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Sage (Credit when credit is due)

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Orca

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I'm not one to champion any particular company but when I experience a high level of customer service I think the company and the people involved deserve a mention.  I had a Spectrum Sage reel which I owned for over 5 yrs seize on me and this spring I sent it in the the company as the original owner with the warranty card. 40.00 usd was the standard charge.  Today three weeks after sending it in I recieved a fed ex package from Sage containing not my old reel but a brand new one. That was a nice surprise and highly appreciated and I wanted to share the experience.  I know Lefty was a big Sage advocate back in the day and liked their rods.

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It is good and I have always received good service from them to and they are one of my favourite suppliers.

That aside the reel failed. How and why. If there is a problem that needs a corrective action rather than just sending out a new reel which is a sticking plaster job. Will it happen again. Be good if they gave a reason for the failure and what they are doing about it. That is the vital extra mile in my book.

 

Mikey

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I think the Salt got in there Mike and since the reel is more than a few yrs old it maybe possible that they don't have parts for older model.  I'm completely satisfied with their service.

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58 mins ago, Mike Oliver said:

It is good and I have always received good service from them to and they are one of my favourite suppliers.

That aside the reel failed. How and why. If there is a problem that needs a corrective action rather than just sending out a new reel which is a sticking plaster job. Will it happen again. Be good if they gave a reason for the failure and what they are doing about it. That is the vital extra mile in my book.

 

Mikey

It's a five year old non-sealed reel. They aren't going to invest R&D dollars into figuring out why it failed. Highly probable it was a side effect of its conditions of use.

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I remember sending in a Winston rod about three years old for a new tip and received a brand new rod in the successor model. I have to admit I was slightly peeved as I really loved the look of the older rod and the new one didn't do anything for me. I can't remember if it cast differently or not. 

 

Ross use to instruct their customers to send in their saltwater reels to them once a year for servicing which was probably just washing in something and maybe a little oil? Wonder if they do  that anymore. I believe it only cost the shipping when you sent it out. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Orca said:

I think the Salt got in there Mike and since the reel is more than a few yrs old it maybe possible that they don't have parts for older model.  I'm completely satisfied with their service.

 

Same thing happened to me with the Ross Cimmaron I had. They wanted you to send it in once a year to clean this stuff off but I only bothered doing that once. Still, lasted about six years from the only cleaning before finally having an issue with the catch that connect the spool to the reel. 

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2 hours ago, Orca said:

I think the Salt got in there Mike and since the reel is more than a few yrs old it maybe possible that they don't have parts for older model.  I'm completely satisfied with their service.

I understand that. I come from a very demanding world class engineering background and you don’t shift the philosophy even well into retirement. 

 

Mike

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1 hour ago, capefish4231 said:

It's a five year old non-sealed reel. They aren't going to invest R&D dollars into figuring out why it failed. Highly probable it was a side effect of its conditions of use.

It could well have been. But most class act companies as a discipline will want to perform failure mode analysis. It is pretty much standard to do that by the companies that make products in the engineering sector. Reels come under that.

 

Mike

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18 hours ago, Mike Oliver said:

It could well have been. But most class act companies as a discipline will want to perform failure mode analysis. It is pretty much standard to do that by the companies that make products in the engineering sector. Reels come under that.

 

Mike

Eh I beg to differ. I also am an engineer for an industrial engine manufacturer and while our product life cycle is a lot longer than that of a discontinued fly reel, you'd be VERY hard pressed to get a failure analysis done on an engine that we no longer offer as new product. I don't know the Spectrum reel but based on the OP's note that he fished it for 5+ years, I imagine the design has changed entirely, or the reel is discontinued. You must understand from a cost perspective that a company (remove aviation and the auto industry completely from your mind for the purposes of this discussion as the regulatory obligations for those companies probably force them into analyzing every failure) isn't going to dedicate time and engineering resources to a single failure of an older product. Maybe if they had 100 people all sending their Spectrum reels back due to failure yes, as it may indicate an underlying design problem, but one reel? Way too many variables as far as user error, lack of maintenance (not saying the OP didn't maintain the reel) etc etc. Besides, I imagine failure analysis for a seized reel involves one step - open up the one-way and look to see if it's corroded. 

 

To the OP's point, I'd add Costa sunglasses to the list of companies who deserve accolades for great service. I had a pair that had rubber on the nose and around the bottom of the lens frame and it deteriorated after 2ish years of use. I sent them back with the small fee, expecting the same pair but with new rubber. To my surprise they sent a brand new pair with a redesigned frame that uses less rubber. 

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I hear you. But failure mode analysis takes place at the front end of a products life not the end of it.

 

If  FMA.’s are not done how are you going to understand your own product.

 

How can you set a warranty period. There are commercial reasons as well as engineering ones.

 

Your experience with Costa was fantastic. Others have had the polar opposite.

 

Its hard to know what the norm is. I need good sun glasses.

 

Mike

 

 

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20 hours ago, Otshawytsha said:

I remember sending in a Winston rod about three years old for a new tip and received a brand new rod in the successor model. I have to admit I was slightly peeved as I really loved the look of the older rod and the new one didn't do anything for me. I can't remember if it cast differently or not. 

 

Ross use to instruct their customers to send in their saltwater reels to them once a year for servicing which was probably just washing in something and maybe a little oil? Wonder if they do  that anymore. I believe it only cost the shipping when you sent it out. 

 

 

I had a similar experience. When I got back into flyfishing years ago I bought an ALLEN XA 8wt. I LOVED it. The tip went by bye bye and they sent me an Alluvian. Meh. New isnt always what people want. I have Scott rods and a ton of Sage rods. I like that they repair/rebuild. 

Edited by hipkvw
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Regarding Sage service, I recently broke the tip section of a 6 ft, 3 pc spinning

blank that I had built and fished for many years.  Bear in mind that has not produ

a spin blank for 25 or so years.  On the off chance they had one banging around in the basement, I called Sage.  Much to my surprise, for $70  they sent me a prepaid shipping label to send back my entire rod in case there was other damage unseen by me and to fit the new section to.  The money covered all repairs, and shipping both ways.  The rod was returned to me within the same day received by Sage.  Can't beat that turnaround. The down side is they use FEDEX , the worlds worst carrier service, which took 10 days out and alike number back.  Same delivery from about 20 miles away from Sage takes 4 to 5 days by USPO.

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41 mins ago, bob m said:

Regarding Sage service, I recently broke the tip section of a 6 ft, 3 pc spinning

blank that I had built and fished for many years.  Bear in mind that has not produ

a spin blank for 25 or so years.  On the off chance they had one banging around in the basement, I called Sage.  Much to my surprise, for $70  they sent me a prepaid shipping label to send back my entire rod in case there was other damage unseen by me and to fit the new section to.  The money covered all repairs, and shipping both ways.  The rod was returned to me within the same day received by Sage.  Can't beat that turnaround. The down side is they use FEDEX , the worlds worst carrier service, which took 10 days out and alike number back.  Same delivery from about 20 miles away from Sage takes 4 to 5 days by USPO.

x2 FedEx sucks... by the time my tracking number shows any updates other than 'package ready for pickup' the damn thing is usually at my house in my hands!

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