I haven't done any business with Hook & Hackle since the company was bought and moved, but I recently put in an order with them and this was my experience. Take it for what it's worth.

Saturday, July 7: I placed an online order in the evening for everything needed to build a complete rig. Blank, components, building supplies, reel, line, backing, the works.

Monday, July 9: Received an email notification from H&H that my order had been received.

Monday, July 16: My order had still not come in, and I hadn't received any communication from H&H since their order confirmation email. I decided to email them about this, and the dialogue below is paraphrased:

Okie: "Hi, I haven't received my order yet and I am worried that something was lost in the mail or backordered. I would like to receive my order soon so that I have time to build this rod and use it on vacation. What is the status of my order?"

Eric from H&H: "The blank you ordered is on backorder, with no lead time given by the manufacturer. Call us and we'll figure something out so that you can use your rod on vacation."

I called H&H and talked to Eric. The fix we came up with was to swap out the blank I ordered for one with the same length, weight, & pieces from a different manufacturer. I did save some money, but it wasn't the blank I wanted. Oh well, sometimes you just have to make do.

Two days later (today), my order arrived. I opened the box, and didn't much like what I found. Here are the burps I encountered:

1. Nickle winding check does not fit the blank. In the past Bob would send multiple winding checks to ensure that this problem didn't happen.
2. A spool of Pac Bay thread was substituted for Gudebrod thread. The other threads I am using for this rod are Gudebrod, and I don't like mixing brands even if it probably won't matter.
3. My reel is on backorder. You would think that if backordering is a big enough problem that I would ask for a different blank to ensure that my order gets to me in time, they would have the presence of mind to tell me that my reel is backordered too.

I will post a follow-up tomorrow after I have had a chance to call them about this, but for the time being Hook and Hackle has left me significantly less than satisfied.