In 2013 I bought my wife a Shimano Clarus 6'6" 2 piece rod. She doesn't fish much, so it spends a lot of time in the rod locker probably used a half a dozen times each year. This spring she was bringing in a 3 lb pike when the rod snapped about 6" above the 2 piece joint. When it happened I thought no big deal. It has a limited lifetime warranty and this is obviously a defect.
I took it in to the local store where I bought it where I was told that Shimano changed their warranty program so Over the Counter was no longer available. I would have to ship it back to Shimano for assessment. I was also told that they no longer did limited lifetime warranty. Now it was just one year and any replacement rod would only have one year. They gave me a tube to send the rod back which I did to the tune of $27 dollars. Today I got a call back from Shimano saying I would need to pay $55 dollars to get the rod replaced (they are about $90 new here in stores). When I asked why it wasn't covered they told me that it appeared to be heavily used so it was considered worn out. 2 years of sitting in a rod locker wears out a Shimano rod now? I told them what they could do with the rod and that I would be switching brands as a result of their unwillingness to warranty an issue with their product.
I have always owned Shimano rods. Started out with an FX rod when I was a kid and eventually got into the Cumara/Crucial/GLX/IMX rods in past years. All the rods I own are Shimano due mostly to the great reputation the warranty had. It appears as though that support is now gone so my business will be going elsewhere.
Anyone have experience with another brand that has lifetime warranty? St Croix? TFO? Okuma? Some other brand?
SS
