I sold a rod a few months ago and the customer called me last week and said the rod brok while hooking a 1 lb bass. This is a crankbait rod so no monster hookset involved. I thought for sure it was a defective blank. I removed all the components I could and sent the blank to the manufacturer.

They told me they saw an impact mark (I looked thouroughly at the blank and saw none) and it was not a defect and not covered by warranty. They will however replace the blank for free since it is not very old. The break was about 3 inches below a guide and about 24 inches from the reel seat on a 6'6" casting rod. So it was no where close to the tip and it was a clean break, no crush or fibers still attached just right in half.

Now I am in a situation where I had to pay to ship the blank to the manufacturer and pay for return shipping, plus new reelseat, handles, arbor, thread, epoxy and time spent.

I told the guy what the manufacturer said and it was as if I was accusing him of hitting the blank and he was very adiment to the fact that he did not. I have nothing to go by only what the manufacturer said, and will have to charge him as it is no longer a warranty issue.

How do most of you handle this and what type of documentation do you do? Is it a new invoice? Would you take the guy's word for it and handle it for free as good customer service and take a loss?? I know every rod i've ever broken I said "i didnt hit or do anything wrong" but i had always done something I shouldnt have...

Thanks,

-Mike

I look at it in the way of 1 good customer [situation] will tell 10 friends and 1 bad customer [situation] will tell 1000, go online and tell every possible person they can. Which do you want. Personally I would take the small loss in the overall scheme of things and come out with your customer recommendations. You may also have more orders from him and/or his friends in the future from doing this.

Its all preference here, but that is my philosophy.

This is the sort of thing that needs to be discussed before the rod is sold. Custom builders need to have a "written in stone" warranty policy. Once that protects both the customer and the builder.

You're in a tough spot, because if you sell many rods this sort of thing can continue to happen, over and over and over. Get enough of this sort of thing and you'll be out of business in a hurry.

I will make this suggestion - your customer may well feel that he did not hit nor impact the rod at any time. But there is always the chance that he did, didn't notice it, and thus feels the rod was defective. I'd suggest building a new rod for 1/2 the original price. That way, you're both pretty much eating a little, but neither has to choke on the whole thing. Still, he may not like this - we live in an age where you can take a 5 year old broken rod into Wal Mart and have them hand you a brand new one.

One of the local builders in my area has had a long standing policy with all his customers, that if they break a rod, they are to send it to the manufacturer, bring him the new blank (whether they got it for free or had to pay some nominal amount) and then he builds them a new rod at the regular price minus the cost of the blank. I never particularly liked that policy, because if a blank did prove to be defective the customer still has to eat most of the cost of having a new rod made. But it has served this builder well for about 30 years now and he has scores of very loyal customers. Just a future policy to think about.

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

Thanks for the info guy's. I told him he would have to pay me $40 and I would replace the rod for him. Since the blank manufacturer is replacing it for free (even without warranty) i am basically only charging for shipping that i paid to and from the manufacturer. I will still take a very small loss on the reel seat on other parts, but I dont want to leave a bad taste in his mouth, he only used the rod 3 or 4 times. I have all the guides/tip top, trim peices and butt cap (matagi) from the rod.

The warranty I use is 5 years on all components and manufacturer's warranty on the blank.

Does this sound reasonable to you, or ridiculous. I want to stand behind my rods 100% but there are so many things that can go wrong outside of the work that I do I just cant assume a lifetime responsibility for the variables...

-Mike

I think you're being reasonable and hopefully the customer will, too.

The only thing we do run into is that in cases where it really isn't the customer's fault, he shouldn't have to pay anything. The manufacturer told you it was a break due to impact, however, so this isn't really the case in this instance.

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

Just a note I would add a few extra dollars to each rod I sold, Back when I was in business I was building 8 rods a month in a small shop. I took the extra money and put it into a separate account. This would cover any out side problems like Michael has to deal with. Beside I was getting interest off that money. I think I had to dip into that account may be 6 times in 20 plus years of operating my shop. If you are a good builder you can salvage reelseats, guides, So what are you out a grip, thread and some finish. Where there maybe be a big loss is fancy thread work and custom grips. But most custom builders who have been in this business sense dirt. Have extra supplies they have purchased over the years. and I bet the y can duplicate a wrap in a couple of hours and make a custom grip in a couple hours. But remember all this was added on to the original price. So unless you are getting a large amount of rod breakage, you are money ahead by just adding a few extra buck to the rod. Remember you are selling your knowledge as a custom rod builder and that knowledge did not come over night. I never competed with Big Box Stores, Wally World or K mart. My rods cost a @#$%& of a lot more than their band name shelf rods. Just my 2 cents
Good Wraps Bob

The concept of warranty blank replacement is normally very clearly written by the manufacturer of rod blanks. Manufacturers clearly word warrantys to cover defects in materials of construction. Many of the blank manufacturers also produce finished production rods and the wording of their warranty documents may center primarily around the replacement of the production rods. The long-term product history of each blanks' failure and return rate is factored into the cost of each rod or blank produced and sold. Ultimately someone in the chain pays for all warranty claims.

A successful custom builder must understand the failure rate history of each blank used for each specific task and market. The actual breakage rate for material defects is extremely low and full warranty coverage for abuse and normal use is a tough pill for most custom builders to swallow. This is one reason to consider the durability of any rod delivered to a customer who requests a "highly sensitive high modulus" blank. An adjustment should be added to the cost of all rods that go out the door to cover your exposure costs.

Recently the price of some high quality task specific fishing rods has seen a large escalation. Tackle retailers are now selling task specific rods in the $ 300 range. The customers who are buying these rods "think" they are paying more for a rod that uses higher priced components and the price being paid assures them of a superior product. In most cases, the price being charged for the rods simply covers the cost of a higher warranty return rate.

Production companies perform a routine full load manual stress test, performed by a highly skilled technician, prior to building a rod on a chosen blank. This test is performed to identify those blanks that may have a non-visible defect in materials of construction. This test assures that valuable time and labor will not be expended on a blank that may fail unexpectedly. If you have visited a production facility, hopefully, you were allow to view this extremely quick and violent testing procedure. The load test done by custom builders for guide placement does not compare with the stress level of the production rod test. The bad ones will snap in a heartbeat! It is quite impressive. The failure rate of each blank model is known, tabulated and included in the cost base. Manufacturers and suppliers of rod blanks to custom builders typically state quality control procudures for size, taper, weight and finish. I wonder how many custom builders receive blanks that have undergone production model flex test?

In todays market the customer expects to pay some expediting charges for rod replacement and normally will be cooperative if you are up front and fair in your dealings with them. Personally, I think that all custom builders should file a class action law suit against Skeeter, Ranger, Champion and Bass Cat for installing top cross braces in rod lockers on bass boats for the express intent of ripping guides off of custom rods and snapping all shakey head and drop shot rods thereby causing permanent pain and injury.

Bill Stevens



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2008 02:51PM by Bill Stevens.

We stress test our rods both during the build and again just before delivery. We have only had one bod break before we built on it, and two finished rods break before we delivered them. Actually, we test to maximum, because trust me, the customer will find new and wonderful ways to push the limits of a rod, even if you don't.

We have priced our rods so that a replacement is pretty well paid for by the other sales - we add about 5% to reakage each rod just for that possibility.

We warranty our rods against breakage to the original owner for as long as he/she owns it. We put a serial number on each rod and the owner must complete a registration card to activate the warranty. We will not repair a broken rod, but we will replace it with the same blank or an equal blank if the original is no longer available. Why deo we do it that way? Because in our opinion a sleeved or spliced rod will never perform like the original. However, we also will repair, for the cost of parts plus a small labor charge, any other damage to a rod. All of this is spelled out very clearly in the hang tag we give to the customer with each rod. The customer pays shipping to us, and we pay shipping back for broken rods. The customer pays shipping both ways for repairs, and we do require that a broken rod be returned to us with as many parts of the jewelry as are left.

We photograph each finished rod so if there's a breakage claim we know what it looked like new, in case of a need to replace it.

- hope that helps.

Uncle Russ
Calico Creek Rods

Russ you have gone be on what I did, you incorporated a picture. . It is a must you have a written agreement on what you warranty. I have seen at a manufactures warranty section. Where they approved a warranty on a rod that is 7 years old, because the customer took excellent care of his rod. Even tho the rod was almost fished daily. On the other hand I haven seen rods turned down that were just a few months old. because they looked like being in a war.
Good Wraps Bob

I believe your final decision was more than reasonable in the overall scheme of things.

Thanks for the info/suggestions.

I will have to definately rethink my rod pricing and customer knowledge tools. I guess it's one of those things you dont spend too much time thinking about until it happens, but is a very integral part of being able to continue to run a succesful business.

-Mike