Was It Just A Matter Of Time?

[Doc]

This has been my experience.  We have had an enormous dealer here in the United States that sells everything.  What they do not have however, is anyone that knows what it is they are selling.

I think the Minelab dealers here can attest to the fact that they get a multitude of calls from customers who bought from the "BIG GUYS." But, they have questions.  So who do they call for support on a detector they did not buy from us dealers?  They call us dealers.

So I hope Minelab has a bank of well informed actual detectorists to explain things like, "What are soil timings?"  Hey, These Gold Monster rods are too short.  "Sir how many sections do you have screwed together?"  Well there were only two.  "Sir do you have a rod attached to the coil?  "Yes."  Do you have that rod that is attached to the coil screwed into the other two rods?  "Ah, No."  Well sir if you screw that coil rod into the other two rods you will see that all three rods, when screwed together, make the detector perfectly long enough.  "Well I be darned, you're right."  This is the same guy that said he didn't get any instructions in English.

I said sir, there are multiple languages in the Quick Start Guide, the first language in each section is English.  "Oh yeah I see that now."

There are plenty of experienced detectorists that do not need support.  Then there are newbies who need plenty of support which at times causes us dealers to feel like we need mental health intervention to save our sanity. 😁

It will be interesting.

Doc



 

 

[phrunt]

2 hours ago, Doc said:

I think the Minelab dealers here can attest to the fact that they get a multitude of calls from customers who bought from the "BIG GUYS." But, they have questions.  So who do they call for support on a detector they did not buy from us dealers?  They call us dealers.

They may have to setup an overseas call centre to deal with this.

"Have You tried turning it off and on again?"

 

For the GPX 6000, "Have you performed a factory reset and multiple noise cancels" 

[glenk]

i see the ctx 3030 is out of stock interesting

[MSC]

I will continue to support our local dealers of course but my contribution is small without many others doing the same.   

[MD4V.org]

21 hours ago, Doc said:

This has been my experience.  We have had an enormous dealer here in the United States that sells everything.  What they do not have however, is anyone that knows what it is they are selling.

I think the Minelab dealers here can attest to the fact that they get a multitude of calls from customers who bought from the "BIG GUYS." But, they have questions.  So who do they call for support on a detector they did not buy from us dealers?  They call us dealers.

So I hope Minelab has a bank of well informed actual detectorists to explain things like, "What are soil timings?"  Hey, These Gold Monster rods are too short.  "Sir how many sections do you have screwed together?"  Well there were only two.  "Sir do you have a rod attached to the coil?  "Yes."  Do you have that rod that is attached to the coil screwed into the other two rods?  "Ah, No."  Well sir if you screw that coil rod into the other two rods you will see that all three rods, when screwed together, make the detector perfectly long enough.  "Well I be darned, you're right."  This is the same guy that said he didn't get any instructions in English.

I said sir, there are multiple languages in the Quick Start Guide, the first language in each section is English.  "Oh yeah I see that now."

There are plenty of experienced detectorists that do not need support.  Then there are newbies who need plenty of support which at times causes us dealers to feel like we need mental health intervention to save our sanity. 😁

It will be interesting.

Doc



 

 

I think Doc pretty much nails it here. Minelab will have to hire experienced Minelab USERS to man their customer support and help line for direct sales, and they may find that expensive. Experienced dealers who can provide face-face instruction will never be replaced.

Whether it's teaching folks to prospect for gold, or how to set up your Manticore for relic hunting, hands on instruction and classes are the next step for dealers. There is money to be made instructing groups of detectorists, and offering group discounts on detectors and equipment packages. New times, new challenges, new solutions.

[Doc]

3 minutes ago, MD4V.org said:

I think Doc pretty much nails it here. Minelab will have to hire experienced Minelab USERS to man their customer support and help line for direct sales, and they may find that expensive. Experienced dealers who can provide face-face instruction will never be replaced.

Whether it's teaching folks to prospect for gold, or how to set up your Manticore for relic hunting, hands on instruction and classes are the next step for dealers. There is money to be made instructing groups of detectorists, and offering group discounts on detectors and equipment packages. New times, new challenges, new solutions.

I'm not real clear on this but I think the demographics of the Aussie Detectorist and the American Detectorist is a bit different.

Many professional prospectors in Australia, do this for a living or to supplement their income.

In the U.S  detecting, for the most part, is a very social affair.  Part of the allure is the camaraderie.  I never hear of outings in Australia.

That's a big part of detecting here.  Especially gold prospecting.  We have outings and instruction and learning and camp fires and sit around and tell lies.    

American prospectors and especially newbies want some hand holding.  They want a part time mentor to answer their questions.  I sold a Gold Monster to a customer two weeks ago, he has called me five times.  A couple of times to ask questions, a few times to tell me how impressed he is with the detector and happy I steered him in the direction of the Gold Monster.

Also Americans are very demanding in their expectations.  "Hey the box arrive but the corner is caved it."  "I'm sorry is the detector OK?"  "Oh yeah the detector is great no damage, but the corner of the box is caved in." 

(Let me think on that one?  We don't have a shipping box repair service that I can send out to repair a shipping box that you are going to throw away anyway.)

"Listen, I am so sorry.  You know these shipping services are not very careful, that's why we always put the Minelab Detector Box inside a shipping box.  What can I do to make you happy/"

"Oh nothing!  I just wanted you to know."

My sense is, it's a different detecting culture here.  Maybe I'm wrong, it's just my speculation.

Doc

[Steve Herschbach]

The marketplace has been splitting and sorting for some time. You have people who like to go to a store locally and buy things in person. And you have people who want to buy things online and have them shipped to their doorstep. There is good reason for companies to support dealers who have local stores that cater to people who want to buy that way. There is also no real reason to share online sales with anybody. Going forward I expect companies in general to hoard online sales to themselves, while also supporting any brick and mortar operations that want to display and sell their product to walk in customers.

[Doc]

24 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

The marketplace has been splitting and sorting for some time. You have people who like to go to a store locally and buy things in person. And you have people who want to buy things online and have them shipped to their doorstep. There is good reason for companies to support dealers who have local stores that cater to people who want to buy that way. There is also no real reason to share online sales with anybody. Going forward I expect companies in general to hoard online sales to themselves, while also supporting any brick and mortar operations that want to display and sell their product to walk in customers.

Steve I hope you're right.  HOWEVER, there are only so many hours in a day.  I feel compelled to help people that purchased a Minelab detector from someone other than myself, even though I don't have the time to take care of my customers and big box store customers too.  I have customers that say, I know I bought my detector from XYZ store but no one there can answer my question, and being you are a Minelab dealer I was wondering if you could answer just one question for me.  Which invariably turns into 20 questions and a 50 minute conversation.

There is no polite way to say, hey so sorry.  That's why you should buy from your local dealer who uses the machines they sell.  First, that runs contrary to my personality of wanting to help people interested in this hobby, and Second, these could be possible customers for my accessory items down the road.  But I can tell you it absolutely kills me when I have a person who I literally spent hours and numerous calls telling them how to set up their GPX5000 purchased from a different company, who years later calls me back and says.  "I appreciate it so much that you helped me with my GPX5000 a couple years back so I was wondering if you could help me set up my GPX6000."  When I asked where they got their 6000, it was from the same place they purchased the 5000 who gave them zero customer service after the sale.  It's frustrating.

Seriously, I don't know how detector dealers stay in business. 

Doc



 

[GotAU?]

27 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

The marketplace has been splitting and sorting for some time. You have people who like to go to a store locally and buy things in person. And you have people who want to buy things online and have them shipped to their doorstep. There is good reason for companies to support dealers who have local stores that cater to people who want to buy that way. There is also no real reason to share online sales with anybody. Going forward I expect companies in general to hoard online sales to themselves, while also supporting any brick and mortar operations that want to display and sell their product to walk in customers.

You’re right, Steve, there are a lot of people that like to buy online but I think the personal touch when you buy online and then get to show up for training later is a competitive advantage for some dealers over the others who market and sell online. I don’t expect (or really want) Minelab to start doing it.

[Ridge Runner]

When I’m in the field one day and I need help with a problem that I may be having will they be there? 
 It was a time Minelab was eating humble pie wanting dealers but now you made them big bye offering support after the sale that wasn’t costing Minelab a dime.

 If Minelab don’t need dealers I’m not so sure I need them due to the fact we see new detectors coming out everyday from other companies that may equal anything Minelab has to offer.

 Chuck