dcabarle
Administrator
I'm not sure if Eric from NJTROUT reads this site, but if you do... (Sorry, this was going to be a long one and not being able to put things in paragraph form for something like this hurts my eyes).
I'd just like to point out that I'm not against John Niemeira's Guarantee:
On another note, John takes a $250.00 NON-REFUNDABLE deposit from you before he builds a rod. This kinda tells me a few things about the maker and his attitude towards;
A. himself
B. his customers,
C. his rods
If you're a good confident rod builder, people are going to purchase your rods because of the workmanship and the quality of the rods you build. Why take a deposit on a rod unless the customer asks you to build the ugliest custom stick that you couldn't even give it away if you left it on the side of a stream. Of course you're not going to make back what (with this particular ugly rod) you put into this rod in time alone, but you'll at least be covered for costs of this ugly breed.
A few reasons for deposits that come to mind are the following:
1. You are selling to someone who orders 10 or more and you don't have a waiting list for your product. You want the deposit to cover building costs... (Understandable)
2. You're a small time builder with a small client base, and these rods are your only source of income. (Understandable)
3. You're insecure about your product and figure that if the person buying your rod doesn't like it than nobody will, but you still have the deposit to fall back on. Who knows, maybe you can sell it to someone else who won't like it either... You can recycle the rod over and over again. Hell, you can turn this rod thing into its own business. (Understandable, but maybe it's time to focus on other things).
*I'm not saying that any of the above 3 represent John in any way, but just pointing out that some people may visit his website and take on one of these opinions. There are other reasons for a deposit, I'm sure. These are just opinions and should not reflect any bamboo rod maker without his/her own reasons.
I don't understand why the deposit would be non refundable. If you have a good business going, you'll be able to offload that rod in no time with nothing at all to lose. Johns Cheapest rod appears to be, $950.00. $250 out of 950 is a nice chunk of change.
John does mention in his Guarantee that you will get a "FULL REFUND" however, two paragraphs above that statement, there is another statement which reads,
I'd just like to point out that I'm not against John Niemeira's Guarantee:
It's actually what I would have expected from any cane rod builder. It's a lot of work to simply say, 'If you smash it in your car door, we'll replace the broken section free of charge.' It's something that doesn't seem afordable as a rod maker. This warrantee does say, "Guaranteed against breakage one time" but then goes on to say, "does not cover damage due to misuse, negligence, abuse, accidents, anglers wear and tear, breakage due to doors, car doors and trunks, or to rods having any modifications." The way I would interpret that is, if you've hooked into the mother load of a fish and the rod breaks... You're covered. But, If you slam it in your door, tough luck. Can't blame him for that though.
On another note, John takes a $250.00 NON-REFUNDABLE deposit from you before he builds a rod. This kinda tells me a few things about the maker and his attitude towards;
A. himself
B. his customers,
C. his rods
If you're a good confident rod builder, people are going to purchase your rods because of the workmanship and the quality of the rods you build. Why take a deposit on a rod unless the customer asks you to build the ugliest custom stick that you couldn't even give it away if you left it on the side of a stream. Of course you're not going to make back what (with this particular ugly rod) you put into this rod in time alone, but you'll at least be covered for costs of this ugly breed.
A few reasons for deposits that come to mind are the following:
1. You are selling to someone who orders 10 or more and you don't have a waiting list for your product. You want the deposit to cover building costs... (Understandable)
2. You're a small time builder with a small client base, and these rods are your only source of income. (Understandable)
3. You're insecure about your product and figure that if the person buying your rod doesn't like it than nobody will, but you still have the deposit to fall back on. Who knows, maybe you can sell it to someone else who won't like it either... You can recycle the rod over and over again. Hell, you can turn this rod thing into its own business. (Understandable, but maybe it's time to focus on other things).
*I'm not saying that any of the above 3 represent John in any way, but just pointing out that some people may visit his website and take on one of these opinions. There are other reasons for a deposit, I'm sure. These are just opinions and should not reflect any bamboo rod maker without his/her own reasons.
I don't understand why the deposit would be non refundable. If you have a good business going, you'll be able to offload that rod in no time with nothing at all to lose. Johns Cheapest rod appears to be, $950.00. $250 out of 950 is a nice chunk of change.
John does mention in his Guarantee that you will get a "FULL REFUND" however, two paragraphs above that statement, there is another statement which reads,
To anyone who may have read this in a negative way. I've heard many positive stories regarding the craftsmanship of Johns rods. I've also heard that John is excellent at repairing broken rods. So far, I've only heard of 1 instance where the buying party was not satisfied. After casting 4-5 flavors of Johns rods at the Somerset FF show last year, I didn't care for any of them.
