I have a Fenwick Aetos, the previous model, I purchased a couple of them when they were on sale. The rods have been great and I have been more than pleased with them.
However two days ago I removed the reel and was cleaning up one of them. As I went to snug the reel in place the piece of cork covering the nut that holds the reel in its seat crumbled. I say crumbled as it is what it felt like. It is just cosmetic damage and in no way hurts the rod other than appearance. It's actually cracked the cork and I really am not sure if it will fall off or what at this point. I gently set it aside while I debate on what to do.
I knew it was under warranty as the rod was only 6 months old so I went to Fenwick website to see the process. https://www.fenwickfishing.com/Fenwick-warranty.html
I did as step one says and sent a email to them with the information requested. I also included the message below, an electronic copy of the receipt, and several pictures of the damage.
The next day I recieved a email back that was as generic as a automated response can be asking for me to do exactly what I had just sent them. Literally a copy of their warranty claim page. So I replied back
Then I get this but it also included the step by step instructions, addresses to ship to, and my Reference number – VOC #
So here I am now with a rod under warranty that has cosmetic damage that to me was a random defect in the cork or glue or whatever that will make my rod look like ____.
And my options are:
Keep the 6 month old rod and let it look like ____
Spend roughly $20 ship the rod to them on a chance they may warranty it and I get the nice looks back for $20
Spend the roughly $20 ship the rod to them on a chance they say I damaged the rod. In this case I will not get my rod back, nor my $20, and in their words I will "receive a generous discount towards a new comparable non-warranty replacement rod". That sounds so good knowing I will be out more money on a warrantied rod to get a rod with no warranty and I paid part of the shipping. Or I just paid $20 to give my rod away if I do not want to spend more money on another rod that will have zero warranty.
Who in their right mind puts customers in this position?
What would you do? I seriously don't want a ugly rod (that piece is literally hanging by a thread), but I don't want to pay to literally give them my rod and end up with nothing either. If they were to decline the warranty I sure wouldn't want to send them any more money for another one of their rods with zero warranty. So what do you do?
