Walleye Rod

[lama231]

Nope
Got price Saturday night. Rod in hand Sunday afternoon. Pretty hard to obtain from the manufacure in that time span

[pjshorthorn]

Originally Posted by lama231

The item was not on sale. All I was trying to do was exchange a current rod that retails for $179.00 for a current rod that retailed for $149.00 They wanted an additional $80.00 for the transaction. This is lousy customer service. The amount of markup is just another way of pointing out of the gouging of the consumer that is going on. No business needs 120% margin to exist. They are not the manufacturer. They do not have the R and D cost of bringing an item to market, let along the cost of building the product.I am not saying that they are not entitled to a profit but at least provide some service for the profit. Also I do not believe they are selling to employees at cost so who knows what the true margin is plus the fact imagine the margin on all of the Cabelas brand item when they control all of the cost. All I read on these forums are boo hoo the brick and mortar stores can not compete with the online businesses. I say pigs get fat hogs get slaughtered. BTW I have the new rod in hand with a receipt if anyone does not believe me. 71.07 plus tax for a rod they sell for $149.00. I wish I could get away with those kind of markups and then cry poor. No wonder Bass Pro wants to money up to buy the company. Sorry for the rant but all I wanted to do was get value for my money. End of rant

They are selling to their employees at a deep discount,otherwise your friend wouldn't have been able to buy it for you at 50% of the full retail price. The business is not gouging the customer if the customer is willing to pay a specific retail price for a product or service that the customer views as having added value to themselves. Businesses that run a good business model will make a profit regardless, even while knowing that some of their offerings are lost leaders ( little to no profit ) but necessary to have on hand in order to sell higher profit margin items like rods and reels. Walk into the big blue or big orange box stores and ask them for a 15% discount on a drill driver and impact wrench combo kit. Ain't going to happen,because they make next to nothing ( 3-5%) on gross margin per unit. That is only at the GM line. They may be a touch above in profit by the time it reaches the EBITDA line. It is all about overall sales volume that drives their profitability on that product line, all the while, the same customer is buying screws,nails,hand tools,tool boxes,etc at a higher profit margin while shopping for that lower profit margin combo kit. An employee can't even get a discount of any kind in those stores. Take a look at their long term performance and you'll see growth because they manage their business which includes customer credits,reduced tag pricing,product line elimination,etc.

As a side note, I would be extremely surprised if the corporate offices carry the entire overhead costs of R&D and manufacturing. It is very common for a store/ business unit to be given a corporate allocation where that business unit has it built into their P&L as a direct operating expense which hits their bottom line after GM profitability.

In any event, it sounds like you got a really nice rod at a price where you feel it has added value to yourself. I hope it lands you some great memories this fishing season. You have two really nice rods at $125.00 ea which isn't too bad.


PjShorthorn.

[WallyWarrior]

You had 90 days to make up your mind. Unless it is a covered warranty issue, it's on you.


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[2catch1]

The Fenwick elite tech series are great rods. Personally I like 6'6" and love my 6'9" all in ML. Keep the loomis....you can never have enough rods. I have a ML 6'6" eyecon in ML too, nice rod but I prefer my Fenwicks most times...not a huge fan of the split grip as of now. Years ago I kept breaking a 6' IMX loomis. We were in International falls and I needed that rod. I ended buying a cheap Fenwick Eagle GT (green color) $50 to replace my $225 loomis (2006) I have never gone back but when that rod wasn't broken it did fish nice. BTW I still have that fenwick with a Stradic 1000 on it and still love it. Reel is starting to show its age but the rod is still nice and I always liked that color....the new eagles are UGLY imo.

[Kevin23]

Originally Posted by lama231

Here is an update.
I decided to exchange the Loomis rod at Cabelas and pick up the Fenwick Elite Tech.
They told me that because it was more than 90 days they could only offer store credit at the lowest price sold for the item in the US or Canada. The rod was $179.00 and they offered me $69.00 in store credit.Talked to a manager and he said that was the policy and there was nothing he could do.Bear in mind the rod was never used and still had the original Cabelas tag on it and was just sitting in my rod rack since the purchase. Here is the kicker. I found out later that my brother in laws neighbor works in the same store. She is picking the Fenwick rod up for me for $71.00, price in store $149.00. No wonder they are selling to Bass Pro and Gander just filed for BK. I dont mind paying a little more for convenience and service but when the service goes away price is all that is left. It will be herd for me to buy anything at Cabelas fishing related from October thru March because if you change your mind you are stuck. Now they would have exhchanged the purchase for another Loomis rod same model different action but that is not what I wanted. Guess I will keep the loomis rod as a spare before I will give it back to them for $69.00

Well that stinks.. I must have missed the sale for $69 loomis rods!

Stop and think about it from the other side though, if you were the store and someone walked in with a rod to exchange after 90 days.. you would be a little suspect. Imagine if someone caught that item on sale for $69 and bought 20 of them, then stopped by cabelas whenever they were near one and returned it for store credit of $179.99. That is over $2,000 in store credit profit.

Now you can see why they have to offer you the lowest price they have sold at. Sucks for you, but it's the policy. Honestly, you should feel lucky they would even give you anything for it 3 months after you bought it!

The solution is simple, and sounds like you are already taking it. If you don't like the policy, then don't shop there. I can't see how what happened in your case is any bit cabelas' fault... but if you want to bash them then that is your right I suppose. Just sell the rod for $150 and have fun fishing with your fenwick.

[lama231]

Ok hold on a second. FYI I have spent thousands of dollars at Cabelas mostly because of convenience and customer service. The only reason I purchased the rod when I did was they had a discount promotion at the time it was a scratch off deal to see what percentage discount you received. I saw the rod liked the deal and picked it up. Came home put it in my rod rack and didnt think much about it since fishing season was over. True enough I could have picked up the Fenwick rod at that time and all would be well. Every time I purchase anything at Cabelas they ask for my phone number it does not matter if it is a $1.00 purchase or $1000.00. They told me they would exchange the rod for another Loomis but they do not carry that model in a 6' to 6'3" ML model or I would have done that so all I wanted them to do was take my rod with the original tag on it and put it on their shelf and hand me a rod that retails for $30.00 less and exchange it rod for rod. The people I spoke to did not care who I was or how much I spent at their store which should be easily tracked by my phone number. I understand that they have to be careful about scams but I was not seeking a refund just an exchange. I would have understood if the item was on sale at a closeout price or discontinued but that was not the case either. Same rod on their shelf right now $179.00. This is the exact reason I normally do not buy things on line. I know that I pay a price premium for personal service but I do not want to feel like I am being taken advantage of either. As a matter of fact I could have taken advantage of the pricing I received for the Fenwick rod for years but chose not to as the offer had been made to me for over three years. I have been in the retail automobile business for over thirty years and I realize that businesses need a profit to stay in business. All I asked for was some service to go along with my dollar and I didnt feel like I got that.
I did not start this post to become open season on opinions about my business practice as a matter of fact if you check my initial post it was just for help on the rod I bought. Once I made the decision to switch I wanted everyone to know about Cabelas return policy so no one else got into the same situation that I did. The rant about the pricing structure may have been over the top and I appologize for that but it still seems to me that with that type of margin better service should have been given

[lakewood]

$71 is an extremely good price on that rod. I remember when the prior Elite Tech series was closed out at some retailers and they were blown out for less than $100.

However, what your Brother-In-Laws friend or neighbor did would likely be frowned up by the store and could jeopardize their employment. Granted, employees can buy products for their own use or maybe a family member, but the line is drawn in the sand when they start doing that for a customer.
I've worked retail and had the opportunity to buy at "cost" or thru a sales accommodation program right from the manufacture, but it was made clear that product was to be used by me and not purchased for another person.

I keep a file with receipts for any of my purchases for cases like this. I can go back at least 2 years so it avoids this happening. If you would have walked in with a receipt the outcome would have been positive for you and avoided may hassles.

Glad it all worked out in your favor. Hopefully nobody from the Cabelas store near you is reading this thread and puts 2 & 2 together resulting in someone loosing their job. If they worked for me and I got wind of it they would be gone.

[Ricky Spanish]

Originally Posted by lakewood

Glad it all worked out in your favor. Hopefully nobody from the Cabelas store near you is reading this thread and puts 2 & 2 together resulting in someone loosing their job. If they worked for me and I got wind of it they would be gone.

My wife's coworker does not have a relative that works at a certain rod manufacturer in Park Falls, WI, and that is the story I am sticking to.

[Kevin23]

Just for the record, returns at cabelas cannot be put back on the shelf as you wanted them to do. That's what the bargain cave is, all the returns for whatever reason they were. They go in there for a deep discount to avoid selling a damaged product by accident and having to give a return for retail price. Instead they sell in bargain cave as non-returnable and pocket the cash. Its smart economics.

A lot of other stores do the same, actually most do. I used to be in the business of selling returned items, my employers would buy the returns by the semi load for $0.08 on the dollar retail price and then have me sell it for 50-60% retail.

[1K1MOA]

Originally Posted by 2catch1

The Fenwick elite tech series are great rods. Personally I like 6'6" and love my 6'9" all in ML. .

I second, love my Fenwick Elite Tech. I fish a MF 6'3" for Walleye and find it to be very versatile.