Daiwa warranty/repair question

[chrisg_sdcf]

Has anyone sent a rod back to daiwa with an issue that wasn't necessarily a manufacturer defect and had good results?

I quite a few daiwa rods but one in particular is my current favorite. The TAEL701MMHXB-AGS. I have had it a few months now but finally took it out fishing twice. Caught a lot of smaller fish but it has just been fub to fish with using my steez sv tw. It's always been on my rod rack when not used and I have a rod glove on it.

Anyway, I was thinking about puting a carbon fiber handle on my steez and wanted to see if the steez sv tw handle would match the grey parts on my Sol. Pulled the rod and reel gloves off both setups. After looking at them I went to put the covers back on and noticed one of the eyes on the tatula elite broke away from the blank epoxy and all, and even some of the guide wrap looks damaged. I never hit it on anything or forced it into the rod glove hard or anything else that could have caused this kind of damage. It's definitely from some kind of impact, possibly while being put in tube for shipping? Actually I remember the place shipped it in a regular cardboard box and I wasn't too happy about that but the box wasn't smashed or anything. I just never really looked the rod over closely before. Id say it's definitely not something that failed because of a manufacturing defect. Just curious if anyone has had something similar and bad daiwa repair or replace it even for a fee?

I'll be contacting them Monday with my fingers crossed but it might have been an expensive two fishing trips.

[adam lancia]

They'll likely honour the warranty. Just tell them exactly what has happened and ensure they understand it hasn't been abused and was stored in a sleeve.

[timkilian]

I had the eyelet come off my steez ags and sent it in and they replaced the whole rod without a problem

[chrisg_sdcf]

Well that's good to hear. I sent it in today for them to look at so we'll see. Its my first time having to send one back and I definitely wasnt expecting to have to do it so soon but stuff happens I guess.

[chrisg_sdcf]

Alright, so I sent the rod in with a warranty return form and they received the rod on Monday this week. I figured I'd hear back from them sometime early next week on what they determined but instead I got a package today. Brand New rod with the rod sleeve (which I didn't even think about sending back with the return since it was on a different rod).

I was ready for them to only give me a discount on a new rod because, even though I dont think it was my doing, the damage could easily have been blamed on me for cramming it in a rod locker or catching the guide on something being careless.


That being said, I went over the whole rod carefully and noticed a few things that were different to my old rod I sent in. The epoxy and paint on the guide wraps was much sloppier on this rod. I didn't take pictures of the old rod to compare but I pulled out my other two tatula elite's and they look much cleaner as far as paint and guide wraps go. It looks like the thread that wraps the guides has a strand that goes behind the ags guide now and it wasn't like that on my last rod (isn't like that on the other two elites I have either so maybe there is a reason for that?). I ended up going over my 691mlrb (which was by far the cleanest with no issues with guides, epoxy, wraps, or paint) and my 721mhrb universal which had a slightly crooked guide (one down from the tip) with a lot of epoxy on the guide and inside the guide ring on the side it slanted to. Also had a lot of extra epoxy inside the eyes on the 2nd and 3rd guide down from the tip. The paint wasn't messy though.

Anyway I bought the 721 for $104 brand new, 691 for $20 or $25 more and the 701ags for $170-180 so none of them are extremely expensive or anything near high end/custom rods so I wasn't completely surprised just figured thought I'd share. I just don't remember my of tatulas being like that (I'm going to look at one of mine later).

Bottom line, daiwa took care of me and even though the finish on the guides isn't as nice as the first one, the guides appear the be solid and it's definitely much better than a broken rod or eating $180.

Ags

[chrisg_sdcf]

721mhrb universal







Im new to this stuff and haven't ever closely inspected the guides before (besides one used rod I bought with guides in horrible condition). If it's totally normal for rods in the $100-200 range let me know. I'm not worried about it just curious.

[chrisg_sdcf]

Checked the of tatula 761hfb and guides were the best of all the tatulas I have (did have what looks like a hairline crack in the epoxy on the lowest guide but I bought it used from American legacy for $80 and it feels solid so I'm not worried).

The only other rod I have with similar issues is a dobyns fury 735c and it just looks like maybe they don't use enough epoxy. (I bought this for $79 on the Black Friday sale and they seem to stay cheap through the holidays, so I'm sure they were cranking them out as fast as possible)

Fury

[Aquaftm45]

That being said, I went over the whole rod carefully and noticed a few things that were different to my old rod I sent in. The epoxy and paint on the guide wraps was much sloppier on this rod.

Same thing happened to me with a Megabass rod I broke (mostly my fault). Got new rod returned with specks all over the lower portion of the blank. Still happy to recieve a new(ish) rod as a replacement with no out of pocket cost. I would think it would be common for a rod company to send a "factory 2nd" as a replacement in such questionable circumstances. With that said..those wraps look jacked, if the incident was in no way my fault, I wouldnt be pleased, but like you said..does appear questionable. More a rule than an exception, waranties are abused in many cases in almost every facet of American business and culture. Not that it would neccesarlity bring the price of rods down if people didn't do it, it would just mean more profit for the rod maker.

[chrisg_sdcf]

That being said, I went over the whole rod carefully and noticed a few things that were different to my old rod I sent in. The epoxy and paint on the guide wraps was much sloppier on this rod.

Same thing happened to me with a Megabass rod I broke (mostly my fault). Got new rod returned with specks all over the lower portion of the blank. Still happy to recieve a new(ish) rod as a replacement with no out of pocket cost. I would think it would be common for a rod company to send a "factory 2nd" as a replacement in such questionable circumstances. With that said..those wraps look jacked, if the incident was in no way my fault, I wouldnt be pleased, but like you said..does appear questionable. More a rule than an exception, waranties are abused in many cases in almost every facet of American business and culture. Not that it would neccesarlity bring the price of rods down if people didn't do it, it would just mean more profit for the rod maker.

Yeah they don't look right to me with the wrap going behind the guide, but I've only owned a dozen or so rods so I wouldn't know for sure. I guess as long as it works im not going to complain at this point (to the manufacturer anyway, I'm complaining right now lol). It just sucks because it was my favorite rod.

The damage to the other rod had to have been from impact, and I'd say it's probably common sliding it into rod lockers (which is why I was expecting daiwa to question the warranty return and would have understood) but I had only taken it out 2 times and never snagged it on anything or dropped it so I'm positive it wasn't my doing. It always has a rod glove on it when I'm not using it so it would be difficult to snag the guides (although not impossible I suppose).

[poisonokie]

Sometimes guides are wrapped that way on purpose. They call the extra wraps in front lock wraps or something.

[chrisg_sdcf]

Sometimes guides are wrapped that way on purpose. They call the extra wraps in front lock wraps or something.

Thanks for the information. That makes me feel better about it. In your opinion would there be a reason for switching to this method on a sub $200 production rod?
Just depends whose working that day?

Anybody else have a tatula elite with the wraps done this way?

Either way I'm just happy to have a rod I can use and I'm happy with the way they

[chrisg_sdcf]

Checked the of tatula 761hfb and guides were the best of all the tatulas I have (did have what looks like a hairline crack in the epoxy on the lowest guide but I bought it used from American legacy for $80 and it feels solid so I'm not worried).

The only other rod I have with similar issues is a dobyns fury 735c and it just looks like maybe they don't use enough epoxy. (I bought this for $79 on the Black Friday sale and they seem to stay cheap through the holidays, so I'm sure they were cranking them out as fast as possible)

Fury

Not really relevant to this thread but I don't feel like starting a new one since it doesn't really matter.

I decided to contact dobyns and send them pictures of my fury 735c to see if they thought it looked normal and their response was kind of strange since I bought it brand new from American legacy. They don't think it will effect the performance of the rod and I just plan to throw frogs with it. This is what they said.

"No, that is not the correct look that a “factory” rod should have. It will not hurt anything other than the look of the rod.

At some point it was repaired."


Just wanted to give an update since I posted pictures of the fury 735c earlier.