Discontent With Minelab After Being Sacked As A Dealer

[phrunt]

You have to have Facebook to watch this video but Aussie Detectorist one of the Minelab dealers in Australia was sacked as a Minelab dealer, he's blaming his dealership being revoked because he's been selling other brands such as Algoforce and Garrett and recommending them for those that suit them best.

Facebook link

I noticed the Minelab dealer (Lost Treasures) near my old place in Brisbane abruptly stopped selling Algoforce recently too, no idea why.

I hope this isn't a sign of the future, one thing I've liked about Multi line dealers is they can be honest about which detector suits you best, it's not like many Minelab dealers are going to point you to another dealer to buy a detector better suited to your needs that they don't sell if that situation popped up.

Pretty sad.

[King-Of-Bling]

I can understand why ML would want to monopolize everyone into oblivion. But competition is a good thing and there should be laws against it. Bottomline is ML FEARS competitors.

[madtuna]

Unfortunately the writing was on the wall ages ago. Plenty of minelab dealerships sell other brands without a problem from minelab.
But if either yourself or your staff repeatedly bag out your main supplier publicly on FB or tours, you can’t expect it not to come to their attention and for them to be happy with it. Even if what you say is true.

Now I agree, since Codan took the reins sadly minelab is not what it used to be.
Some excellent people have left or been pushed, but there are still some excellent people there to deal with and the service is just as fantastic as it always was.
IMHO moving sales into places like BCF might be good for minelab but a backwards step for customers and for regular dealers ie: training, product knowledge and after sales service.

Reading through all the comments I lost count of how many “I’m never buying another minelab” or “I’m switching to garrett” comments there were.
I don’t like a lot of their business practices either, but as a prospector with gold being my only source of income my loyalty is not to a brand but to what machine works the best for my location, and that’s a minelab.

 

[phrunt]

I haven't spent a lot of time on it although brands do seem to be separate at most dealers in Australia, I can't find any Minelab dealers that also sell Algforce anymore although there used to be some like Lost Treasures and Aussie Detectorist and I could have sworn PhaseTech that sells Algoforce sold Minelab too but not at the moment. 

The Prospectors Patch - Algoforce / Garrett

Detect ED - Nokta / XP / Algoforce

The Prospectors Depot Algoforce / Garrett

Phase Technicial - Nokta / Algoforce / Quest

Aussie Detectorist (The one in the video above) XP / Algoforce / Garrett

Night Sky Secrets - Garrett / Aloforce / XP and a Minelab Go-Find they have on sale.

Night Sky Secrets was the only one that has Minelab and Algoforce on my quick google search where I was searching for Algoforce dealers, but the only Minelab Detector they have listed is the entry level Go-Find 22 and on sale.  They also have Garrett.

Lost Treasures appears to be the most multi line dealer I can find having Garrett, XP, Nokta and Minelab, they were Algoforce too but that's now disappeared from their website but shows up on search history.

The other ones that come up in my Google search are just Minelab only, of course this is by no means a complete list of dealers as there are likely bucket loads of them and maybe some do sell all the brands, I'm basing it on the ones that show up on the first pages of a Google search for me.

Not many that sell Minelab appear to sell Garrett either.

So, it appears a bit like it's mostly Minelab dealers selling Minelab, and OTHER dealers selling the rest at the moment.

That Aussie Detectorist store had some bargains, he did another video after that one clearing out demo Minelab stock, a used CTX 3030 for $500  a GM1000 for $500, He had two Vanquishes, he said bring in a carton of beer and you can have both. WOW.  All AUD. 

[PhaseTech]

9 hours ago, phrunt said:

one thing I've liked about Multi line dealers is they can be honest about which detector suits you best

100% agree with this Simon. 

Yes, I was a Minelab dealer for 8 yrs, but have been terminated, with no official reason given. 

[phrunt]

9 minutes ago, PhaseTech said:

100% agree with this Simon. 

Yes, I was a Minelab dealer for 8 yrs, but have been terminated, with no official reason given. 

You were more than a Minelab dealer Nenad, You were a fantastic advocate for them, a mascot if you will.  Sorry to hear, I suspected as much.  

[davsgold]

2 hours ago, PhaseTech said:

100% agree with this Simon. 

Yes, I was a Minelab dealer for 8 yrs, but have been terminated, with no official reason given. 

yes, very concerning in deed, for you Nenad and a few other dealers here in the land of Aus

[Aureous]

A great many small ML dealers were canned abruptly some years ago due to individual  low sales volume. A certain ex High up ML employee told me that collectively, these small dealers added significant sales and provided good customer advice but Codan sales gurus thought they knew better. One dealer I knew personally told me that he lost almost $20K from their decision. I think once other manufacturers get their products to at least partially rival ML's dominance in the PI prospecting market, we will see some interesting developments. 

[Hunterjunk]

13 hours ago, PhaseTech said:

100% agree with this Simon. 

Yes, I was a Minelab dealer for 8 yrs, but have been terminated, with no official reason given. 

Nenad , somebody at Minelab must be losing their marbles !  You are a highly respected dealer in the detecting community. With great knowledge and fantastic service you are the sort of person that they should be wanting as a dealer .