Minelab has always been rather independent and had lousy hardware and customer relations. Evey time a good guy took the helm in Las Vegas, he was replaced....this new situation is intolerable and Minelab should be boycotted until they get their act together and realize who the customer is. I don't think people mind paying the big bucks for the detector if there is some reasonably positive response to quality problems, but Minelab has thumbed its nose at its customer base, taken the money, and not stood behind the product...their patents are about to expire on the bbs machines...it will be interesting to see if some inexpensive, better quality, less expensive machine replaces the sovereign and excaliburs