Tackle Warehouse Customer Service Rod Review

[Rich Frye]

I have no idea where to write this up, but I certainly want people to have open access to this. Powers that be please feel free to move this to the appropriate area.


On December 24th of last year I purchased two LC rods from Tackle Warehouse online. A few hours later I was pleasantly surprised to get an email from TW with an UPS tracking number saying that my rods were shipped.
I called up my fishing buddy who split the order with me telling him that he could plan the trip up to my place to pick up and test his rod the coming weekend. We were pleased and excited to test these before ice .
A few days later and still had no tracking from UPS, I called TW. I have to say that the first person I talked to was less than concerned. She told me that it was UPS' fault and they had only been told later in the day that my tracking info was sent that UPS was indeed not picking up packages that day. But she assured me that it was somewhere along the shipping route.
I then emailed TW to let them know that sending out an email that says a product is shipped when it is not is misleading to the customer. I was sent a reply saying that TW had in fact made mistakes and they wanted to make it right by sending me another package overnight , free of charge . They also said they would follow up with UPS. My rods came in the next day, most likely a couple days after an on time and actually shipped UPS shipment would have made it to me.
About a week later I got the original package from TW via UPS. And since the words " make things right" , "free of charge" and " we made mistakes" were used I thought these were indeed sent "free of charge" to "make things right" for the " mistakes THEY made". There had been zero mention of returning rods, let alone how.
I learned after my rods were sent that they never left TW until the 28th of December, not the 24th and not " been shipped" as was told me a few days in by their customer service.
So, my friend drives up and we test our $50 blowout closeout rods before everything freezes up. Two a a bit bent , but hey, what do you expect from now $25 rods since TW was nice enough to make up for my time and their mistakes.

And now this is where the story takes a downturn.
I get a call from TW ( a full week after UPS delivered) saying that the rods which were free of charge and were supposedly being followed up on by TW as to the UPS situation need to be returned. The $50 , now USED rods which also happen to have , NOW custom hook keeps wrapped upon them , one of which is 100 miles from me at my buddy's place need to be returned or they would charge me.
Now, if , IF TW had at any point behaved as they should when calling to have me drive , pay tolls, pay for gas , box the rods up and arrange for their return shipping I would have behaved in like . Although I would not have been thrilled about once again needing to fx a TW error.
No sorry we did not follow up with UPD like we said we would. No admission of wrong doings at all with this phone call. Essentially extorting money for something I did not order.
Apparently TW expects to make money while on the phone avoiding their multi-faceted issues , but expect their customers to suck it up and spend their hard earned time and money to drive hundreds of miles at our own expense.
I told them that I would gladly return their rods if they pay my tolls, gas and time. They charged my credit card instead , even after I told them I refuse to pay for something I did not order.

Believe it or not this is the very short story. The full story includes " supervisors " hanging up, unanswered emails, unfullfilled requestes for managers to call me etc. I am about as surprised as they come. First and absolutely the last time I patronize TW and will continue to tell the tale to anyone who will listen.
I am in the process of disputing the charge . For the $100 total for two rods it is absolutely a matter of priciple over cost. If any of the now five difference people at TWbInhave talked to made me feel as if they felt at all bad about the situation I would have most likely just rolled my eyes when they called saying I needed to pay for their mistake number ...well who knows what number at this point .
I can literally feel the veins pulsing on my gourd as I write this , so if it sounds like the ramblings of a crazy person it is due to the fact I have been driven so.
Got a number of emails to prove exactly what I have written here . I expect a bit of a backlash due to the fact that TW is a sponsor here and I know plenty here have had perfectly fine transactions with them, but my first andmlast business experience with them has been a doozie.

[civicrr]

Bummed you had a bad experience with them. I've had nothing but great service buying, and at times returning/exchanging, gear since 2007.

[cortman]

That really is too bad that you had that experience. I do think I would have confirmed with TW explicitly that the original shipment was free of charge.
I've had quite good experiences with TW. Nothing super outstandingly bad or good. I do think it's kind of funny how many guys have this romantic idea that TW is some small, underdog company who is always on their side, and buy and wear all their branded stuff all the time. They're a pretty good sized outfit with millions and millions in sales every year. I'm not too worried about them.

[Rich Frye]

That really is too bad that you had that experience. I do think I would have confirmed with TW explicitly that the original shipment was free of charge.
I've had quite good experiences with TW. Nothing super outstandingly bad or good. I do think it's kind of funny how many guys have this romantic idea that TW is some small, underdog company who is always on their side, and buy and wear all their branded stuff all the time. They're a pretty good sized outfit with millions and millions in sales every year. I'm not too worried about them.

I hindsight I agree I should have done the job TW was supposed to have in the first place. The job they said they would. Then I would be done with them.

But, If it is my business to ship product and I say (as I have in writing from TW) that I will follow up with UPS , this can only mean one of two things.
The first would mean that TW would follow up with UPS by making sure that my free gift had made it , it did, thanks. Good job.
The second would be to follow up and tell UPS to cancle the shipment and return to sender. Which they could have easily done, but did not do.

"Make it up to me " by sending me a package free of charge and following up with UPS does not equate to calling me over a week after my rods get to me to tell me that they want their used rods back and expect me to drive, collect, box and mail them, all the while fixing , on my dime, because of yet MORE of TW's mistakes.

Mistake and miscommunication one after the other on their end and I pay for their mistakes.

[Warhawk]

I've had nothing but good experiences dealing with TW.

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

Well this is just your side of the story. But even going by what you say the free of charge,to me, is clearly meant for the overnight shipping charges not the product. They would give you a shipping label to cover the return of their product, not really an expense to you.
But anyways they most likely wont miss your business and have many thousands of happy customers so its good to get rid of the ones that are trouble and try to take advantage of them.
I just dont get how you think you were offered two free rods for a shipment that was maybe a little over a week in getting delivered,during Christmas/New Years.

This wont stop me from patronizing them cause with the traffic they do there is bound to be issues now and then.

[Rich Frye]

Well this is just your side of the story. But even going by what you say the free of charge,to me, is clearly meant for the overnight shipping charges not the product. They would give you a shipping label to cover the return of their product, not really an expense to you.
But anyways they most likely wont miss your business and have many thousands of happy customers so its good to get rid of the ones that are trouble and try to take advantage of them.
I just dont get how you think you were offered two free rods for a shipment that was maybe a little over a week in getting delivered,during Christmas/New Years.

This wont stop me from patronizing them cause with the traffic they do there is bound to be issues now and then.

It is not my goal to try to convince people to buy or not to buy from a business. I am just reporting my bad experience.

I would ask what exactly " we will follow up with UPS" means to you .
As I have made clear , it either means they follow up to make sure it is delivered or they follow up to make sure it was returned.
I doubt if either were the case , and I know TW does not care. They are a megastore. They charged me for units I did not order.
Everyone falls down, it is how you get up.

[Rich Frye]

And again, this , beleive it or not , is the condensed version.
They said they were " going to make things right for mistakeS" ,mistakes made by them. I had talked to three different people who told me three different stories about when my rods left their warehouse and why I had been told three totally different stories.
They knew they had screwed up with the story telling .
And, as I have said, if they had just called and started off with hat in hand and ASKED for their USED rods back I would have been a lot more prone to working with them, as opposed to feeling obligated to tell other of this wonderful tale of tackle .

[nativefloridian]

You thought that they were going to give you two free rods because of an error in shipping? Making things right is what it sounds like they tried to do.

[Rich Frye]

You thought that they were going to give you two free rods because of an error in shipping? Making things right is what it sounds like they tried to do.

No, I thought they were giving me two closeout rods because they had been caught lying to me and because after all the frustration in emails and phone conversations, much less the ones AFTER rods were delivered , added up to WAY more than $100 worth of my personal time , aggravation and attempts to get straight answers.
What capped it was when the person who said he was following up with UPS did not re-route his UPS package, as any average Jr. Businessmens' Club teens would have the business sense to do...
Now , twist number who knows by now.
Part of the reason I was getting phrases like " make it right" is due to the fact that it was impossible for my buddy to plan a day to pick up his rod until it was actually delivered after all the bs I was being told. And I explained that he lived far away and would need to plan appropriately to pick up and test his rod.
TW waiting until over a week after the rods were clearly delivered to ask for them back seems now a clear attempt at simply wanting to get rid of and charge me for a couple more clearance rods.

[jrob78]

If I'm following your story correctly it sounds to me like the only mistake on their part was sending you a tracking # a day or 2 before UPS actually picked up the order. You don't get any updates on your tracking and start calling them and sending them emails letting them know what a bad job they've done. To make sure you aren't without your rods for too long, they expedite 2 new ones. When the original rods finally arrive, they are to be sent back or paid for, TW would have covered shipping and may have even included a return label in the overnighted rod.

Unless I'm missing something, they went out of their way to please a pita customer. It isn't cool to expect something free out of the deal. You weren't that inconvenienced in the first place. Online orders on Christmas Eve don't always go completely smoothly. I can understand being frustrated if they weren't clear with you that the rods were to be returned or paid for but you should know better than to assume they were free.

[Rich Frye]

You are not following me if you believe that no less than three very specific stories as to where my rods were amounted to simple mistakes.
And again, I would have gladly returned the rods had they worked with me to get them back to them. Basically they demanded their rods back or they would charge me, BEFORE even getting an answer as to how to work out the situation, be it keep or return rods , I was charged for them the very next day.
The same day of the call demanding I drive 100 miles to pick up the used rod I asked to speak to a manager and was told that one would be available to call me that day. Guess who never got that phone call.
Asking for good information about products you paid for is not being a pain in the ass. Expecting emails and phone calls returned should be, should be a given .

This whole issue started by TW sending out an email of a fictitious shipping happening. Anybody buy a lot on Ebay? Don't ya just love it when some seller marks a product as shopped and somehow it does not turn up in the system until four days later?
I at first tried to get this point across to TW and they tried to deny that this is exatly what happened . Saying something has been shipped when in fact it obviouly has not, and obviously will not be shipped for days, apparently.
"Sorry Mr. Frye, you are right. It is probably not a good practice to say shipped when not actually shipped."
Kind of the answer I should have gotten, not even close to the rest of my wonderful experience with TW for the last few weeks.
My fishing buddy is not exactly thrilled either.

[Teal101]

You are not following me if you believe that no less than three very specific stories as to where my rods were amounted to simple mistakes.
And again, I would have gladly returned the rods had they worked with me to get them back to them. Basically they demanded their rods back or they would charge me, BEFORE even getting an answer as to how to work out the situation, be it keep or return rods , I was charged for them the very next day.
The same day of the call demanding I drive 100 miles to pick up the used rod I asked to speak to a manager and was told that one would be available to call me that day. Guess who never got that phone call.
Asking for good information about products you paid for is not being a pain in the ass. Expecting emails and phone calls returned should be, should be a given .

This whole issue started by TW sending out an email of a fictitious shipping happening. Anybody buy a lot on Ebay? Don't ya just love it when some seller marks a product as shopped and somehow it does not turn up in the system until four days later?
I at first tried to get this point across to TW and they tried to deny that this is exatly what happened . Saying something has been shipped when in fact it obviouly has not, and obviously will not be shipped for days, apparently.
"Sorry Mr. Frye, you are right. It is probably not a good practice to say shipped when not actually shipped."
Kind of the answer I should have gotten, not even close to the rest of my wonderful experience with TW for the last few weeks.
My fishing buddy is not exactly thrilled either.

It's called automated emailing. As soon as the tracking number is created and email is sent. They can create a label on the 24th and it wont be picked up until the next business day. I do it all the time as does everyone I buy from including TW and Ebay sellers. If you buy from someone who directly goes to the PO, sends the package, then updates tracking it will track within 24hrs. If they create pre-paid labels like 99% of businesses it will give you a tracking number and not update until the item is picked up and processed by the carrier. Unless you specify a special shipping option such as 2-day they show up when the carrier gets them there. Publicly slandering a company big or small because you dont understand how shipping labels work is rude IMO. Expecting two free rods is wild. Even if they didnt clarify I personally would have. TW includes a return label in EVERY package they send. All you had to do was open the tube, get the label, close the tube up, stick it on, and either drop it off or arrange for carrier pickup at your convenience. Gotta agree with jrob78 here.

[Hogsticker2]

You are not following me if you believe that no less than three very specific stories as to where my rods were amounted to simple mistakes.
And again, I would have gladly returned the rods had they worked with me to get them back to them. Basically they demanded their rods back or they would charge me, BEFORE even getting an answer as to how to work out the situation, be it keep or return rods , I was charged for them the very next day.
The same day of the call demanding I drive 100 miles to pick up the used rod I asked to speak to a manager and was told that one would be available to call me that day. Guess who never got that phone call.
Asking for good information about products you paid for is not being a pain in the ass. Expecting emails and phone calls returned should be, should be a given .

This whole issue started by TW sending out an email of a fictitious shipping happening. Anybody buy a lot on Ebay? Don't ya just love it when some seller marks a product as shopped and somehow it does not turn up in the system until four days later?
I at first tried to get this point across to TW and they tried to deny that this is exatly what happened . Saying something has been shipped when in fact it obviouly has not, and obviously will not be shipped for days, apparently.
"Sorry Mr. Frye, you are right. It is probably not a good practice to say shipped when not actually shipped."
Kind of the answer I should have gotten, not even close to the rest of my wonderful experience with TW for the last few weeks.
My fishing buddy is not exactly thrilled either.

It's called automated emailing. As soon as the tracking number is created and email is sent. They can create a label on the 24th and it wont be picked up until the next business day. I do it all the time as does everyone I buy from including TW and Ebay sellers. If you buy from someone who directly goes to the PO, sends the package, then updates tracking it will track within 24hrs. If they create pre-paid labels like 99% of businesses it will give you a tracking number and not update until the item is picked up and processed by the carrier. Unless you specify a special shipping option such as 2-day they show up when the carrier gets them there. Publicly slandering a company big or small because you dont understand how shipping labels work is rude IMO. Expecting two free rods is wild. Even if they didnt clarify I personally would have. TW includes a return label in EVERY package they send. All you had to do was open the tube, get the label, close the tube up, stick it on, and either drop it off or arrange for carrier pickup at your convenience. Gotta agree with jrob78 here.

Yup. Me too. These fellas are right, plus if you had hook keepers wrapped onto the rods if I'm understanding correctly, doesn't that mean you were expecting them to be free because your buddy had to take a trip? Seems the practical thing to have done is call him when the rods were actually there. Sounds like you got a little ahead of yourself. Common sense would tell me 100 dollars worth of free stuff seems a bit bizarre, and I would have confirmed this being a return shipping label was provided and they went out of the way to to make it right, which they didn't have to do for reasons stated above. I don't doubt the phone time customer service was bad, but that's just customer service everywhere these days.

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

You had 3 rods in your possession no need for your friend to drive back to give his rod back to you, just send back the two not owed to you.