Why do you think Winston is gouging on rod repairs? The Boron blanks by themselves sell for 400 to 550. If your blank sells for 400 and is a 4 piece then you buy the section you need for 100. Then, Winston needs to put the guides on. If they only charged you 132 for the tip section consider yourself lucky. They could have just told you no since you are not the original buyer. Companies loose thousands of dollars a year when you offer to do this. If you bought a used LCD TV on tried to get that manufacture to offer warranty work you have lost your mind. So why would you expect this company to do so? As far as shipping cost, every thing cost to ship now. Sure they could have shipped it cheaper if they want to shop around and do it for cost. But they need to make money also.

Everyone thinks these big Name fishing companies need to warranty everything thing. Even when they forget there rod is hanging out the bed of their pick up when they close the door and break the rod. Or you are walking though the woods with rod ready to fish and drop the tip by carelessness and break the tip. People really need to wake up and get realistic. Rods today really do not need to come with warranties because the companies test the rods and put them through the works without any breaks. But, if they did not warranty the rods and someone breaks there rod somehow, they blame the company, when it was there fault the rod broke.

Mike P.