I had one of those “Oh S@#t” moments out on the river the other day. My fully rigged 10’6” Cortland Competition Nymph rod, was stowed from the back of my Forester, across the laid flat back seat, over the center console, and down into the passenger front seat foot-well. That’s how I’ve always stored it, while driving between holes. But this day I also had a fully stocked cooler occupying the foot-well. The rod laid over the cooler, bending down to its tip deep in the foot-well. Nice and snug, huh?
Well, needless to say when I applied too much brake pressure to pull into the next turnout, the cooler tipped over and snap… there went the tip section of my rod! It would be one thing if I broke it on a 22” holdover Brown. But, total stupidity on my part made it worse. That rod has probably seen more action over the last 4 years than all my others combined. I had to get it fixed.
That was Saturday. On Sunday morning I took a picture of the broken section, along with the rod case and 1st section clearly showing “Cortland Competition Nymph – 10’6” 3wt”. I opened the Cortland Line Company’s website and clicked the “Contact Us” link.
Yikes! Broken Tip
I completed the form as instructed and truthfully told the story of the broken tip section. I wasn’t expecting Cortland to replace the tip for free, and I had seen the “$50 flat rate replacement” statement on the support site. What I didn’t expect was the response I got. By mid-morning Monday I had received and email from Matt, a customer service & sales rep. He included an invoice with an embedded link for me to complete my replacement order. The link took me directly to the “cart” on the website with my tip section already there. In a couple of clicks I had my shipping information and credit card info completed. Another click and the order was complete. This morning I wake up to a shipping notice from Cortland with an expected delivery date of this Friday. Pretty cool. I won’t even miss a weekend of fishing.
Why am I telling you this story? Well, how many times have you fought with a customer service rep over the most mundane issue, never getting it resolved, and feeling totally frustrated with the process. How many emails to support go unanswered or worse, answered by a BOT and not a person? How long have you waited on hold with your cable company, bank, or airline? Forever, I bet. What fly fishermen have come to realize is that the companies we deal with aren’t like those cable companies, banks or airlines. Our friends at Cortland, Simms, Orvis, Trouthunter, J. Stockard, Firehole Outdoors and others, are part of a network of small American, mostly private businesses, that value customer relationships and produce reliable, well made products. Yeah, we spend a little extra money, but we’re buying quality and that relationship after the purchase.
I have had similar experiences with Simms (replaced broken wading staff, no questions asked), Cabela’s (replaced my broken 4wt travel rod, no questions asked), St. Croix (replaced broken rod 20 years ago, no questions asked). I didn’t know what Trouthunter tippet was until I saw the Grateful Dead logo with the Osprey head in the center. Hmm… how do I get one of those? I went to their website and asked them that very question. Just four hours later I received an email response simply stating, “it’s in the mail”. A week later I had a whole envelope worth of Trouthunter stickers. That simple gesture created a customer for life.
These are the little things that separate successful small businesses from those that fail, and the fly fishing universe is littered with them. We’re lucky to have a passion that these companies share with us. And when we shop at our local fly shop for these products, we’re helping those small businesses succeed as well (some of which are TU Business Partners).
It’s a win win for all involved in the pursuit of fly fishing. Buy local, buy American, and tight lines.