Gander Mountain Rods- Warranty

[Dylan33]

Hey all-

I recieved a Gander mountain rod/reel combo for Christmas, and sadly- just had a chance to get out and test it out. Unfortunately, I picked it up by the rod blank, and it snapped in half.

So, does anyone have any insight into Gander's guarantees? I have no reciept, but it still has the tags.

Thanks

[nofishfisherman]

I've heard they have been good about replacing their rods when they break. That was awhile back and things may have changed but take it in and see what they'll do.

[mrklean]

I know they use to have an awesome return policy I broke mine on a trip up north, when I got home i broke it a few more times to fit in my garbage can, then found out about there return policy. Returned a rod in about 6 pieces no questions asked I got a new one and was even nicer then the one I bought since that line was discontinued. That was about 5 years ago

[Juan Grande]

I think it might be a two year warranty, but it's definitely not lifetime anymore. I've exchanged rods there before and it was always no questions asked.

[20lbSloughShark]

I think its $6 extra for a 2 year, no questions ask return now. Not sure what it is if you don't pay that. I'd bet that since its only a few months old, and I'm guessing you weren't clearly abusing it, they would replace it. The problem will be the receipt. You can try, but for all they know you stole it from some other store.

[MNHunter65]

With a rod/reel combo, they might make you exchange both the reel and the rod. Thats what I had to do last time I had a rod break. The manager said he couldn't just change out the rod.I really think it depends on who you get in the store. I brought in two different rods before this and it was a no question replacement.

[fishnowworknever]

I think its $6 extra for a 2 year, no questions ask return now. Not sure what it is if you don't pay that. I'd bet that since its only a few months old, and I'm guessing you weren't clearly abusing it, they would replace it. The problem will be the receipt. You can try, but for all they know you stole it from some other store.

It's all about their 90 day return policy and/or the manufacturers warranty. They want a receipt to determine the date of purchase, not if you stole it from another store...geez.

[RebelSS]

Quote:

It's all about their 90 day return policy and/or the manufacturers warranty. They want a receipt to determine the date of purchase, not if you stole it from another store...geez.

Exactly. Sometimes you just need to consider the source.

They'll replace it. I've never had a problem with them doing that, at least at the store in my town.

[20lbSloughShark]

It's all about their 90 day return policy and/or the manufacturers warranty. They want a receipt to determine the date of purchase, not if you stole it from another store...geez.

I'm glad you know every last detail of their return policy. Some people you just can't please.

[eyeguy 54]

bought 2 rods a couple weeks ago on sale for 20 bucks. 10 extra would get me a replacement for a year. 2 bucks replace the sale price for a year. I opted out so I hope they dont break.

[srfishin15]

Alright before the slamming of Gander Mountain begins here is the explanation of rod warranty and all gander products warranty. Those protection plans we sell we were previously pushing on all products. Now, everything that is Gander Mountain, Guide Series, or GSX has a one year guarantee no questions asked. Thus effectively making the protection plans insignificant. This counts towards rods, reels, apparel, tents, sleeping bags, everything. Corporate only recently (the last two weeks) said that employees should stop selling protection plans on Gander products.

So, for those of you that have a rod that is under a year old and is broken we can take it as defective and either give you the same rod in exchange, or the amount it is worth in store credit.

Now I don't know if this is true for the other Gander Mountains (I would assume so) but if you come to the St. Cloud store, for those rods that were sold as a LIFETIME warranty (older than three years) we can take the rod as defective and refund you the amount it is worth now. For example, today a customer brought in a Musky rod that is no longer produced. By looking up the UPC, we can see the price history of the rod. In this particular case the rod was sold in 2007 for $80.00. As of June of 2014 it was reduced in price down to $59.97. So the customer received that amount to put towards a new rod.

When corporate decided to change the lifetime warranty to a one year it understandably angered a lot of people. As an employee we work with what they give us, and in the case of older rods that were originally sold as lifetime warranties, we try to get the customer at least some compensation, because we know it was an unfair decision by our corporate offices.

So, in review:

Rods under a year old: Can be taken as defective and replaced or refunded for the full amount.

Rods older than a year that are no longer produced: Taken as defective and the consumer will be refunded the current price of the rod.

Hope this clears it up.

[Dylan33]

Thanks SRfishin- We appreciate the insight...so let me ask you this, getting back to the original question. If I have no reciept to prove when it was purchased, as i recieved it as an xmas gift. Will that cause any issues with a return?

I have never used the rod, line wasn't even put on it yet. I will be going to gander in Blaine tonight to attempt the return, we'll see what happens. But I was hoping to have some idea what i'm walking in to.

Thanks again

[Fred_Bear]

In my experience with Gander, the warranties are variable depending on the individual store and employee that you deal with. Some stores and employees are more willing to do the extra work to satisfy a customer.

Last summer I had a "broken but fixable" Gander X-factor rod that I brought into the Fargo store. The first time I went in the employee told me what he could do for me; it wasn't much so I said no thanks and kept the rod. I went back the next night and talked to a different employee; he offered me a different deal that I was much happier with so I was a happy customer.

[Stick in Mud]

Thanks for the info, srfishin.

[srfishin15]

Dylan, to answer your original question, You should have recieved store credit as does any return we do that the customer does nto have a reciept. That's what should have happened, sorry I did not see your original question. If the rod does not have tags on it then the employees in Blaine will have to product search and find the UPC code for the rod, that would be the only difficult part of the return. That's what SHOULD have happened.

[srfishin15]

One other issue that arises with a no reciept return is the fact that some of the rods go on sale, so if the customer does not have a reciept they will be refunded the lowest sale price that the rod was put at. For example, if a GSX tournament rod is regularly $99.99, but it goes on sale for $69.99, the customer returning the rod without a reciept will receive $69.99 in store credit. This prevents people from buying rods at sale price and then returning them without a receipt and receiving the full price of the rod as compensation. Unfortunatley there is no way around this.

[TMF89]

One thing I'd like to add, is that warranty doesn't cover combos, at least according to my department manager. The rods that come with the combos are different than the ones we sell on their own, both physically and as far as the warranties are concerned. I've been told that after our standard 90 day return policy, we're not to have anything to do with the combo. Having said that, I've been part of situations where that policy was ignored several times, and I would guess that the majority of time the combos were returned without issue. However, as far as I know, the policy from corporate is that the rod/reel combos are not to be covered under the one year warranty. Now there are loopholes, and frankly most associates are going to try and do the right thing and help you, but you MAY run into a situation where they won't return the combo.

And our rods have codes on the blank, just above the specifications in smaller lettering. There'll be a letter, and two numbers. C13, for example. C stands for the month, March in this case, and 13 stands for 2013. That tells us the rod was made in March of 2013. Now I'll be the first to admit the problem with this is rods can sit at the distribution center, down in storage at the store, and on the shelf for quite some time before they're sold. That C13 example is actually from a rod I saw on our racks earlier this week. So in theory if a customer bought that rod, broke it immediately, but lost his receipt, we wouldn't be able to do anything for him because the markings on the rod are already over a year old. Obviously that's not the right course of action, but again, that COULD happen. However us hourly associates will almost always try and help you out, it's usually managers who are sticklers for the rules that muck things up.

[Comit 2]

What the other guy said

[Dylan33]

One other issue that arises with a no reciept return is the fact that some of the rods go on sale, so if the customer does not have a reciept they will be refunded the lowest sale price that the rod was put at. For example, if a GSX tournament rod is regularly $99.99, but it goes on sale for $69.99, the customer returning the rod without a reciept will receive $69.99 in store credit. This prevents people from buying rods at sale price and then returning them without a receipt and receiving the full price of the rod as compensation. Unfortunatley there is no way around this.

BINGO. This is exactly what happened. The tag show'd the original price as $119.99...and I got 59.99 in store credit, since I had no reciept. Thanks.

[fishnowworknever]

I've learned with Gander Mountain is to either:

1. Shop elsewhere.

2. See #1

You'll get different customer service "levels" even with different store managers. Most big companies have a store policy and follow it to a "T" as close as possible. I've had one too many different store "policies" applied to my situations that I decided it just isn't worth my time.

There are other options out there, if you're unhappy with a certain business there is only one way to show them you're unhappy...don't shop there.

[Hawg]

Sometimes people forget that when extra service occurs it's EXTRA over and above service and that person probably put themselves at risk by doing it. The company dictates policy, not whiners and a__holes, as is usually the people that complain on websites.