I have long thought that the rod makers should add two tips and sell the rod as is. If you break it, you buy another. What happens is these folks have created an unfunded Liability for themselves. This is one reason I don’t want to import Chinese rods.
I say cut the price, add 2 tips and ditch the warranties. Allow customers to buy the sections they need.
As a 35-year fly fisher and 12-year fly shop owner I understand the warranty issue all too well.. I actually wrote an article about warranties but never found a home for it–and this would be the best place.. We can and should “go back”.. And this is not an “unfunded liability” – we all pay for it upfront.. There are many issues here that need to be considered.. And if we want to get high-end rod sales back on track we need to address them.. The big problem is that we are in a sort of Mexican Stand-Off.. Everyone is waiting for someone to make the first move–and it has to be one of the big dogs as no tier-2 manufacturer would risk the fall-out of being the lone dissenter.. First is that we need to require rod registration.. Some companies already do, but the biggest dogs don’t.. Then attach warranties to the original owner only.. This would help age-off all the “no questions asked” rods already out there.. Orvis already has a 25-year clause and it has not hurt them.. But this would be moot under a more refined and rational model.. Next we need to sell rods with no warranty or a tiered warranty based on what you are willing to pay.. No warranty means you pay what it costs to repair your rod when you break it — using menu-based pricing.. Then I would have 10-year, 25-year and lifetime insurance options in conjunction with a fixed rate repair based on the cost of the rod (say $25 for a <$300 and $50 for a <$300 rod).. Spare tips, time sensitive warranties, etc., do not address all the issues that we need to address.. We need to go at this with a machete not a scalpel..
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Don’t change anything. It’s working fine the way it is. There is plenty of range in rods and prices.
It was a foolish thing to start but now is too ingrained in fisherman and you can’t go back
I have long thought that the rod makers should add two tips and sell the rod as is. If you break it, you buy another. What happens is these folks have created an unfunded Liability for themselves. This is one reason I don’t want to import Chinese rods.
I say cut the price, add 2 tips and ditch the warranties. Allow customers to buy the sections they need.
You need one more option: Rod Warranties will expire after X years
As a 35-year fly fisher and 12-year fly shop owner I understand the warranty issue all too well.. I actually wrote an article about warranties but never found a home for it–and this would be the best place.. We can and should “go back”.. And this is not an “unfunded liability” – we all pay for it upfront.. There are many issues here that need to be considered.. And if we want to get high-end rod sales back on track we need to address them.. The big problem is that we are in a sort of Mexican Stand-Off.. Everyone is waiting for someone to make the first move–and it has to be one of the big dogs as no tier-2 manufacturer would risk the fall-out of being the lone dissenter.. First is that we need to require rod registration.. Some companies already do, but the biggest dogs don’t.. Then attach warranties to the original owner only.. This would help age-off all the “no questions asked” rods already out there.. Orvis already has a 25-year clause and it has not hurt them.. But this would be moot under a more refined and rational model.. Next we need to sell rods with no warranty or a tiered warranty based on what you are willing to pay.. No warranty means you pay what it costs to repair your rod when you break it — using menu-based pricing.. Then I would have 10-year, 25-year and lifetime insurance options in conjunction with a fixed rate repair based on the cost of the rod (say $25 for a <$300 and $50 for a <$300 rod).. Spare tips, time sensitive warranties, etc., do not address all the issues that we need to address.. We need to go at this with a machete not a scalpel..