, I have no idea. I don't imagine that the people at MineLab are losing much sleep over the fact that many die-hard Minelab fans pre-paid for their units months ago either. An extra $200,000 to $300,000 in profit would buy a lot of sleeping pills and they're not the ones having to deal with irate pre-paying customers anyway.  The fact that Cabela's sold out of the 800's within hours on Tuesday is bad news for most of us.  Unfortunately, I look for Minelab to keep directing most of their production volume to the big box retailer, where they keep a lager share of the profit, at least until the US demand for the full-priced Equinox is exhausted. I have a sneaking suspicion that the majority of us who are waiting to get our units from a dealer are going to be waiting quite a while. Not to mention the poor folks in places like BF Egypt who don't even have the Cabela's option (yet). The fact that Cabela's is being forced to charge a hefty sales tax in most US states might help, as well as their refusal to honor the veteran's discount.

Now for the short answer.  When you can log on to your computer, go to Cabela's dot com, and see Equinox 800 units for sale any day of the week, then you can probably look for your Equinox from your dealer to show up on your doorstep. Again, just my humble opinion which is worth exactly the paper it is written on. 

[Wendell Clark]

I believe you have nailed it. As I remember reading, the parent co. of ML is a publicly held corp, shareholders first (as it should be)but ethics are situational at best.

Our dealers are expected to be ethical, trustworthy and helpful, and for the largest part are. The distribution chain has changed.

Me not having my prepaid 800 is not my dealers fault but I will wait it out...oh well, onward through the fog.

[Redneck]

You sound like my wife.    Your husband needs to take you out to the woodshed!

( all in jest, hope you get yours soon!)

[Steve Herschbach]

I posted this on another thread...

“I have no doubt Minelab has a binding contract that was signed with Cabelas long ago before there was any thought of the Equinox release and what might happen in a shortage. The deal probably gives Cabelas access to a certain number of detector’s based on some formula. Whatever the deal was nobody was complaining about it last year ordering any other Minelab models from Cabelas. Then along comes an unanticipated situation and boom, we have an issue. The assumption always is evil intent or maybe at best benign negligence but the real story is usually far more boring.

I remember some powers that were at White’s years ago lamenting a deal that was cut with Kellyco ages ago that was later felt to undercut the main dealer base. Some crazy maneuvering went on over that but I won’t go into details lest I get somebody in hot water. Suffice it to say things are not always what they appear to be.”

[MontAmmie]

7 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I posted this on another thread...

“I have no doubt Minelab has a binding contract that was signed with Cabelas long ago before there was any thought of the Equinox release and what might happen in a shortage. The deal probably gives Cabelas access to a certain number of detector’s based on some formula. Whatever the deal was nobody was complaining about it last year ordering any other Minelab models from Cabelas. Then along comes an unanticipated situation and boom, we have an issue. The assumption always is evil intent or maybe at best benign negligence but the real story is usually far more boring.

I remember some powers that were at White’s years ago lamenting a deal that was cut with Kellyco ages ago that was later felt to undercut the main dealer base. Some crazy maneuvering went on over that but I won’t go into details lest I get somebody in hot water. Suffice it to say things are not always what they appear to be.”

Steve, I truly hope that a contract signed long ago is the reason they are apparently diverting much of the initial Equinox production to Cabela's.  All I can say is that it must be a heck of a deal for Cabela's to get their truckloads first while my dealer has only gotten 3 (that I know of).

[Steve Herschbach]

Direct quote from a friend at Minelab “Just wish we could get detectors to people faster than what is happening right now…”

Nobody is happy over the delays. Minelab is extremely confidant that the number one way to sell more Equinox detectors is for real users to get them as fast as possible so people can report the results, which overall cannot help but be good results. Minelab has an extremely high confidence factor in Multi-IQ.

I promise you as a lifelong businessman there are contracts involved. These are corporations. Nothing happens without a contract.

I hate to come off as a Minelab apologist. Various versions of the company have screwed people over the years. Aussie corporate business practices can be quite ruthless. Mind you I am talking the Corporation as opposed to the people that work there. The people are great - you would love meeting most of them. A collection of nice people acting as a corporation however has a separate life of its own. Having said all that however not everything Minelab does is as bad sometimes as it is made out to be.

Minelab always has had a disconnect with the customer at a basic level. It is not unusual for Minelab owners to love the detector and hate the company. I am not being mean - that’s just a fact. That is why the company will never get the benefit of the doubt since they bring it on themselves. The powers that be would do well to reflect on why that is.

[MontAmmie]

Steve, I understand that a corporation is run for profit.  That's the bottom line and to expect otherwise from any company is pure foolishness.  I don't work for MineLab and I have no idea why they seemingly disregarded all of those pre-paid customers in favor of a big box retailer.  I am quite sure it had some effect on their profit margin in some way, either now or in the future.  You simply don't sacrifice loyal customer good-will for nothing.  I think that many of us are so passionate about our hobby that we sometimes forget that it is a business to companies like MineLab.  It helped me to realize that it's nothing personal, it's just a money thing, and I hoped it would help others to deal with the situation as well.

[Steve Herschbach]

1 hour ago, MontAmmie said:

You simply don't sacrifice loyal customer good-will for nothing.

I would argue Minelab unintentionally does this on a regular basis. I built an extremely successful business from scratch based on how I took care of my customers. I see Minelab do little things all the time I know will irritate their customers (being one myself I do have some insight there also) but they seem oblivious to it. My take is that the company, thankfully for all of us, is 100% reliant on having cutting edge technology as a driver of sales. If you have the best tech, people may gripe but in the end they will also buy. That’s fine as long as long as that tech lead can be maintained. Minelab seems to have a handle on that but I wonder what would happen if somebody else actually did manage to one up Minelab with some new tech. Many people would in my opinion happily jump ship.

I shake my head many times over things but in my case at least Minelab has earned my loyalty because I see them genuinely putting new technology in my hands when other companies are trying to sell me warmed up leftovers. It’s been a long drawn out and rather grudging process however and there are many things Minelab could do to make being a happy customer a lot easier. Communications being far and away the main thing obviously.

Great posts MontAmmie - I am not arguing with you just having a discussion. This kind of honest feedback minus inflammatory derogatory comments is very valuable to companies that listen and act on it. I sought it out when running my company. And it does seem Minelab is doing at least the listening part these days. The recent upgrade in service capability in the U.S. is a great move also but more on that in another thread.

[MontAmmie]

And I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for providing a forum where we can discuss the issue in a civilized way.  I totally agree with you about MineLab technology!  I've never owned a MineLab detector before.  Well, I guess in a way, I own one now, and hopefully I'll get to meet it someday. (Sorry, I couldn't resist).  My opinion of the company has taken a severe hit in the past few days, but will I cancel my Equinox order because of it?  Heck, no!  Even so, I'm not trying to bash MineLab, more just trying to figure out why they are doing what I would consider a somewhat questionable business move.  And they need to read and understand this-what I have read (and yes, written myself) on this forum is not even one-tenth the anger and frustration that I have seen in other public detecting related forums in the past few days.  People seemed to be very happy to wait their turn in line, even if it was for months, when it was perceived that they were waiting because of a production shortage.  Then the Cabela's thing showed up, and it wasn't simply a production problem, it was a corporate greed/indifference problem. Which, as we all know, is a different beast all together. You think you're waiting patiently in an orderly que for an item you have already paid for, then suddenly you realize that your paid-for item is currently being sold to a higher bidder.  And all you can do is watch because your money is already tied up with the initial purchase!

I hope that MineLab will get its act together very soon and at least make a small gesture toward those who put their trust and money on the line months ago and now feel they've been shoved aside.  Not because it's the profitable thing to do, but because it's the right thing to do.  MineLab has done the hard part of the equation with the technology, now if they could just manage the easy part with better customer relations they have the potential to completely dominate the detector market.

[Steve Herschbach]

45 minutes ago, MontAmmie said:

And I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for providing a forum where we can discuss the issue in a civilized way.

I do worry that people think bring a Fan a Club means on topic critical commentary is prohibited. Far from it - I encourage critical commentary. For it to be effective though the party being criticized can’t feel like rocks are being thrown. The intent matters. Is the commentary meant to help, to improve? Or is it only intended to be destructive? The best critical commentary includes the suggested fix. I hated my company meetings where everyone just wanted to bitch without wanting to be part of the solution. 

Equinox has to have flaws. Why? People made it!  The goal here is not to sweep things under the rug but to just point things out dispassionately so they can hopefully get fixed. There is a bug fix feature and it is there because no sane person should think something this complex does not have a coding bug. My iPhone gets bug fixes for the last bug fix!  I will never delete critical commentary presented well. Trolling is another thing, and I am world class when it comes to spotting scams and trolls.

You therefore truly have my thanks in return for honest feedback well presented. It sets a fine example in my opinion for people to emulate.