Wow, this really sounds like poor customer service to me. Whatever happened to providing more to the customer than is expected?

This really makes me appreciate Orvis more and more. A few years ago I broke the tip to my rod, I happened to be in Vermont and dropped the rod off at their main store. I fully expected to pay for repairs as the rod was an old kit rod and never even had a warranty. Less then two weeks later they had repaired my rod and shipped it to me in PA free of charge.

That little bit of "extra" that they provided, I'm sure it cost them far less than fifty dollars, has made me a lifelong Orvis customer and advocate.

Winston and other companies should learn from that.