Hi all, I've been out of touch with rodbuilding for a while and thought I'd check in with you regarding the status of Canadian Suppliers. When I left, Richard was in the beginning phase of trying to recover from a fire. I was hoping to see him back by now.

Has anyone heard from Richard (Richard's Rod and Reel) lately? I was told by another rodbuilder that St. Croix told him that Richard's was gone for good and he wold not be resuming his rodbuilding supply business after the fire. Is this true? That would be sad. Can anyone add to this? My Rodmaker subscription burned up in the fire I guess... oh well.

Secondly, I zipped over to Rodbuilder's supply (andy Sneddon) and his website still shows 2004 catalog. Is he still going and up to date?

I've done a few orders from Mudhole, and although I love the selection, speed of delivery, and professionalism, the brokerage fees are killing me. They ship FedEx and the darn fees are as much as the original order. Not Mudhole's fault, just wish they had a USPS option.

Nice to be back.



Mark Janeck
Custom Rods, Campbellville, Ontario

Andy Sneddon is alive and well...give him a shot

Richard is in the process of reorganizing right now, although I haven't heard from him in a couple months.

.........

Yes I seem to be in the same boat, my Rodmaker subscription stoped comming long ago and I have not herd from him since, I had a order as well that vanished. I am still hopeing he will come back some day.
I have since ordered from Rodbuilder's supply and Andy has given me good service. I had to put in my 2 cents woth although it is nothing more than what is above.
Cheers Ron.

Hey Mark, Great to see you back! Missed seeing your awesome work!!

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

It says on Mud Hole's website that they will reluctantly ship international orders via Air Parcel Post if specifically requested by the customer. Apparently they had some problems with this method of shipment. Myself, I'd be glad to take the risk rather than to be hit with another ridiculous $25 "customs brokerage fee" for items which are duty free!

Jan from Edmonton

Yes. Much American business is geared to in house orders, because they must feel it's counterproductive to have someone stand in line at the post office, preferring to ship UPS, or some such, where they come to them, and download the charges to the receiver.
They love to lampoon their USPS....which offers many classes of service outside the borders of the USA.
Make a visit to usps dot gov, and check it out. There are plenty of options, including express, pickup, tracking numbers, yada yada yada.
Canada has the best prices for delivery by the USPS..... you can see that too, at the rates and services page.
Note the diffs between letter post and parcel post. Much stuff can come letter post, and save some green. Size and weight play a part in that class of service. For small stuff, the 7.00 Global Priority envelope is the cat's patooties.....for smaller stuff, you can't beat the 4.00 Global Priority envelope. Best, KD Smithers, BC V0J 2N4



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2006 11:24PM by Ken Driedger.

For what it is worth I am in the same boat also with Richard.......mag stopped arriving long ago and also short half an order and no response to emails. I have dealt with Binghams, Lamar & Dan Craft and all three have been very good as has Ian Miller in Australia where I now get my mag from. I would like to think that Richard could get his business back together. John

Mark,
Check out the Batson Enterprises site to find a Rainshadow/Forecast distributor in your area. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us.
Thank you
Bill Batson
CEO
Batson Enterprises
Rainshadow/Forecast product line
877-875-2381
www.batsonenterprises.com
batson@batsonenterprises.com

Dear Mark,

We're alive and very well.
If you forward your mailing address to the e-mail address below we'll post you a copy of our 2006 CD catalogue.

wasnedden@telus.net

Andy Snedden
Custom Rodbuilders Inc.

Interesting to see rod builders talking about costs of freight in the $25 range - what about us Aussie's - $60-$70US per order plus the dollar exchange rate makes it even higher.
Robert

Robert, I havn't paid anything like that for freight in USD to New Zealand from the suppliers I mentioned above. I think you should emigrate! John

Robert, the $25 fee is on top of the shipping charge and is proportional to the declared value of the shipment so it may be higher or lower. My main problem with this fee is that I pay for shipping first to the dealer, and then a brokerage fee to the courier on delivery. The brokerage fee is not disclosed at the time of the purchase because it has nothing to do with the seller, so the seller is probably not aware that the real shipping cost for me is about twice of what the courier charges him.