Broke *two* Rods This Morning On The Way Out The Door...

[GOOCHY]

Walking out the door this morning to head out to fish.  I have my Phenix Recon C714 and 7'1" M *** Black in my hand.  I trip as I'm going out the door and the screen door slams on the tip of both rods.

 

*snap*

 

Both of them got severed about 7 inches down from the tip.  I wanted to throw up...

 

So now it sounds like GOOCHY is going to have to use the "Oops!" replacement warranty with *** and a similar one with Phenix.  A $100+ dollar mistake when you pay for replacement plus shipping.  Ouch, ouch, ouch!!

 

I should note that I grabbed my wife's 6'6" Carrot Stix and very carefully made my way out the door and had a great day of fishing.  It definitely started out crappy though.  A dozen or so bass and one big chunk bluegill later and it was time to go back home.

 

[Darren.]

I know how ya feel... Condolences.

 

That's a muscular blue gill!

[00 mod]

Sucks about the rods, but at least you felt a tug on your line today!
 

Jeff

[mnbassman23]

Ouch man that is rough! Last year I broke 4 rods which was pretty depressing. I had one day on the water were I broke a Recon 715c while setting the hook on a 2lber and not an hour later I broke a Recon 796c while boat flipping a 3lber. I was beyond mad and had a few choice words after the second one broke. 

[Capt.Bob]

Thats a pain, hate to hear a guy out of his top gear for any amount of time, hopefully you backsets for the season are over!!! Glad to hear you didn't let it stop you from your goal,,,,,gettin out on the water!!! Best of Luck on the rods!!!

[EvanT123]

Not one but two ouch that's rough. Catching some fish is a nice way to take the sting off and wow that's one fat bluegill.

[Traveler2586]

My condolences on your loss, that's a hard way to start a day.  I hope you got your wifes permission before using her Carrot Stix, if something were to happen to that you'd never hear the end of it.  Hope your back up to speed with your rods very soon. 

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

FWIW, rods can be successfully spliced by a competent rod buider with little or no ill affect. It would be cost effective if you have one within driving distance, but shipping would outweigh the benefit.

[flyfisher]

bummer on the rods but **** happens  That bluegill is awesome, i went out this past weekend with the 4wt and they must have been spawning because i couldn't stop catching them.

[Bankbeater]

Sorry about the rods.  I have had several break over the years from car doors, and tailgates.

[Traveler2586]

FWIW, rods can be successfully spliced by a competent rod buider with little or no ill affect. It would be cost effective if you have one within driving distance, but shipping would outweigh the benefit.

 

X2

 

Here are some pic's of one of my rods after it was repaired.  At my skill level, I can not tell any difference to the rods action.

 

Close up of the splice.

 

 

 

Full view of the rod; the splice is at the light switch.

 

 

 

Another view of the splice.

[Revival]

Wow sorry to hear.  If it was me, i think i would have never have made it out the house.  That bluegill has definitely been hitting the gym.

[ColdSVT]

that is reason number one why my rods gp through doors tip first...i learned that lesson in a slimilsr fashoin as you

[derekxec]

lol careful going tip first too i have had it happen that way too...sounds like its time to junk the screen door lol

[GOOCHY]

I just wanted to follow up on this post to give credit where credit is due.

 

After an extended period of these rods sitting on the work bench in my garage and making my heart hurt every time I looked at them I decided to go ahead and get with the respective companies - *** and Phenix - to get the information about warranty replacement ("Oops", in *** nomenclature). I called both companies and both were extremely responsive, understood the problem, and instructed me to go ahead and cut the rods down to lower the shipping cost, and ship them back for warranty replacement. No RMA numbers, no nothing, just ship 'em back and we'll take care of you.

 

Easy peasy... or so I thought.

 

I went to The UPS Store with both rods in hand, pre-packaged in rod tubes, and ready to ship. They did the typical measuring out, weighing, etc. and quoted me the price to ship both rods. We clarified which rod was destined for which destination, I paid, took my receipt, and headed home happy to have them shipped off and eager to find new replacement rods on my doorstep in the next few weeks.

 

Early in the morning on Monday, Ricky from *** called and left a voicemail on my phone. He had a rod, but it was a Phenix Recon and he was wondering what he was supposed do with it. I just shook my head - The UPS Store had placed the wrong labels on the tubes and shipped them out to the wrong manufacturers. As luck would have it, just when I got done listening to Ricky's voicemail the "GMail" app on my smartphone went off notifying me that I had a new email. It was the UPS shipping notification that a rod had arrived at Phenix, in California. They undoubtedly were going to open that tube and see the *** *** rod in there.

 

I called Ricky at *** back and explained what probably had happened with the mistaken shipping. He was completely understanding about it and said that while it wasn't typically their policy that he would ship me out a new rod to replace the old one if I could provide the receipt for it. A few minutes later I had the email receipt from TW in his email inbox and he replied that he'd have a new rod shipped out, ASAP. Think about that, he's shipping me a brand new rod without any proof that I have a broken rod out there somewhere! That is serious customer service! His only request was that I ship them the broken *** rod once I received it back from Phenix.

 

The next step was to call Phenix and explain the issue to them. Alex with Phenix answered and was also totally understanding of the problem. He actually got a good laugh at my expense when I recounted the story of the door slamming shut on two of my sticks. He said he would have probably just crawled into a corner and cried. I agreed that that seemed like the best course of action at the time. Alex with Phenix actually offered to not only replace my rod under their warranty policy but to ship the mistakenly shipped *** rod directly to *** instead of shipping it back to me, then me shipping it to ***. Totally, totally awesome. It's just another sign that these guys are willing to go above and beyond the call of duty for their customers.

 

In the end, it's pretty much like I said in the OP. It's a little over $100 out of my pocket since it was my fault they were broken (plus cost to ship there and back...) and both *** and Phenix went way, way above the call of duty to ship me replacement rods. Neither company even has their own broken rod in-hand and they both were willing to trust me and take care of me. Now I have a Phenix Recon C714 and a *** 7'1" M inbound to my door step!

 

Both *** and Phenix have earned a customer for life. My next rod acquisitions are going to be a Phenix M1 and a *** ***, later on this year. I just wanted to update this post to let everybody know what kind of customer service these guys are putting out there. It's top level, and these guys really deserve a look if you haven't already tried them out.

[roadwarrior]

Well now...  

[Traveler2586]

Both *** and Phenix have earned a customer for life. My next rod acquisitions are going to be a Phenix M1 and a *** ***, later on this year. I just wanted to update this post to let everybody know what kind of customer service these guys are putting out there. It's top level, and these guys really deserve a look if you haven't already tried them out.

 

This is really a great ending to a very sad day, Congratulations.  I know nothing about these rod manufactures or their rods, where did you get your's?

[GOOCHY]

This is really a great ending to a very sad day, Congratulations.  I know nothing about these rod manufactures or their rods, where did you get your's?

Tackle Warehouse carries both brands but you can find them elsewhere (I know Scheels carries ***, among others...), that's just where I bought mine.

[kschultz76]

Wow....sorry for the bad luck. I remember a day that my old man thought it would be ok to lay our rods flat in the bottom of the boat for transport.  When we arrived at the lake his tackle box had bounced on the tips of 3 of my rods for about 65 miles so I know your pain.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post about your experience with *** and Phoenix, because of your experience I may just consider them for my next purchase knowing about that kind of service.  Currently I'm  a St. Croix guy, and they took amazing care of me when a brand new rod I ordered from them showed up with busted tip top.

 

Its just nice to know that there are companies out there, especially those servicing our beloved sport, that care about their customer and their product not just the bottom dollar.

[GOOCHY]

They're definitely a couple of companies who "get it". The rods themselves are really great too. The *** *** rod is probably the best bang for the buck rod out there right now. At $100 it's really not that far off in trim, finish, and feel from my Recon.

 

Now, there is a difference - the Recon has some really great sensitivity and is just built better. Both rods have that somewhat parabolic action to them which I tend to like. The Recon is my go-to all purpose daily fisher from spinnerbaits to weightless Senkos. That C714 can do it all admirably.

[AK-Jax86]

Me and my girlfriend have bad luck with rods. When I was fishing wit my buddies last week within a 48 hour period I broke my reel must have been damaged because it happened while reeling in a 7lb bass. I broke my rod because my braid and lure wrapped around it I didn't realize and casted really hard and the pressure snapped it. Then I was fishing at night and I got a hit on a frog turned out to be a gator and the piece that holds the rod and reel together broke when the gator made impact with the lure. Talk about a rough 24hrs luckily my local sporting goods store has the best return policy of all time so I upgraded my equipment.