Who is more likely to trash a fly rod? An expert or a new fly guy?
I recently fell and squished one of the stripping guides on my rod. I pulled it back out and reshaped it, but it eventually broke. I remembered that the guy at Bass Pro Shops where I bought the rod (this was my 6wt, 9 footer) made a big deal out of returning the warranty. He said that Temple Fork would repair any damage for any reason.
Ok. So, I sent in the card back in April when I bought it. Staring at the damage, I was glad I did.. but would the warranty really apply or would they hassle me.
I looked up the return procedures on the Temple Fork site – seemed pretty simple. Just send in the rod and $25 to cover shipping.
I packaged the rod up, wrote a short note and included it with my check for 25 bucks and shipped it off. Since I expected to wait a month or more to get this back, I was absolutely stunned when the Fedex Ground guy dropped of a box with the rod about two weeks later.
Think of it 2 weeks. About a week or so of that would just be the transit time. TFO got this, fixed it and returned it… no hassle, no call, no email wanting this or that. I guess they were able to match my name and address with the warranty card.
I checked it out – I could not tell the difference between the repair and the original. It was perfect … seamless.
I don’t know if the other rod builders have this same guarantee, but for the price of these rods, I’ll stick with them. As a new fly guy, a better rod (if I knew what that was) would probably not make a difference anyway. And then… I’ll fall on it as I scramble around the rocks on the North Branch anyway.
So – if you need a good, inexpensive rod with a super warranty – this is your ticket.
Since Larry Kreh is affiliated with this company, I should not have been surprised by any of the above.
Note: I also got some feedback that Pflueger has a similar guarantee. The individual lost the top half of his rod while fishing the Rose. Pflueger sent him a brand new rod. Nice to know that TFO is not the only company out there that values customer service!
Unless stated otherwise, this article was authored by Steve Moore