Tesoro's New Repair Policy?

[reddirtfisher]

I am not really complaining about this. I just thought I would give out a "heads up" to all you Tesoro owners. They will no longer fix used units for free. You must prove that you are the original owner. I don't blame them for doing this but there was no warning ahead of time. Happy Hunting.

 

[Elton]

Their policy has always been Lifetime warranty to the original purchaser ?????????????.......

 

[reddirtfisher]

They have fixed a ton of detectors for free in the past but now things have changed. If you send in a detector for repairs, you will get a call and the guy will ask you ," Are you the original owner?" If you are the original owner and have proof of receipt and have sent in the warranty card then it's covered. If you are not the original owner they will ask for a $50.00 fee. This has been confirmed by several people on the Tesoro forum. I don't know what impact this will have on Tesoro. Some have said, "Heck, might as well go with another company if I have to pay for repairs anyway"..."that was why I used Tesoros in the first place,..it was because of their great repair dept".....(quoting other people, not me). I really like Tesoros and I won't change companies. However, the next unit I buy will be a NEW one.

 

[Hank68]

I don't blame them at all,

 

[hunter12]

x2, I don't blame them also. They still have the best warranty out there and are great to deal with.I have a mine lab 505, great machine. But i Cringe if it breakes down, hasn't yet. Besides $50. bucks is cheap to get a Md completly tuned or fixed.I personally don't by used MD's for that reason. I'll wait and save up to get the one i want.See what other co's do if your not the original owner, oh yeah thats right they only warrant there Md's for 2-3 yrs.

 

[ken ward]

It is about time they charge for repairs that are used detectors. They could run out of parts fast if they always did it for free on second hand detectors. On a new one you still get your lifetime warranty. No charge for life. Who else does that. I think I will keep my Tesoros... KEN

 

[tabman]

Tesoro makes great detectors at a reasonable price and the original owners get a lifetime warranty. It doesn't get any better than that.

tabman

 

[WV62]

Their policy has always been Lifetime warranty to the original purchaser ?????????????.......

Just as Elton said. Maybe now they are just checking a little closer.

 

[richbat]

Here's some food for thought.If you are looking at buying a new or used machines,take the time to read over the warranty and what it covers and mostly if you are planning down the road to unload it for something else make darn sure the warranty is transferable.Most warranties are covered from the date of purchase of the original owner,so be aware that when you are thinking about buying a used machine that the warranty may be already expired to the original owner and therefore the warranty will not do you anygood anyhow.I think I have this correct,if not please feel free to comment.

 

[reddirtfisher]

I sent my Compadre in for service on October 21st. It has been 33 days now and I have not received it back. This is not like Tesoro. Someone said that the used detector repairs with no warranty get pushed to the back of the line. I paid my 50 bucks. I am very disappointed in Tesoro right now.

 

[RobM]

Hope you have better luck with them than I did. I sent an old one in for a "tune up" 5 or 6 years ago and they sent it back with the meter blown out and told me that a replacement was no longer available. Don't recall the model number but it was a blue box version and in mint condition and they had never seen one. they even talked me into sending it in for a free "tune up" when I called to get some information on it. I wound up giving to a ham radio acquaintance who was going to try and find a meter movement that might work. I'm thinking they put it on a bench power supply with out checking the output. Lucky me!

 

[lytle78]

I am also going to post the below information/opinion on a similar thread on the Tesoro Forum. If that's not OK I hope the moderators will sort it out for me. Thanks.

My Lobo repair took about 3 weeks. I called to ask and got the man whose contact details are listed below. He said he would check and called me back with the progress report. He then followed up with an email a few days later. I was satisfied with the service I received and think the charges to replace the battery clips, furnish replacement battery holders and check and calibrate the detector and coil were $50.

Reid Schilling
tesorosupport@hotmail.com
928-771-2646

Tesoro is a small business and probably has a normal repair lead time measured in weeks, not days. They are willing to undertake diagnosis and repair at pretty low labor rates and charge a reasonable amount for component level replacement. They also stock repair parts for their older machines.

For example, on my original Lobo - probably out of production for 15-20 years, I had some dirt under the control panel decal. I asked if they could replace it. They had a new decal for the control panel! The charge for installing it was $25 (this was in addition to the $50 that I mentioned above) - that included providing the new decal and the labor to remove all the knobs and switches, remove the old decal, clean up where dirt had got under it and reinstall everything. Cheap in my opinion.

I notice on other Forums that another leading manufacturer's out of warranty repairs usually involve board replacement at costs in the many hundreds of dollars. The same manufacturer also officially cuts off support of discontinued models at some point. This is a perfectly reasonable business practice and the purpose of running a business is to make a profit. As a customer, I do prefer Tesoro's approach however.

As far as how large the various manufacturers are,

A quick online search shows the following for approximate annual revenue and # of employees:

Tesoro - $4 million - 25 employees
Whites - $20 million - 100-200 employees
Garrett - $27 million - 50-200 employees
First Texas - $73 million - 500 - 1000 employees
Minelab - $90 million - no data on total employees
Minelab USA - $1.8 million (included in the $90 M) - 11- 50 employees

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

I've run a business that grosses similar dollars to Tesoro. Nobody gettin' rich there. I'm very satisfied in the way they do business, and with their prices.

 

[RobM]

Got to thinking about my last post, it was more like 10 or 12 years ago and not 5 or 6 (things go fast at my age). I might also add that the lady I first talked with was vary nice and meant "very well" and acted the way that represented the company very well. It was the guy/guys at the service bench that turned me very sour on Tesoro,,, not even so much as an apology.

 

[reddirtfisher]

My detector is back home after 35 days in the shop. It has never taken that long before. I tried it and it works great, but I think I was sent to the back of the line.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone !

 

[Idxpro]

If Tesoro is pulling 4Mil a year with 25 employees, than they are doing better than whites with 20Mil and 200 employees.

 

[lytle78]

I don't have especially high confidence in the numbers I posted they are on sites that aggregate data about companies. The category was 100 to 200 I would guess that Whites has much closer to 100 and maybe less than 100 employees.