Sent my Sam Heatons back, because they are B/M anybody tried Grizzly jig Jig poles?

[Lum]

Lou at Grizzly jig has some with his name on them, comes with a stiff tip / light tip. Anybody tried these? I WILL NOT own another B/M because of their POOR customer service refusing to make it right on 2 busted "Ultra Lite" poles.

[Don G]

Lou at Grizzly jig has some with his name on them, comes with a stiff tip / light tip. Anybody tried these? I WILL NOT own another B/M because of their POOR customer service refusing to make it right on 2 busted "Ultra Lite" poles.

If I contact Jack Wells with BnM and he agrees to fix or replace at no cost would you reconsider.

[Moose1am]

Lum:

I hope you take DonG up on his offer. B&M poles are good poles. I have one of their jig poles and have been using it for a year now. If you take care of your fishing equipment at ALL times then it will not break. But if you are not careful and knock them around in the house or while loading them into the truck or boat or while in transit they are not secured and get knocked around into each other then these very Sensitive and ultralight weight rods will end up getting a nick in them and then they will break when put under stress. The key is to protect them at all times. They are good but need the extra care.

Some people treat their fishing equipment rougher than others and they may not be suited to careing for these very good but sensitive graphite type rods.

I don't know the circumstances of your case and my above comments are general in nature and I am speaking here to you but to anyone who is reading this post. Take care of your graphite IM6, IM7 and IM8 rods and they will last a lot longer.

I have the foam type rod holders mounted in my boat and have a special carry case made with foam rod holders that I use to transport and store my rods. I am very careful with them and don't lay them down against anything hard. I may lay them down resting on the boat bench seat which is padded. Any hard surface can damage these type or rods.

I also have some older glass rod that are much less sensitive and less prone to being damaged.

I like the more sensitive rods as they transmit the vibrations better and it's essentisial to me to feel the line and the baits at all time. If a crappie so much as breaths on my bait I want to know about it.

Also B&M is a good sponsor of Ed's servers. Without B&M and the other great sponsers we would not have this forum to complain about anything or to chat. So please remember that it's the sponsors that make this site possible for all of us. I would hate to see them stop sponsoring this forum due to someone going off on their products in a very negative fashion. What I would prefer to see is you calling B&M and explaining what is going on with your rod(S) and to see if they can make things right. To me that is a much better and honorable approach to your situation.

Good luck and I hope that DonG can get something done to help you get the rods back into operation soon.

Sometimes even when the greatest care is taken with a rod the material can fail due to a maufacturing defect at the factory. If that is the case then I am sure that B&M will make things right for you.

Lou at Grizzly jig has some with his name on them, comes with a stiff tip / light tip. Anybody tried these? I WILL NOT own another B/M because of their POOR customer service refusing to make it right on 2 busted "Ultra Lite" poles.

[PIGINTHEPIGPEN]

BnM customer service has been great for me. They have replaced 2 out of 3 tips that have busted

[Lum]

Thanks DonG, very nice of you to offer. I would not feel comfortable using the ultra lite poles after having not one, but 2 poles break in almost the same spots. Would have been different if i was treated a little better and someone actually tried to be of SOME assistance. I did like the ultra lite poles, just need to be lots stronger in the tip sections. I have been a loyal customer for years buying B/M products and reccomending their poles to others as well, they may have good products but the customer service sucks!!!! I know how to take care of my fishing equiptment and neither of these poles were damaged by me or buddy in ANY way, didn't have them long enough. The lady in customer service would only tell me that "the ultra lites would not handle picking up ANY fish." If the poles are built that lite / that fragile, then i would not want them being sold !! I tried taking the pole back to where i bought it and asked if i could get a free replacement tip, nope, would only sell me tips. Owner of the business also said that several people have complained just like me about the ultra lites breaking. He supposedly has more returns on that model of pole than any other in the store, and he has a bunch. I am not trying to start anything on here, just speaking my mind. Thanks for reading my babbling.

[CrappiePappy]

if I were you, I'd keep the poles and put another tip eye on them. They may be a bit shorter, but I doubt you'd really miss the few inches that are gone. BnM, and Jack Wells have been very good to our sport. Even Richard Williams, who has his own line of poles, has said BnM are great.

The only reason, I can see, why two poles of the exact brand/style/length, would break at the same place is - they were lying together or put under the same conditions when/where "damage" occurred - they were lifted straight up and down, when bringing fish in (putting a strain on the tip end) - or they were both from the same (defective) batch. Odds are that the problem lies in the first or second choice ... I just don't see good odds of the third choice happening. If it was the first - I'm sure it was unknown to you, and accidental. And that wouldn't be BnM's fault. And, at least, they do offer replacement sections. If it's the second - then there may be a problem. But, that could be rectified with a landing net, rather than hoisting a fish up over the side of the boat with a long UL rod....or (if no net) you could grab the line and lift the fish aboard.

Customer service, of any rod company, wants to have the rods shipped back to them for inspection, under Warranty purposes. This ensures that they can test the breakage area to determine if the person who purchased the rod, did not accidently damage it ... plus allows them to take care of the situation (quality control) by tracing it back to the person whom inspected it, and let it through, if it was defective. The BnM rods do have a 1yr Warranty for that. That would have been my first choice in trying to rectify the situation. ..............cp

[duane]

Lou at Grizzly jig has some with his name on them, comes with a stiff tip / light tip. Anybody tried these? I WILL NOT own another B/M because of their POOR customer service refusing to make it right on 2 busted "Ultra Lite" poles.

Lum,
I am like you on this one. When shopping around for a new rod this year I read all the post about B&M rods breaking. I am sure they are good rods but I want a rod I can count on. I have never owned one myself nor do I plan to not with all I have read about them. I think I would let B&M them fix them and then go buy me a rod to use. Would make a good backup pole.

This is the first time I have heard anyone knowing B&M customer service most have said the have GREAT customer service.

BPS is another sponsor of this web page and I myself have gotten good use from the WM line of rods. Another line of rods I would look at, but they are not a sponsor is Outlaw Poles. Never used there poles either, guess I just like their name. Have heard good things abour their line of poles.

I am just a weekend fisherman and use my boat for other things than fishing, it is a family item. I try and keep my rods in good shape. I have PVC pipe rod holders for each of my good rods in my rod box and try to put my rods in them when not using them. But can not always do that, wished I could.

[unknown 5]

I haven't tried all of the crappie poles out there. I am sure some are better than others. I think alot of them will break when you tie into a 3-4 pound channel catfish, green carp, or a regular carp. And, in my experiance, if you don't occasionally hook up with these fish, you probably are not catching many crappie either. They are going to bust about any "sensitive" pole regardless who manufactures it.
I also think alot of tips are getting broken by guys snagging the bait or lures and the jerking the poles. Some would be worse about this than others.
Friends, plain old cane poles will catch as many crappie as the most expensive crappie pole out there if you know what you are doing. If you are having tip problems, go to cheaper poles. It is probably you, not the pole manufacturer.
I want to thank all of the fine sponsors on this board. Edhead is buying a new server for us, the sponsors must be treating him right. Let's treat the sponsors right!

[Tube4Slabs]

All these manufacturers make good long poles for crappie, but if your using a small ultralite rods for crappie I would go with St Croix ultralites. They are ultra lite enough for trout and I use mine all the time for crappie and love them, plus I have only had one ever break on me in 12yrs of fishing with them, and that was my fault it broke, and even after having it for quite a few yrs i got a new one free of charge. I would only ever buy a long pole off any of these crappie rod makers, because I know how good St Croix's ultra lites are. I'm even debating on maybe buying a long salmon noodle rod for my long pole needs, but if not i will def buy a BnM longpole of some sorts.

[Hoot]

I have the Sam Heaton 7' "Ultra Sensitive" spinning rod. I love it. But as Moose said, you got to be very careful with these when transporting. I baby the thing in and out of the truck and boat or whenever I'm just setting it down.

The little hassle it is to be extra careful has paid off so far. I've caught pretty much everything, crappie, bass and a couple of cats on this and although have put some stress on it, it's held up very well.

As far as customer service, I've been pleased but haven't had any thing to bring to their attention.