Are Lifetime Warranties Hurting Premium Fly Rod Sales?

David Leinweber, owner of Angler’s Covey in Colorado Springs, boldly takes on one of the fly fishing industry's sacred cows, the lifetime rod warranty.

LINK (via: Angling Trade)

Time for a change?

Earlier this year Transworld Business did a rant on the impact of no questions asked retail return polices on  the snowboard industry. While not quite apples to apples, some of the talking points are essentially the same.

The two retailers featured prominently in the Transworld piece, REI and Backcounty, have changed their lifetime 100% satisfaction policies to just one year.

Comments

[Carl Hungus]

Ahhh comments are back. Thank you Chum!! As an angler who breaks at least a couple rods per year, I support paying that premium price up front in order to assure that I'll get a lifetime of use. If the manufacturer can't account for warranties within that premium price, then that is their own inefficiency. And lets face it, that by no means means I'll never buy another fly rod. If the manufacturer takes care of me, I'll come back to them for my whole quiver and maybe the latest and greatest technology down the road. In my experience, there are two types that buy fly rods. Those that will use the shit out of them (most likely the hardcores or guides that will talk up a good product and provide brand loyalty for many rod purchases down the road) and those that won't use the shit out of them and are less likely to break a rod. EIther one provides value to not only the manufacturer, but also the dealer providing those products.

[WOW]

Seriously?

[Romulous]

Thanks for turning the comments back on! This guy David sounds like a whiney little bitch. I can go out and buy a shotgun for less than a fly rod. A fucking gun that shoots things and has hundreds of machined parts. We've reached a point with rods where they really aren't getting much better, and a premium rod from 5 years ago can keep pace with the most premium rod of today. It will be a cold day in hell before I go out and spend $600+ for a brittle little piece of graphite and cork with some little metal thingies lashed on to it if it doesn't have a warranty. You want to get rid of the warranty to increase sales? Fine then, charge me the $10 per-section that it said to cost to manufacture a rod + 50%.