I have a friend that is in the BFL and He's a little rough on equipment. I built him a casting rod on the old Green Elite blank a year ago. This spring he broke it after lifting a fish over the side of the boat. I sent the broken rod back to St Croix on Thursday and received a replacement blank (the new brown Elite) this morning. That's customer service, I can't say enough good about the way St. Croix has treated me and will continue to support them. Thanks Again Mark Blabaum - Mineral Point, WI

Lifting a fish into the boat with a rod is bad fish fighting/landing practice. St. Croix may have inadvertently rewarded bad behavior. Expect this guy to break your replacement rod at some point.

But yes, that is good customer service. I only bring up the former not to rain on your parade, but to point out how so many of these guys break their rods.

..............

Tom - No you didn't rain on my parade and you are correct that they probably should not have replaced the blank. They however did replace the blank and sent along a form letter of "Rod Usage and Safety Tips". My friend will be getting a copy of the letter and I'm keeping several to hand out to future customers. Thanks for pointing out the obvious and I will be talking to him about rod care in the future. I don't enjoy putting 10 hours or better into a rod only to have to do it all over again. I still have to commend St Croix for going above and beyond for customer service. This may be a little off the subject but a little company started in 1979 by the name of Lands End. The company started in a small building in Dodgeville, Wi that could not have been over 5,000 sq feet. Gary Commer the founder of the company had a simple plan: Give the customer a great product at a fair price and take care of the customer when he has problems. Garys thoughts were take care of the customer because it will cost you much more to recruit another customer than to keep the original customer. If any of you know the story Garys company (Lands End) went public a few years later and he still had that simple plan. Many years later Garys sold his holdings in the company to Sears for $900 million. Yes that's $900,000,000.00 not to bad a return for the original money invested. I know this is a long read but it shows what customer service can do for you and I. Thanks Mark

No doubt St. Croix has great customer service. I do wish that the major manufacturers didn't replace so many rods for free when they were broke due to "operator defect" not manufacturer defect. People would be a lot easier to work with if they weren't so conditioned to break it, send it in, get a new one.

I do believe in customer service 100%, and have built my share of freebie's too.

Just my $.02 - (or maybe venting a little)

Marc

I assume you are getting paid again for building the new rod?? If not , why not ? If so, good for you.. too many customers think because a company replaces a blank, the builder is to build it again for free... not so!

I haven't had a customer break a rod yet ( knock on wood). Where I have problems is the carrier of the shipment of blanks. Got a shipment in from Mud Hole with the blank cleanly broken into 3 pieces, container had been crushed in two places. Mud Hole's customer service is extremely high caliber, can't thank them enough.

Fred - I don't plan on charging the customer for the rebuild of the rod. I did however learn an important lesson; Build enough profit into the price of the rod to do warranty repairs. This was not in the equation the first time around but it will be on the subsequent ones

Excellent advice. In fact, this is what the major commercial rod manufacturers do - add a little extra to each rod so replacements don't really cost them anything. It's a bit harder for custom rod builders working with a low quantities because an extra 25 cents per rod isn't going to allow them to make many free replacements. But an extra $10 to $20 per rod might allow them to get the job done.

..........

I agree with Mark and Tom. I don't charge for a rebuild (unless he runs over it with his truck or something!) The way I look at it is they paid me for a rod and if it breaks due to a defect, workmanship, etc. It's not their fault (usually) I would rather do the rebuild and keep my customer (who are usually repeat or friends) than lose future sales and positive word of mouth. So far I've never had to rebuild a rod (a few repairs)but would not hesitate to do so. I have enough cushion in my price.

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!!