GLoomis

[JohnScott]

Three years ago, Karli ( AlbaSurf ) won a GLoomis 4 piece 9' for 4 wt Stream Dance fly rod in a benefit drawing for a young fellow injured in a skiing / avalanche incident in Colorado.

Karli gifted the rod to me, and it immediately became my favorite rod. Now, I would never pay what that rod retails for for any rod, but I got to say that the first time I rigged it up and cast it on my freestone home water, it just seemed to be made to fit all my preferences in a fly rod for the kind of fishing I do and the way I do it.

While the action is not decidedly different than my other, former favorite rod, the GLoomis is remarkably light in hand, it is the most accurate rod I have fished, and it has backbone to spare, having landed a couple 30" plus Clearwater River B-run steelhead this past April. And the workmanship and components, fit and finish, match the performance - overall a rod well worth what it retails for.

Threads on fly rods usually get around to how warranty effects price. So here's the deal. One of the GLoomis warranty options, for damage either while fishing or by accident, is their Expiditor program. Call in, ask for the service, give them a credit card to cover the $100 charge, and they ship a brand new replacement priority mail, along with a prepaid return mailing label. Take the new rod out of the tube, put the damaged rod into the tube and secure it, attach the return label and drop it off to a FedEx location.

How does the Expiditor service work ?? Just dandy. Last summer I broke the original Stream Dance while landing a 14-15" cutthroat trout. Three days later, I was back fishing the brand new replacement. A week ago yesterday, I accidentally broke that replacement when I slipped and fell on some loose material as I was negotiating a rather steep bank. By the end of the week, I was catching fishies with a new rod.

$100 is more than it would cost for a warranty repair for the tip broken while fishing, but not much more when you figure in the price of a mailing tube and the shipping and insurance costs. $100 may even be more than it would cost for the repair of the accidentally broken tip section. And it would take some amount of time for warranty or other repairs to be done. But in both cases, I ended up with a brand new rod in a matter of days.

So kudos to GLoomis for an outstanding product and their warranty program and customer service.

John

[herefishy]

I used that program, too, and it's especially nice for your favorite rod you can't wait to have back in your hand.

[TyroneFly]

Nice program. A great deal given a replacement would cost way more.

[smij]

Now, last time I had owned one, they limited the deal to only one time. Is that still the case?

[JohnScott]

Now, last time I had owned one, they limited the deal to only one time. Is that still the case?

I did have the same impression, that the Expiditor was a one time deal. But the GLoomis website description of the program doesn't contain any such limiting language, so I decided to call them. While discussing the situation with the service rep, I did mention that I had used the service before on the "same" rod.

The first rod definitely broke while landing a smallish fish and was a warranty candidate. That might be a factor, although, again, there is no "one time only" limiting language in their description of the service.

John

[smij]

The fifth time I replaced my GL3, they had changed it to the one shot deal. It stated that on the website. Maybe they changed it back. Doesn't matter, I sold the rod anyways! I got tired of replacing it. Spent $350 in warranty fees. Once I switched to different brands, I rarely broke any.