At one point in time, I felt shimano was the "go to" name in fishing for me, and I have equipped myself with pretty much 95% shimano fishing gear. I do a lot of fishing, and lately pretty much switched over all my gear to shimano. Let me tell you, sadly, I have never come across so many hassles in my life....
I have snapped a nice calcutta rod (which had limited use!) on a rock bass, snapped a cumara, and popped an eye out of another cumara........This has all happened within 2 fishing trip outings totalling 4 days...
I do not abuse my stuff and take pride in keeping everything in as -new condition..............So I am thinking, well, at least these rods have a good warranty on them, everybody says their customer service is #1, right???????
So I take the Calcutta in (which is now discontinued) and expect to get a return as their website states
http://fish.shimano.com/publish/content/gl...y_Services.html
There is a shimano rod exchange warranty PDF specifically set out for the calcutta, and this is on the "North America" website , which might I add mentions shimano canada on the main page before you download the pdf...Anyways long story short, I called shimano canada, they will not honor their website and say "It is USA only"..................Nowhere does it say that, which I find puzzling....keep in mind the mention of Canada on the page.....
So I am given the run-around by the warranty dealer (it looks like a war bunker or 1950's bicycle shop..I wont mention the name) and he seems to not give a crap on finding out the information needed to get me a new rod and get me fishing again....
I contacted shimano Canada(who mentioned the website is USA only, and did not know there was a PDF for calcutta rod returns and nore did he care) who gave me the run-around as well, and was unable to answer if they would even take care of the warranty with the proper size rod (ie they have several 6"UL in stock and that is all...I did not buy a 6" UL and have no use for that crap)
What I found interesting was I told him that the website said "NORTH AMERICA" and I said "CANADA IS NORTH AMERICA" and his response was "IS IT?"
again, went back to have the eye replaced on the CUMARA, the warranty center says they do not warranty rod guides/eyes etc. which nowhere on the website does it say that.......So he replaced my top guide (which is a SIC guide) with a generic junk which I think is REDWOLF, and two sizes larger than the one which was on it....I bought a rod with Fuji SIC guides, not red-wolf guides 2X the size...And I would like it replaced properly with a SIC guide, the rod is not more than 3 weeks old!!!!!!!!!!! (that bicycle shop looking warranty center is a hack)
To make a long story short, I am upset yes, but what we all have to realize is that after the expensive transaction is complete, are you really truly safe while buying a rod with a lifetime warranty...??? I have heard good things, and unfortunately, I am yet to see them....Step up to the plate and take it like a man, not like a little boy shimano and grow some, otherwise people will realize there are products out there which are twice as good with good customer service to boot (cough st croix, no problems ever with them for me). Shimano rods were completely different when they had the over the counter warranty, but man have they changed. Don't treat your customers like a degenerate......
