Battery replacement for GME PLB

[johnc]

The battery for my GME MT410 GPS enabled PLB will expire in July 2014. I have discovered that GME will not replace the battery, but will replace the unit at a "reduced" cost of $279, if I return my old unit. The PLB has not been used and tests OK, so this amounts to $279 for a battery. Needless to say, I find this a little unreasonable, especially as elsewhere on the net, new units can be obtained for as little as $289. The replacement units also come with only a 12 month warranty, as opposed to 7 years for the new one, so it looks like the replacement units are ones that people have returned anyway.

Is there any alternative to submitting to what looks like highway robbery by GME ? I suspect that GME PLBs would be less popular if people knew that they would have to replace them every 7 years (and get a second hand replacement for the cost of a new unit from elsewhere).

[Travis22]

Very disappointing news John. I would have certainly felt quite different about buying our MT410G had I been told they would not replace the battery itself when the expiry date was reached. As a matter of fact we were told and sold on the point after 7 years we could just send it off to GME for a new battery and it would be good for another 7 years.

We bought ours a while ago and paid around $600 for it iirc. The prices today are a lot more reasonable but when ours expires I will not purchase anything from GME again.

Travis.

[Travis22]

http://www.gme.net.au/products/emergenc ... EPLACEMENT

Free battery replacement for their EPIRBS but we get shafted royally with their PLB...

[north-north-west]

Oh great. Given that part of the marketing for the product we purchased was the ease and low cost of battery replacement, don't they have a legal requirement to go through with that? Wonder what the threat of legal action for false advertising would do . . .

[Travis22]

Was thinking the exact same thing NNW.

Travis.

[GPSGuided]

I am not surprised by this GME response (from a commercial angle). As a matter of fact, I just considered that "replace battery in 7 years" statement to be a meaningless statement when I purchased my PLB. From a commercial point of view, with rapidly evolving Li battery technology, the original spec battery may not even be available any more from OEM battery manufacturers this far down the track. As such, replacing the battery in these units may well cost $200+ when 7yrs of warehouse storage, time, labour, certification testing and P&H are all added in. Not economically justifiable. So just go and invest in a new unit and be happy with the latest technology and compactness. But I do agree that there's a degree of false advertising out there and needs to be clobbered.

[Strider]

Personally, I'd rather have a new one than one that has been opened up and fiddled with. $289 is nothing over the life of the unit ($0.11/day).

[neilmny]

Very true Strider but given that the unit is mostly electronic and it is highly unlikely that anything would be wrong with it, surely a cost effective battery replacement and testing would
be logical. Surely an expensive and important safety device like a PLB is not a throw away item. Recycling just makes sense but not at a ripoff price.

The free replacement for the EPIRBS is only for units sold after August 2012.

[Mark F]

You need to find the actual words on a brochure, manual or packaging. Write to GME stating that their offer is not consistent with their statements at the time of sale on which you relied (important) and mention the Trade Practices Act. If they won't budge/respond take it to the fair trading department in your state.

Li (and most other chemistries) batteries do have a self life so no company could honestly fit a 7 year old li battery and claim it good for another 7 years. Once manufacturing is set up I believe it is very easy to produce a Li battery of the required size and shape - just look at the camera manufacturers who trot out a new battery shape for every new model, and how quickly chinese knockoffs appear.

[icefest]

I'd hazard a guess and say 90% of current PLB's use a CR123 lithium cell. Al least all the ones I was looking at do. I doubt this cell design will die out anytime soon, seeing as it's been used for SLRs for yonks.

[Travis22]

Regardless of the battery type the fact remains in the OPs case his PLB is about the expire now. The units are still being made and sold today - it hasn't been superseded so there seems to me to be no reason they cannot replace the battery in his PLB.

Searching the forum here a member triggered his MT410G in an emergency. After rescue he contacted GME and was told they could put a new battery in his unit for $190ish but if the reason for activating was confirmed to be a real emergency they would give him a brand new unit - and it was so they gave him a new unit free of charge.

I would assume there will be a flood of these GME PLB expiring over the next couple years, hopefully GME wake up and do the right thing.

Travis.

[johnc]

Thanks for the feedback. Here is a progress report.

I just contacted GME by phone to discuss the matter further. It turns out they only offer a 12 month warranty on the exchange units because these units are "not new". After some discussion they did concede that this was the same as second hand. So they are offering a second hand PLB for $279, when a new one can be had for $289, with a 7 year warranty. I expressed some unhappiness with this situation and was told that "this is how it is" and the sales rep then hung up in my ear.

I will be taking the matter to the Dept of Fair Trading and avoiding GME products in future.

[north-north-west]

Thanks for the feedback. Here is a progress report.

I just contacted GME by phone to discuss the matter further. It turns out they only offer a 12 month warranty on the exchange units because these units are "not new". After some discussion they did concede that this was the same as second hand. So they are offering a second hand PLB for $279, when a new one can be had for $289, with a 7 year warranty. I expressed some unhappiness with this situation and was told that "this is how it is" and the sales rep then hung up in my ear.

I will be taking the matter to the Dept of Fair Trading and avoiding GME products in future.

Yes. The unit itself has a good name, but with that sort of attitude from the manufacturer and supplier, I won't be bothering with them in the future either. This is the sort of thing social media campaigns were meant for.

It's a pity 'finding' an emergency is not feasible.

[neilmny]

I emailed GME's office in Melbourne this morning around 7am regarding this and asked why there is descrimination between EPIRB owners and PLB owners
as both items are equally important safety devices. Hated using the term descrimination but couldn't think of a better one.
Still waiting for a reply, will post if and when I get one.

[Strider]

It is not a blanket discrimination. The EPIRB offer only relates to units manufactured after a certain date in 2012. Surely manufacturers are allowed to run Limited Time Offers to help clear stock when necessary?

[GPSGuided]

What's the pricing differential b/n EPIRB and PLB units? There's no free lunch in this world.

[neilmny]

Not sure this means much GPS. If the "free" replacement is built in to the EPIRB in the first place the price is too high to start with and the "free" aspect of the lunch is basically BS big time.
Yes no free lunch but a cost needs to be justified. To fit and test new battery does not cost almost same as a complete new unit. I work in engineering and if we took this approach we would not get a project.

[Travis22]

It is not a blanket discrimination. The EPIRB offer only relates to units manufactured after a certain date in 2012. Surely manufacturers are allowed to run Limited Time Offers to help clear stock when necessary?

My guess would be units made before the cutoff date may be superseded models and they don't have the inventory of batteries to replace them all?

Anyways regardless, talk about building in the cost of a free replacement batteries, I think anyone who payed $600-650 for their MT410G like myself, I think we more then payed for a replacement battery in that cost if they sell for half that today... Looks like we fell for their BS.

Travis.

Ps: please keep us upto date on in your quest John.

[GPSGuided]

Whilst it's true that a battery fitting service sounds simple and inexpensive, in practice, with specific specs to meet, cost invariably ramps up. Not talking about changing a watch battery or toy battery here, but one that needs to be guaranteed to function and meet all specs for a further 7 years. And who knows what kind of condition these returned PLB are? So I can see how a secondhand, properly reconditioned unit may be a more responsible solution. But as I agreed earlier, the big error on GME's part was to promise a battery replacement service 7 years ago. That's the section they can get nailed on.

[GPSGuided]

Anyways regardless, talk about building in the cost of a free replacement batteries, I think anyone who payed $600-650 for their MT410G like myself, I think we more then payed for a replacement battery in that cost if they sell for half that today...

Technology gadgets get cheaper over time. The $600 paid 7 years ago covered for a new technology where every component within were more expensive, implying nothing about a replacement battery.

[Travis22]

They were still 600-650 3 years ago. IMO the only reason they have come down in price now is a more competitive market place.

Travis.

[Mark F]

What a rip off. Send them your expired unit for nothing and no doubt you pay the postage. You pay $279 for someone else's expired unit that GME have refurbished. What they have done is replace the battery (say $15 for labour and battery), check functionality and reseal the unit - maybe 20 minutes = $200 to $250 pure profit. They then refurbish your unit and sell it to the next punter.
GPS I think you are being very kind to GME. Top spec batteries are not going to cost even $50 - more like $5 and the process of checking the electronics is highly automated. Even building in the cost of a shiny new case is no more than $10 cost to them.

[GPSGuided]

They were still 600-650 3 years ago. IMO the only reason they have come down in price now is a more competitive market place.

Timed about the same as when we saw a mass flood of cheap/cheaper consumer GPS units. It's just natural technology market cycle. It was worth $600 then and $300 now, can't use today's market to compare the price of 3 years ago.

[GPSGuided]

GPS I think you are being very kind to GME. Top spec batteries are not going to cost even $50 - more like $5 and the process of checking the electronics is highly automated. Even building in the cost of a shiny new case is no more than $10 cost to them.

That's a very kind way to put it but I get your message. Given how much engineers/technicians are billing these days, I am not surprised. It's always the employee/time that cost the most. In any case, replacement with a reconditioned and fully tested unit is not unheard of in the tech industry. Similar with iPhones, Apple would often replace with a factory reconditioned unit than repairing one's specific phone. So I can definitely understand the business and practical angle there. But as I said, GME needs to be hammered on their incorrect advertising.

[corvus]

Sorry if I sound flippant but when my5 year old KTI epirb as it was called back then expired I purchased a new up to date PLB my choice was RecueMEPLB1 which I hope to replace with another up to date one upon its expiry.
What price safety ? less than a dollar a day for a year
corvus

[GPSGuided]

$280 spread across 7 years but don't forget compounding interest.

[walkerchris77]

Any one day of the 7 years the device could have saved your life. I would rather a new device than a refurbished one. And vote with your feet and buy one from another company. At least u can have peace of mind and safety for another 7 years

[GPSGuided]

Turning this thread around, do we have any confirmed experiences with other PLB manufacturers where battery refresh service is provided? And what was the fee?

[bluewombat]

Not a battery story but I had an older second hand ACR unit (still on modern bandwidth and still with 3 years on battery), the regulatory authority wrote to me and said they wanted ACR to check these models. I sent it to ACR, they decided it did not quite come up to scratch and sent me a brand new $400 unit free of charge. I would vote with my wallet for ACR's service
bw

[wayno]

Not a battery story but I had an older second hand ACR unit (still on modern bandwidth and still with 3 years on battery), the regulatory authority wrote to me and said they wanted ACR to check these models. I sent it to ACR, they decided it did not quite come up to scratch and sent me a brand new $400 unit free of charge. I would vote with my wallet for ACR's service
bw

i'm visualising a lot of people now scrambling to take their ACR beacons in to get checked