Re: Lurkers (and Winston rods)

[rderedfield]

I need to stick up for Winston rods, here.   Your interaction with Winston is unfortunate; I've had similar circumstances with other manufacturers, who have lifetime warrantied products, when I am the 'second owner' of that item.  There has been substantial abuse of the lifetime warranty privilege by folks who weren't the original owners of the product.  I believe Sage and many other lifetime warranty folks are becoming much more stringent about honoring these warranties.   Taking the side of Winston, their warranty is to the original owner, or whomever owns an unfilled/not completed warranty card.  They don't know if you did or didn't buy the rod at a pawn shop, or whatever.  They just know that you don't have a warranty card, you're not on file, so you must not be the original owner.  You're probably an honest guy, but they need to go by the rules, and emotions aside, you might agree with them if you put yourself in their shoes.   As an example, I'm interested in buying a North Face jacket, but don't want to pay retail for it because they are so darn expensive.  The jackets are all over eBay, at much-better-than retail prices.  I understand there are a lot of counterfeit jackets out there, and if I want to roll the dice and save some $$, and maybe have the possibility of not having NF warranty the jacket if something goes wrong with it and it proves to be a counterfeit, then that's my risk.  I haven't yet decided if it's worth it or not.   Similarly, you purchased a rod, at presumably a favorable price relative to retail, with the understanding, from the donor, that a warranty card was available.  Winston is a third party in this whole transaction, and has not responsibility involving if the donor can or can't come up with the card.  That's between you and the donor only.  It appears you took a measured risk, and it didn't work out to how you ultimately wanted it.   To the extent you appear emotional about this issue, I suspect you aren't going to like this email.  In your defense, you shouldn't have received a lecture from the shop owner; it's too bad you made your purchases BEFORE the lecture.  However, Winston is a good company, and I know of many other successful customer service stories related to their products.   ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, November 09, 2001 9:53 AM Subject: Re: Lurkers I say amen.  There are so many groups around who suffer from terminal "elitism."  I recently was in Utah and had occasion to visit a fly shop in Park City.  When I walked in the door, the place smelled like money.  Pictures on the wall with the guides with the likes of Martha Stewart and others.  Not the same atmosphere as my favorite fly shops in the Seattle area.  I spent some money buying the flies I would use the next day on a local lake.  Then I made the mistake of showing my son in law a Winston rod I had purchased at a fly fishing auction.  The rod was bought with the promise that it had an unfilled warranty card.  However the individual who donated the rod to the auction could not find the card.  I bought a T&T LPS rod a few years ago from an individual and contacted T&T to see if it h! ad ever been registered.  They said no, and sent me a card to fill out.   Anyway, the owner of this fly show in Park City overheard me telling my son in law about the refusal of Winston to stand behind their product and send me another warranty card.  He then proceeded to lecture me for about 10 minutes on the importance of buying a rod through a "franchised auction, or dealer."  He would hear nothing of my arguments about Winston's refusal to stand behind their products.  I ended up selling the rod for what I had paid for it to another person who understood that it did not have a warranty card with it.  I will never buy another Winston product again because of this experience.  Interestingly, I received an email from the person who donated the rod to the auction that he had found the warranty card just a few days ago.   The bottom line of the above verbiage is that if we don't let the lurkers, and I really don't like that word, stay on, then we will be no different that the attitude of the owner of that fly shop.  Lots of us, due to health, work schedules, etc.,  just enjoy the vicarious experience of reading the posts to this website.  I lots of times will just drop into a flyshop to enjoy the feeling, talk to the employees, and buy a few flies.   Same thing on this website.  Some are more adept at expressing feelings, reports, etc.  But many are just enjoying the experience of being able to learn the small tidbits.  I have been flyfishing for many years.  I consider myself pretty knowledgeable, but I learn something new almost every day from this site.  So let the lurkers remain.   Let's not turn this into an elitist group, self centered and forgetting that each of us at one point was a novice.  I am still learning, whethe! r from experience, or others experience.  When I have something to say, I will say it.  Otherwise I will keep quiet, but my presence is still there contributing to the sport we all love. Roger Bellevue, WA