Broke a Dobyns Champion 703 today at Fork. Went by Lake Fork Marina and they didn't have another one of the same model. Called Oak Ridge to ask if they had one and they said they didn't do warranty service. I was baffled and annoyed.

Does Dobyns know about this? One of the big reasons I decided to buy Dobyns rods was because of their hassle-free return policy. So why do they have dealers that are allowed to profit off of the sale of the rods without servicing the warranties? It'd be like a Chevrolet dealer not being able to do warranty work on your truck.

I noticed that Dobyns will allow you to send in a 6" section of your rod directly to them for replacement which is nice...sort of. But having the ability to do it at local dealers is a big bonus. I'll think twice before I buy another Dobyns rod.

Also, the replacement fee has gone up significantly. Used to be $60. Now it's $90 for a Champion series, which isn't much less than a used one would cost anyway. Kind of another bummer...

Same Here I bought a 784 Dobyns Champion Extreme from Oak Ridge one year ago and paid full price for it.

It breaks on hookset this year while I'm in a tournament on fork so I run to Oak Ridge where I purchased the rod. He shook his head NO as soon as I showed him the rod, and said we don't do warranty claims.

Can they consider a warranty claim if you bought it directly from their store? Ok I guess I can understand if I bought it from somewhere else and he has almost no skin in it. But I bought this rod from him, he had another 784 on the shelf, I was willing to pay replacement fee + shipping and even shipping on another 784 to restock the shelf.

I had a similar experience at oak Ridge a couple years ago when Dobyns raised their warranty fees. I had no problem paying $100 to replace a 745 Champ Extreme when it broke. The guy in Oak Ridge told me it was now $120 instead of $60 and that was fine. I needed a new rod and he had one. Only later I found out that Dobyns had raised it to $100. I guess he charged me the shipping, which is fine, just wished he would have told me that.

Oak Ridge won't let you return anything, bought a reel from them earlier this year and it started making noise the very first day. Took it back to them and was told I could not exchange it for another one or get credit towards another brand. I will not buy another big ticket item from them.

So let me get this right they will charge you a warranty fee after you purchased there $500 rod that broke?

if it was your fault then you pay the fee. Otherwise all you pay is shipping. Don't get me wrong, dobyns has excellent customer service and their rods are a dream to fish with. Sometimes a rod breaks and that's fishing. But when you spend $360 on a fishing rod with a warranty and it breaks you should be able to go back to the store and get some assistance.

Some people will service them for you

I know fishin world in dallas does

but you are better off just doing it yourself.....All you have to do is cut off all of the rod except for the 6 inch or so section that says the model number and action. Mail it back to dobyns with a check and they will mail you back a rod

The savvy and champion are cheaper to fix than the DX

My rod box shut on this one. Not Dobyns fault. But I wouldn't have bought the rods without the replacement policy, because I know I do stupid stuff like this from time to time and I don't want it to be a $250 donation when I do. When I bought them, the replacement was $60 which was nice. Now being $90, that's not much less than I could buy a used one for if I hadn't already paid $250 for the one I have. So that's a little frustrating, but not a huge deal I guess.
I didn't even buy mine from Oak Ridge. If I had and they weren't willing to provide warranty service, I would really be livid.

I bought a Dobyns Champion Series. Broke it swinging a 10" bass. Searched for dealer and there are none in Houston area. I could have shipped the whole rod back to Dobyns, then wait for them to determine whether or not it was a defective. (which I'm confident it was particularly after seeing a few threads about them breaking lately) If they found it to be defective they would send me a new one. But rather than hassle with all that I just cut it up, sent it in with $90 and got a new one. Not thrilled with all that but it's my favorite, most used rod. Probably wont buy another unless I find a dealer that will honor their warranty, on the spot.

think anglers pro will help you if you can but I would call b4 you make the drive

edit: i think it is BS that you can be a dealer and not participate is the warranty. Back what you sell or don't sell it

Fishin World in Dallas is going to help me out. I bought one of my Dobyns from them a couple years ago and they were extremely nice then (although not this 703 - I believe I got my Savvy 704 from them).

I agree. If you don't want to honor the warranty, don't be a dealer. It's not a radical concept. Dobyns shouldn't allow some dealers to reap all the financial benefits and honor none of the Dobyns commitment.

First off let me say im sorry you did not get the results you were looking for but to answer your question on dealer participation in the warranty process we have always given the dealer the choice on if they do are do not participate in the no hassle warranty
With that said if you have a problem you can always give me a call and i will get it handled for you at 214-538-9071

Thanks
Stan

Earlier this year, Oak Ridge decided to stop offering warranty exchange service for Dobyns rods. We did so for a couple of reasons:

(1) Last year, one out of every four Dobyns rods we purchased went to warranty exchanges. In other words, we made no profit on one out of every four rods we ordered from Dobyns. Also, because we have a small store, we typically stock only one of each rod. When one of the rods was used for warranty exchange (for no profit), we didn't have that rod available to sell to anyone else (for profit) until we received a replacement rod from Dobyns.

(2) The truth of the matter is that the warranty program gets abused. A LOT. Should dealers be expected to offer warranty exchange service to someone who:

- Bought it at another store or online? Everyone brings us their broken Dobyns rods regardless of where they bought them because we have the largest selection of Dobyns rods available for warranty exchange around the lake.

- Bought it used off of Craigslist or from the back of a truck at First Monday? It happens.

- Bought it ALREADY BROKEN just for the warranty value? Because broken Dobyns rods can be used for warranty exchanges, they DO have value (retail value of a new rod minus the cost of warranty exchange). And yes, people DO sell and trade broken Dobyns rods just to get a better deal on a new rod!

- Wore it out and wants a cheap new replacement? I literally have had guys walk in with a well-used but perfectly good rod and ask for a warranty replacement. When I pointed out that there was nothing wrong with the rod, they offered to take it outside and break it! Despite that obvious abuse of the warranty program, we still provided them a replacement.

It is exactly because of these challenges that Dobyns offers dealers the option to participate in the no-hassle warranty program. Ultimately, the no-hassle warranty exchange program has real costs associated with it. Fortunately, Dobyns recognizes that it is up to each individual dealer to determine how much of those costs they are willing to incur.

These issues are a problem for all rod manufacturers and warranty programs. They are why most rod manufacturers now have customers send warranty rods directly to them. What in-store warranty exchange can you get from: G. Loomis, Shimano, Megabass, TFO, Abu Garcia, 13 Fishing, Duckett... etc.? None. They require the customer to send warranty rods directly to them.

As we added more rod manufacturers to our store, it was simply easier to handle them all the same way: send all warranty customers directly to the manufacturer.



Not at all. A Chevrolet dealer is paid by Chevrolet to do warranty work (independent of profits made from car sales). A Dobyns dealer is not paid at all to provide warranty exchanges. In fact, the dealer pays Dobyns to buy the rods to sit on the rack to be available for warranty exchange.

You're both applying a use of the word "dealer" that just isn't applicable in this case. Extreme example for illustrative purposes: Suppose a Dobyns dealer sells no rods and processes 100 warranty exchanges per month. In this case, the Dobyns dealer has invested the money to order and stock 100 rods and put $0 profit in his pocket. Question: How long till he goes out of business?


Reap all the financial benefits? Seriously?? Do you honestly think that the profit we make on rod sales compensates for the 25% of Dobyns rods we order and keep in stock for no profit at all? Try getting Walmart to stock a product knowing in advance that they wouldn't make any profit on a fourth of them and see what they say.


Generally speaking, we recommend the products we stock. However, in some instances, we stock products because people ask for them. Who are we to tell someone what products they can and cannot buy?

There are people that want to buy a XXXXXX reel. If I personally know that the XXXXXX reel is a piece of garbage, I can offer my opinion and they can choose to take it or not. In the end, I'm not EVER going to "back" a XXXXXX reel (even though I may sell it because the customer wants it).

As an angler, I like Dobyns rods. I recommend Dobyns rods. I USE Dobyns rods.

I also appreciate our customers and pay attention to their feedback, so... If you buy your Dobyns rod from Oak Ridge, we will continue to offer the no-hassle warranty exchange service to you. Simply bring in your broken rod and your receipt and we will warranty exchange it, if we have that rod in stock. We will not offer warranty exchange service for Dobyns rods that are not purchased from Oak Ridge.

If having Dobyns warranty exchange available at Lake Fork is important to you, then you probably should consider buying your Dobyns rods from Oak Ridge.