Received a new 3wt classic trout rod made by Redington as a Christmas gift from my wife. Broke the tip off on the second trip with it in January. No big deal I say, it’s guaranteed. Waited till I got back home to get the paperwork straightened out on it. Wait a minute, it says I have to ship all the parts back (tip was lost in tall grass), I have to pay for shipping back and send them $30 for processing and return shipping. Then there is no guarantee on color matching between the repaired piece and existing rod. For crying out loud, I only paid half price for the rod, on sale for $75. Think I’ll glue a new tip eyelet on it and accept that it’s about 4" shorter.
grabs a bowl of popcorn
Here we go…
They need the rod to match the segments; there will be slight variations from rod to rod and they want to get it as close as possible to the original. That’s why they want you to ship the whole thing back. Whether it’s worth the $ for the repair is up to you. The Sage RPL 906 I bought back in the late 80’s has been back to the shop 4 times for busted tips (every one my fault), the last time 2 years ago, 25 years after purchase. I was sure they’d tell me they didn’t have any more tips but the guy I talked to on the phone said they keep a pretty decent inventory, even for the older stuff. Couldn’t imagine fishing without that rod.
Regards,
Scott
btw, welcome to the forum
$30 for a new tip section, to replace the one you broke, seems like a heck of a good deal to me.
Will you share your popcorn? I love watching these threads about guarantees play out.
I don’t know how it works in the States, but down here for Sage or Reddington repair I take my gear to the local retailer, pay a NZ$50 handling fee and they sort it out from there, usually takes about 2 to 3 weeks and is worth every cent of that handling fee. I even had a RPL that was so old it had no serial number and I broke the tip section, it came back with a tip a slightly different colour brown, but it fits perfectly and the rod is good as new!
I used to buy NZ made rods, but having had nothing but trouble with one of the well known local brands I now stick to Sage.
All the best.
Mike
Quick way to make the #3 weight a #5 or #6 weight fly rod.
I paid over a hundred to replace a lost Z-Axis tip section. A BLANK tip section.
(Update: found lost section on the trail two weeks after finishing new piece.)
Passes the Bowl
Sounds like I stepped into it when I posted this thread. Sorry about that, had no idea it was a controversial subject.
Possumpoint,
Not to worry. It was a very legitimate question so don’t worry about having asked it.
Like anything, there will be different opinions.
We always try to be civil when giving our opinions, no need to offend anyone. This was nothing.
Ask away about any legitimate fly fishing / fly tying / fly casting question.
Larry —sagefisher—
possum,
Some of our best and most interesting threads come from questions like yours. It’s a legitimate question so there’s no reason to be ‘sorry’. As far as my answer to it, I’ve only had one rod with a guarantee and I sold it. All my others are built on inexpensive (but excellent) blanks. So I’ve never had to use a guarantee., However, given your description, I think I’d probably pay the fees and get the broken part replaced.
Allan
Sorry Possumpoint. My post may have lead you to believe you shouldn’t ask questions such as this. That simply isn’t true. Ask away. Some of tend to be opinionated and certain topics bring out those opinions. That doesn’t mean we don’t want to discuss it. Most of us enjoy the banter and it generally is all in good fun. Most respect others opinions even if we don’t agree with them. You know what they say about opinions…They’re like belly buttons. Everybody has One. In the end one is about as good as the next.
Sorry if I contributed to your thinking you should stay away from certain topics. That isn’t the case. Ask your questions. We will all throw our opinions out there and in the end it will all sort itself out. Even when we disagree we tend to get along pretty well.
Royce
Don’t worry about it. You want chips or pretzels? <passing bowl over to Possumpoint>
Regards.
Ed
P.S. Welcome aboard.
Thanks, chips please.
Next time buy a TFO fly rod… best warranty and quickest response in the business.
Once again, thanks to all who replied to my query. Especially, those who encouraged me to bite the bullet and get the rod fixed. Sent it in on 5/22; rod arrived 9:00am this morning. Am extremely please to have it back, correctly fixed. Funny my PP timing, I sent them a message at 11:00pm last night asking about my rod repair. Uncle Larry, I took your advice and bought a new 8’-6" TFO 3wt to be delivered for Father’s day.