Complaint Review: Seeker Fishing Rod Company - Oxnard California

Seeker is a leading fishing rod manufacturer in Southern California. I own and use several of their rods, and can vouch for them being high quality products. Seeker also provides excellent customer service. The reported problem sounds like a misunderstanding to me, but not by Seeker.

When you asked Seeker if you could break the rod in half so it would fit in the box and Seeker told you to "Send in the broken half", Seeker obviously meant that you should send in the two pieces of the upper half of the rod. You did say that it was the tip of the rod that you broke on the first cast, and obviously Seeker would want to look at the tip and the section just below it, to see how the rod might have broken. Or, you could have just sent in all three pieces, but I can't imagine why you would think Seeker would want the lower half!

Also, "Jason in shipping" probably expects to see whole rods come in, not half a rod. If you had sent in the upper half of the rod, you could probably have worked things out, seeing as how the owner told you to send in the broken half. But really, common sense suggests you should have known what half of the rod Seeker wanted to look at.

Seeker should authorize its retailers to take returns.  Turners should be able to tell if the damage was caused by a flaw in their manufacturing process, or by consumer neglect.  If a retailer cannot tell if the damage was caused by a manufacturing process then Seeker should teach them.  Shipping is another matter.  Therefore, on borderline cases the retailer should communicate directly with Seeker for a final determination.  

Car windows are responsible for a lot of broken rods, as well as big fish causing a rod to hit the rail. That is not the manufacturers fault.

In the end the manufacture and retailer's goal should be to have satisfied customers.  They should go out of their way to insure customer satisfaction. Total customer satisfaction is in their best long-term interest.  On the other hand, there are people that try to abuse the system.  I'm not in a position to judge this case, but want to identify possible solution(s) to avoid further problems.  

1.  If the consumer was able to return the rod to the retailer, the retailer could have determined the cause of damage and resolved the matter.  

2.  If the consumer was on a cattle boat, the Captain could have determined the cause; or if the consumer was went out of a landing, the landing tackle shop could have made the call and this information could have been passed along to Seeker or its retailer.

3.  If the consumer was not close to any Seeker retailer or Seeker facility, Seeker could have requested the consumer to email photos of the broken rod with close up photos of the area where the break occurred.  

Seeker is a reputable company, unfortunately, manufacturing flaws occur, and there are people that will try to abuse the system.  Seeker should have a clear written protocol to be followed.  Perhaps one should be added to their website if one does not exist. 

Bottom line, if I were Seeker or the retailer, I would want to error on the side of the consumer, unless there was clear evidence the consumer was taking advantage of Seeker.  It is sad this incident reached this point, especially, if the consumer is telling the truth.

I definately see a rip off here.  Hey TYG, your post is offensive, I wonder if you would talk like that in a face to face situation?  The owner did not say anything about the rod having to be evaluated, in fact he made it seem very easy, and hassle free to get a replacement.  Thats what I got from reading the email anyways.  You shouldnt have to go out of your way to fix a problem that you did not cause.  You were proactive and did the right thing to post it here.  I dont fish, but if I did I would not consider this company, thanks for the post.

Do you not see where he said "send the broken half". I work 10 hour days, don't have time to go around looking all over for boxes. A multi million dollar company should replace a rod that breaks on the first cast. And also shouldn't a company offer to pay for shipping since it is their fault I have to ship it? Are you sure you don't work for the company? 

 How exactly is this in ANY WAY their fault?? Seems pretty easy to understand. They said send in the broken piece. One would think that YOU as a functioning adult would understand just by looking at your fishing pole which was the broken part. Its YOUR laziness that has caused this issue for you. All YOU had to do was find a box measuring roughly 4 feet and you could have sent the pole in. BUT!!!!! YOU did not do this. YOU scapegoat the post office and say THAT is all they had. Did you ever think to MAYBE go to a place that SELLS BOXES???? I happen to KNOW that UPS sells 5ft tubes. No, you made the BIGGEST mistake you can. YOU chose a CHEAPER form of shipping and DID NOT go beyond that. When THEY deny your claim because YOU did NOT send in everything needed, THEY are the badguys because YOU are too ignorant to figure out "Send in the broken piece". AND too cheap to go outside your little box and go to someone else to ship it. You can stop playing the victim ANYTIME!!! Ok we get it, your fishing pole failed. All that was asked of YOU was to send it in to them. YOU DID NOT DO THIS!!!!! So how in ANY stretch of the imagination can you sit there and bash them for what is YOUR FAULT???? It always amazes me at EXACTLY how dumb people like YOU are. YOU were given a simple set of instructions and you screwed that up. Perhaps you should be looking in the mirror here instead of bashing a company because YOU couldn't follow directions. The GREAT thing is that if THEY don't like what amounts to your fanciful story they can sue you for it. All YOU have done is show the entire web going public that YOU cannot follow directions and in turn bash innocent parties for your ignorance. Since the web by definition is a media outlet, what you have done can get you into a buttload of trouble. Not the grab your ankles cause your cellmate wishes to greet you, but definatly in the Im going to pay for this for awhile category. It may be only a civil suit, but its STILL a crime. YOU cannot use the web in this manner. Its NOT about YOUR freedom of speech, it IS about accepting responsibility for YOUR actions and being INNOCENT until proven guilty. People like YOU tend to think THEIR rights are above everyone elses. Remember.....WE ARE ALL EQUAL!!!!! and he instructed me to send the pole in and that they would replace it, ..........right there in black and white is the instructions that YOU chose to circumvent. The Post Office only had a smaller box that would fit only the bottom half of the pole ........which means that YOU stopped there and since the post office did not have the size you needed it MUST be their fault. All you had to do was go to another post office or a mailbox store or a UPS or a FEDEX. Once again the American Consumer seeks to blame others for THEIR issues. NO RIPOFF HERE!!!! Just someone who couldn't or wouldn't follow the directions given to them and places a ton of excuses out there as to WHY its not their fault.