Saturday 12 September 2015

Tidal Tackle - WTF?


Well over a month later my replacement rod finally arrived from Tidal Tackle - a very long wait! The box it arrived in looked thoroughly beaten up, and I remarked to a friend there was no way the rod wasn't smashed - but I opened it and checked it out and was surprised it appeared to have survived being delivered by Mad Max.

I fancied christening it on the local river, stalking carp in the slower, deeper water. First up I baited a swim to come back to - and as I watched the cubes of meat hit the riverbed a barbel about five of six pounds was straight on it - too much to resist.

I quickly set up the new rod and the barbel nailed my bait straight away - one lunge and the rod snapped - WTF??!? I tried to play the barbel on the remaining rod but something got caught and the line snapped. F**K!


It's not just the expense (and long wait) I have very limited fishing time and that cast was my entire week's fishing - what a jip!

I'll be phoning Tidal Tackle on Monday and I'll publish the resulting conversations on here (and Google feedback, Facebook etc). Hopefully they will sort me out with a new rod - but I still can't get my afternoon's fishing back.


Edit: Just keeping track of this here (for a future post).

4 August
Ordered new fishing rod from Tidal Tackle Torquay
£27.99 -- rod
£8.00 -- p&p

11 August (1 week)
2x emails went ignored. Got hold of someone on the phone who told me they were out of stock, took my number and told me they would "keep me informed" - they didn't.

9 September (5 weeks)
Rod arrives (to wrong address) in beat-up packaging, must be cracked because it snaps on first fish - 6lb barbel lost.

14 September (6 weeks)
After a couple of attempts, got hold of Tidal Tackle and was told to send the rod back.
£11.99 -- cheapest postage
£2.59 -- cheapest packaging

25 September (7½ weeks)
New one arrived in my office. In pretty bulletproof packaging, even bubble wrapped... Wrong f*cking rod...

I did get a note which explained they had sent me a more expensive rod, £32.99 - five whole pounds more expensive (and something they had knocking about in the shop no doubt). So now I've waited over 7 weeks and spent over £50 on a £32.99 rod I don't want! And I bet they will want me to pay to send it back - I've given up, I'll get it from somewhere else.

Time to try and get my money back. But just in case I'm just composing my 'glowing review' for Yell, Facebook review, Google feedback etc...

6 comments:

  1. Outrageous.......all I can think of without swearing and you know I can swear with the best of them!, let's hope they offer a replacement and refund for the absolute inconvenience you've endured.

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    1. Frustrating non-event, not the afternoon I had planned. It looks like the courier companies fault - but I'll see what they say.

      BTW Barbless hook so with any luck the barbel shed it straight away.

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  2. Poor that. Hope you get it resolved. I know too well how precious fishing time can be as well - nothing worse than having a trip ruined

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    1. Yeah, real pain. And I can't get hold of them today - have a feeling this is going to be a long painful process!

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  3. Looks like the walls of the blank are very thin and won't take much abuse. Some modern carbon rods only need the van to go over a cat's eye and the blanks are ready to give out. I used to receive quite a few rods for review and I was forever returning them to be 'skipped'. It is ultimately, a cheap item for the dealer if not for the angler.

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    Replies
    1. It's not an expensive rod at all, but it is very good for light lures and rolling meat into tight spots. And I don't expect them to last forever - would be happy to get a season out of them.

      Like you said it's just had a knock in the delivery van - a bit of bad luck - the next one will have the barbel test (and I'll have a back-up rod with me).

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