Tackle Warehouse communication issues?

[T-Billy]

4 hours ago, PhishLI said:

Normally I'd never ever do this without having tried one of my friend's first, etc, but as it turns out I'm afflicted with a condition which makes me vulnerable to particular subliminal messages. This was recently revealed to me through deep psycho-therapy sessions. Where most folk would click on a random post about chatterbaits by @T-Billy in order to get his take on blade color, trailers, etc, all that registered in my subconscious was "Buy ARK Rods", " Buy ARK Rods". Enslaved by this sneaky low level signal I no idea I'd even ordered the rod until it was too late. I'm pretty sure he got @Mike L  with this too.

? I don't tournament fish, but they really oughta put me on the pro staff at this point. LOL 

[Lead Head]

@gimruisI totally understand and respect your philosophy, however for some people that is very limiting. If I restricted myself to only blanks I can handle in-person, my options would be to drive several hours, or 0.

[zpelletier]

6 hours ago, gimruis said:

I don't know what the rod is going to feel like in my hands until I hold it and I'm definitely not buying it until I hold it.  Maybe its just personal preference on some of these things.

If I didn’t buy any rods until I held them I would be limited to whatever Walmart/Dicks/Cabelas has in stock, which around here isn’t much. (I drove past the gas station this morning and saw $4.39 for regular, I really don’t want to drive an hour to Cabelas)

 

I have always preferred to see and touch things before I buy them, but there’s no tackle shops around here. And outside of fishing gear, Covid has made it very difficult to find things in stores. 

[Mike L]

8 hours ago, PhishLI said:

Normally I'd never ever do this without having tried one of my friend's first, etc, but as it turns out I'm afflicted with a condition which makes me vulnerable to particular subliminal messages. This was recently revealed to me through deep psycho-therapy sessions. Where most folk would click on a random post about chatterbaits by @T-Billy in order to get his take on blade color, trailers, etc, all that registered in my subconscious was "Buy ARK Rods", " Buy ARK Rods". Enslaved by this sneaky low level signal I no idea I'd even ordered the rod until it was too late. I'm pretty sure he got @Mike L  with this too.

Yepper!

He got me good!

 

At some point ya gotta just throw caution to the wind and have a little trust. 

Fortunately there is a store about 2 hours from me that had them on a sale that I couldn’t pass up so I took a little road-trip.

 

 

 

 

Mike

 

[Spankey]

9 hours ago, gimruis said:

I would never order a rod online.  You can't pick it up and hold it and touch it.  How do you know what its going to feel like if you order it online?  You literally can't.  Its like buying shoes online.  How do you know they are going to fit unless you try them on?  There's just certain things that don't mix well with buying online, and a fishing rod is one of them.

I can agree with this. Or can for the most part. I for the most part fish St. Croix and Abu Garcia rods and pretty much know what to expect from the actions of the majority of their rods are. I wouldn’t have any second thoughts about ordering an Avid Series Rod. Fish enough of them to know what to expect. 
 

But there is no way I’d order a Megabass, 13 Fishing, All Star, ……. Or anything like that by word of mouth. I’d have to touch it. Couldn’t do a sight unseen on that when not being able to handle it first. 
 

It’s one thing to get a rod sent to you. But the haste of sending one or more back because you don’t like the feel. If I have a rod in question  or brand new mfg. to me I get Cabela’s to order me a few in and I take the one I like out of the store. 

1 hour ago, zpelletier said:

If I didn’t buy any rods until I held them I would be limited to whatever Walmart/Dicks/Cabelas has in stock, which around here isn’t much. (I drove past the gas station this morning and saw $4.39 for regular, I really don’t want to drive an hour to Cabelas)

 

I have always preferred to see and touch things before I buy them, but there’s no tackle shops around here. And outside of fishing gear, Covid has made it very difficult to find things in stores. 

I can see your point also. I only have one decent real bait shop near me. A bit of a drive but one you don’t mind. Dang near on top of the lake. Plenty of places that suck around me. My old mom and pop shop is a great St. Croix Dealer. 

[MN Fisher]

1 hour ago, Spankey said:

My old mom and pop shop is a great St. Croix Dealer. 

If I was into St. Croix - both the Scheels and Fleet Farm near me are good choices.

 

There's a dearth of Dobyns dealers close to me though.

[J.Bass]

10 hours ago, gimruis said:

Maybe I'm in the minority here then...

Your not. I test rods usually at BPS before I buy them online or have them price match. I go with the company who has lowest price usually. Mostly I find those deals online. I usually buy rods I’ve owned such as St. Croix. 
 

Shoes I need to try them on. Not all size 11 -11 1/2 fit the same way. I have wide feet. Your not the only one ☝️ 

[Spankey]

35 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

If I was into St. Croix - both the Scheels and Fleet Farm near me are good choices.

 

There's a dearth of Dobyns dealers close to me though.

The mom and pop I use has been around since 1950. They do not have everything, they can’t. But they have enough to catch fish locally. TW’s and others like that are good for the more specific baits. You are not gonna go there and find a 10’ x 30’ display wall of Megabass, SPRO, 6th Sense. I guess they can’t. 
 

I have a couple of set up where I use McCoy Mean Green CoPoly. They have it. People around me have no idea what it is. On one of my spools I use the old school yellow Stren. They have it. I can’t get that anywhere local. No one know what it is. 

[gim]

I kinda derailed this thread with my position on buying items in person or online.  My apologies

[T-Billy]

@PhishLI @Mike L I got to try out my Phenix Feather 7'1" ML/ Curado 70 MGL combo today. REALLY nice combo for small cranks, jerks, poppers, grubs, swimmers, neds... I mean REALLY NICE!!! ?

[Mike L]

44 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

@PhishLI @Mike L I got to try out my Phenix Feather 7'1" ML/ Curado 70 MGL combo today. REALLY nice combo for small cranks, jerks, poppers, grubs, swimmers, neds... I mean REALLY NICE!!! ?

Thanks, but You got me once already!!

?

 

 

 

 

Mike

[PhishLI]

47 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

I got to try out my Phenix Feather 7'1" ML

Now you're the Phenix whisperer? Oh boy. We'll see. After I ordered the ARK rod my bank account threatened to take out a restraining order against me.

[T-Billy]

LOL. Those feathers really are sweet. I bought the L and ML to pair with my Curado BFS and 70 MGL for light stuff based on FryDogs recommendation. The only spinning rods on my deck now are UL's for crappie fishin.

[PhishLI]

1 minute ago, T-Billy said:

Those feathers really are sweet

My fishing buddy has two Feathers with Alde 50s on them. It truly feels like fishing with nothing. Impossibly light combos.

[Mike L]

16 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

Now you're the Phenix whisperer? Oh boy. We'll see. After I ordered the ARK rod my bank account threatened to take out a restraining order against me.

Curious..Which one did you get?

 

 

 

 

Mike

[PhishLI]

Just now, Mike L said:

Curious..Which one did you get?

The 7'6" MHF Essence. Supposed to come by Monday. Fingers crossed that the tube doesn't get karate chopp'd en route.

[jcjunior]

Used to order from them all the time, was the only place I shopped. If I placed the order before 3pm EST it would

ship the same day. Ever since the pandemic hit their shipping and service has gone down hill. I shop elsewhere now. Haven’t ordered from them in almost two years 

[suzuki2903]

Slow shipping, communication isn’t bad, their back order stuff is a joke and can often be found in stock else where , they do have a awesome selection or baits/lures etc that isn’t found else where , prices are high for sure.  A shame the direction they are heading as they could be the best place to shop online for fishing stuff . 

[PhishLI]

Well, UPS managed to resist mangling my rod this time, but I stand by my sniveling about TW in my original post/ thread starter. Lesson learned. It was irksome.

 

P.S. Never said they were "all bad", so...

[johnmyers]

I got away from using TW but placed an order recently and got part of the order today. I had a ? and did a chat with them. All ?s were answered in less than 5 minutes, I was impressed

[PhishLI]

5 hours ago, johnmyers said:

All ?s were answered in less than 5 minutes, I was impressed

Yes, they're perfectly polite and lovely when you speak to them, but it was their not following thru with what they promised part while being polite and lovely that got this thread going.

 

It ended well, so....

[leinad]

put an order in 4 business days ago and got conformation of shipment yesterday for 2 items out of 13 so i inquired (email) where were the rest of the order was and the response:

 

Thank you for contacting Tackle Warehouse.

We are currently experiencing a high volume of inquiries. Please anticipate a delay in our response time but know that we are working as quickly as possible to assist you.

We appreciate your patience and look forward to serving all of your tackle needs!

Sincerely, 

Your Tackle Warehouse Team

 

mighty fine customer service ( issues with last 3 orders placed all in the last 4 weeks ). rethinking my  continued use of TW.

[Cgolf]

I tried on the BF sale, my card got hit. We used my wife’s card to do a last buy on Rage Menace plastics during the 25 days sale, using the randomly generated number her card got hit. For her card all other purchases were from locations she regularly uses, and unfortunately the credit card company didn’t tell us if it was her main card number or the number TW had. This was the first ever issue on any of our cards, and mine I have had for over 30 years. 
 

Other than the email that my card may have been compromised, TW never owned it or even commented on it. I may have placed my last order with them, at least for a long time. Honestly kind of bummed but life goes on. 

[Jeff Grube Jr.]

It all comes down to the consumer and how many are willing to pay for 2-day. It’s like TouchTunes at the bar. Pay extra to play your song next. Same thing with 2-day shipping, puts you at the top of the list. If TW has enough 2-day shipping orders coming in, opposed to items that equal over the $50 free shipping why would they feel the need to change their operation. Sure TW is loosing some business from this action, but at the same time likely there is enough business coming in. 

[gim]

1 hour ago, Jeff Grube Jr. said:

why would they feel the need to change their operation

Because it equals better customer service?

 

I am not a big online shopper.  Never have been, never will be.  But when I do buy fishing gear online at other retailers, its shipped within a day (or the same day).  If Omnia or BPS or whoever can do that, why can't they?  Tackle Warehouse takes a week to ship it.  Even with all the items in stock.  That doesn't make any sense.  If the items are in stock, ship it.  Waiting a week to ship it is BS.  Poor customer service IMO.