Finally Minelab Take Responsibility For Screwing Up The GPX 6000 Speaker

[billdean]

10 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

I was notified today that the speaker upgrade repair was completed and my GPX6000 battery/power compartment is on its way back to me with return postage paid by Minelab. 

Yes…..mine was returned postage paid also! They sent mine back Fed X.

[phrunt]

Jason at Minelab is a real stand up guy, I really like him.  He's always been very helpful.  I guess the company policy defines a recall as a safety thing like the batteries catching fire or something which is fair enough.  Tomatoes Tomatos though, a bunch of problematic detectors being sent back is what I'd define as a recall especially when there is a known serial number range the fault exhibits on, the only difference is they're not asking us to send them back, we have to use our own initiative.  If it were a recall they'd be asking us to send them back, which in turn costs them more money as everyone would do it then.  The way it is now only some are doing it, and that's fine, it's a choice we have to make and for some they're genuinely not bothered by it and never use the speaker anyway.

In the auto industry there are safety recalls, which is how Minelab are defining a recall, and then there are general recalls which the GPX 6000 fix falls into, "A product recall is defined as a request to return, exchange, or replace a product after a manufacturer or consumer watch group discovers defects that could hinder performance, harm consumers, or produce legal issues for the producers."

It's great to hear they've had positive testing with the new parts and no change in performance as that was a concern some had, including myself which is why I tested sensitivity to the best of my ability before sending it in and getting it back and was happy I couldn't see any change in the results, I just had a better working detector by doing so.

I think I've noticed positive changes even when not using the speaker in EMI handling, but it's hard to know for sure, sometimes these things can be a placebo as you're all confident it's performing better with the speaker so you feel it does better with headphones too.  It's really hard to know 100% it works better when it comes to EMI on headphones, with the speaker its obvious as there was a clear fault causing it to go nutty which could easily be demonstrated exactly how GotAU did his video, pretty blatantly obvious fault there.  The improvement if any on headphones is not so clear as it doesn't behave as badly and obviously problematic in the first place.

It's why I struggle to understand how they didn't pick up the fault sooner though when you could switch between speaker and headphones and the fault almost immediately clear up, switch back to speaker and it goes wild again.  Very obvious problem.

Either way, I'm happy they fixed the problem, and thankful they did.  It's obvious the initial intention was to just leave it there with the initial product notice using the "high sensitivity detector" excuse for it, something spurred them on to actually fix it and they did fix it well.  I'm not going to buy another Minelab high end gold detector though unless miracles happen in performance.  I'm done and happy with my current rigs especially my 7000.

 

[cobill]

I finally got around to testing my GPX 6000 today and have the same external speaker issue as noted in this long thread. Last year I only used the BT headphones and didn't have any problems at Rye Patch. I have submitted the repair form and received a Ticket Number. Thanks Jason for the link!?

Bill

[GotAU?]

6 hours ago, matt said:

Did you send it Priority mail with or without insurance? I swore never to end anything of value through USPS again since having my package of gold and platinum stolen by a USPS employee and they didn't cover my loss even with insurance...

Yeah I’m surprised he did that, insurance for a $6000 detector was over $100 when you mail it that way.

[billdean]

 

I had a couple hours to try the 6000 out today after the repair to the audio and coil. So far it is much better than when I sent it in! In the next few days I will have more of a chance to try it out but so far I like what I see. Here is a small .250 nugget on a couple hour hunt today.

[Jeff McClendon]

7 hours ago, GotAU? said:

Yeah I’m surprised he did that, insurance for a $6000 detector was over $100 when you mail it that way.

My GPX 6000 did not cost me $6000. I paid much less. 

I did not ship the entire detector. Only the PCB/Speaker housing. I did not even ship the battery.

So what are you surprised about?????

If something had happened in shipping from me to Detector Center or from Detector Center to me….its covered by the 3 year warranty…..if a part of the detector was damaged in shipment to or from for a covered under warranty repair especially a repair that was instigated by a known issue bulletin from Minelab.

[Gold Catcher]

I paid the full 6k and I AM worried about shipping the unit off without having reliable insurance for the full value. But paying $100 for insurance isn't that nice neither. But so many packages are being lost or stolen. Having no apropriate coverage when shipping appears risky IMO.

GC

[phrunt]

Thanks for the update on yours billdean, its really nice to see everyone who's had the fix done happy with the results.

 

[Jeff McClendon]

12 hours ago, Gold Catcher said:

I paid the full 6k and I AM worried about shipping the unit off without having reliable insurance for the full value. But paying $100 for insurance isn't that nice neither. But so many packages are being lost or stolen. Having no apropriate coverage when shipping appears risky IMO.

GC

USPS Priority maxes out at $500 online but you can buy up to $5000 in person at your post office. That should cost around $80 and then add the shipping cost. Minelab pays all shipping costs and related fees and insurance for the return trip back to you per the GPX 6000 warranty.