Rod warranty

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

There’s a big difference between a warranty and a replacement program. Any actual defect will be apparent the first few times a rod is deeply loaded. Anything after that is handling and use related. “Warranties “ offering lifetime replacement are really insurance programs where the most careful and responsible pay for the consequences of the lesser so. Nothing is free. If I see extremely generous replacement offers it just tells me I’m paying extra for something i likely won’t use. 

[Mike L]

7 hours ago, Delaware Valley Tackle said:

There’s a big difference between a warranty and a replacement program. Any actual defect will be apparent the first few times a rod is deeply loaded. Anything after that is handling and use related. “Warranties “ offering lifetime replacement are really insurance programs where the most careful and responsible pay for the consequences of the lesser so. Nothing is free. If I see extremely generous replacement offers it just tells me I’m paying extra for something i likely won’t use. 

Good Point

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[Choporoz]

On 11/16/2024 at 6:51 PM, MediumMouthBass said:

My priorities of importance when buying a rod from greatest to least.

#1, Warranty. Every rod can and will break, and with quality control during and post Covid, i want a rod that the company will back. If they wont even back their own rods why should i, or you?

#2 Price.

#3 Color. If i can get it to paint match a certain reel thats great.

# Sensitivity. I truly cant understand why guys spend so much on rods for this, get some braid and tungsten for $50 all together and call it a day.

Sensitivity and price are very high on my list of considerations.  Warranty and color do not factor.   At all.  

 

   90-180 days is plenty of time to discover flaws or defects. After that it is on me.  And this from someone who breaks a lot of rods.

[F14A-B]

3 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Sensitivity and price are very high on my list of considerations.  Warranty and color do not factor.   At all.  

 

   90-180 days is plenty of time to discover flaws or defects. After that it is on me.  And this from someone who breaks a lot of rods.

Care to share what rods you’re breaking? If not, I get it..

[Choporoz]

Off the top of my head over last 15 years...Fenwick x5, Dobyns, Powell, Quantum, Abu....probably one or two others I can't recall. 

   ****Four of the Fenwicks were Aetos, and that is the only line I would consider too fragile for real fishing 

[Randy Price]

Been using SC, Loomis and Shimano for several years now.  Just bought a SC LE casting rod.  I do not get the stories about all the SC rods breaking.  I belong to a fishing club with over 60 members and most of the guys use SC rods.  I never hear any of them complaining about rods snapping.  I think this is just internet gossip.

[MediumMouthBass]

6 hours ago, Randy Price said:

Been using SC, Loomis and Shimano for several years now.  Just bought a SC LE casting rod.  I do not get the stories about all the SC rods breaking.  I belong to a fishing club with over 60 members and most of the guys use SC rods.  I never hear any of them complaining about rods snapping.  I think this is just internet gossip.

Sadly its not.

It started out with the reel nuts slipping and spinning into infinity.

Then mass reports of rods snapping easily, in a short perod of time.

Several guys on here talked about how theirs broke, a few even said about how they customer service treated them very poorly.

Check recent reviews of St Croix rods, on several sites, TW had a bunch of them before they changed their website.... And the problem isnt rods that were just bought, its when they were made.

This is happening all over the world, in several industries. Look at the news, mass recalls on food, vehicles, appliances, etc... During and after covid all these companies had to let go of most of their staff, and then the shortages, they couldnt get the right or quality materials, so they bought whatever they could to keep producing what they sold. This led to lots of failures across the board in again every industry.

And now post covid quality control is awful. People hired idiots to run things to replace the people they fired, and most are highly incompetent. Look at the new Tundras for example, the guys the hired didnt realize that dirt CANT NOT get anywhere near an engine being built. Well several hundred thousand recalls later because they didnt hire a single person who knows this basic rule, the Tundra fanbase is destroyed and no one trusts them with their money. Call any companies customer service team, you will be shocked to hear how the new hires treat you.

So after all of this, is a rod company with a much smaller budget having qc issues like the rest of the world that hard to believe?

Again this isnt all companies but most. I would love St Croix to make a comeback, they had nice rods for all budgets.

And it only seems like its half or even less of their rods with issues, its hit or miss like buying anything today. 

 

And to add, look at the US and global economy, companies are going bankrupt left and right. So to stay in business costs have to get cut, who goes first?

Customer service, next the quality control team gets downsized, then start buying lesser priced although lesser quality materials to make your product.

Edited November 20, 2024 by MediumMouthBass

[woolleyfooley]

17 hours ago, Delaware Valley Tackle said:

There’s a big difference between a warranty and a replacement program. Any actual defect will be apparent the first few times a rod is deeply loaded. Anything after that is handling and use related. “Warranties “ offering lifetime replacement are really insurance programs where the most careful and responsible pay for the consequences of the lesser so. Nothing is free. If I see extremely generous replacement offers it just tells me I’m paying extra for something i likely won’t use. 

Thats why I like Dobyn’s. They have a no hassle lifetime “warranty” but you have to send a 6 inch section of your rod to them and pay a replacement fee. $80 plus tax and return shipping for the champion extreme as an example.
 

It is realistically an insurance policy, as you said. The replacement fee is the deductible. I like this since the cost isn’t baked into the price of the rod. You only pay it if you need to replace it.

[webertime]

It's just an observation about St Croix but it seems the breakage of blanks is almost entirely the new tapers and powers.  The Legend Xtreme, Elite, X all use the older tapers/designs and seem to be ok.  Bad glue and cheap seats is just being cheap which sucks.