Still not sure about pulling the trigger, but thinking about selling custom rods. How do you handle rod warranties?
I know that the blank mfg's have a warranty for the blanks. Other than the guides and blank you would have to
rebuild the rod. How do other handle this?

John,
When a client first contacts me, I let them know that the warranty extends to the rod blank only.

However, I also tell them that if the rod breaks and is not a candidate for repair that I will build a replacement rod for them for the cost of the components.

After building a few hundred rods, you can normally build a rod in about 2 hours if there not a lot of extra time spent in weaves, etc.

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I think that if you look at the time required for a complete rod build in a factory - like St. Croix, it is likely that they build a complete rod in under an hour - excluding glue and finish drying time.

But, they are using pre manufactured parts like reel seat and grips. Also, they have custom machines to reduce the time and labor involved in building a quality rod.

Take care




Good luck

Boy, Roger you are quick! There is a lot more time spent in building a rod beside the actual construction. Time spent with the client in the design and fine tuning of the components can actually take a couple of hours and then the finding and ordering of the components, checking in the order and preparing the parts, invoice preparation and any "tax" reporting that needs to be done.. All hidden time from actual rod construction.


I offer a one year warranty on my workmanship and yet to have had a claim after 20+ years. Guess I've been lucky.

Ray Zarychta
Glastonbury, CT

More than a few rod builders have gone belly up replacing rods for certain segments of the market that tend to think rods should be unbreakable. Here are some ideas to consider:

1. Stay away from segments of the market where breaking rods seems to be a habit rather than an occasional occurrence.

2. Factor in some sort of presumptive warranty fee to each rod you build. Say, $25 per rod, which is then kept in a fund from you can pay yourself each time you have to replace a rod at no charge.

3. Simply offer a short term, limited (does not apply to abuse or mishandling) warranty that only covers the rod for say a few months. Remind the customer that defects tend to rear their head during the first few times a rod is used. Rods don't become defective 5 years down the road.

4. When the customer picks up the rod, spend 10 minutes going over good fish fighting technique and proper rod care.

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

I do not offer a warranty for the rods I build. If a blank were going to fail, it's very likely that it would fail when I do a static load test. The only blank failure I've experienced happened with very little pressure trying to find the spine. I've had potential customers ask, and I explain this to them. So far they've all accepted that answer and been fine with it. I offer repairs at what I consider a reasonable hourly rate, and if the blank can be replaced under warranty I will build a new one at my "customer provided blank" price plus my cost for the parts that can't be re-used.

Note that I'm not a full time builder, but I stay fairly busy for a side business.

The best warranty for custom fishing rod builders is detailed below:

30 seconds or 30 feet...whichever comes first.

I will replace any rod piece that fails other than the blank for life of ownership.
If the blank is broken it will be currently $100 dollars for rods up to $275 in value and $150 for rods valued at up to $500 and $200 on rods valued at up to $1000. This is totally dependent on the rod guides being intact and available to be used on the replacement rod. No warranty to rods owned or used for competition / tournaments and by fishing guides or professional fishermen and fisher-women.

This is the best I can do without going in the hole.