48 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

FedEx conveyors are the death of many packages. 

Over 20 years, I've purchased a dozen +2 JDM rods without any damage. 

I've always been impressed with the quality of packing on these rods - some seem like you could drive a UPS truck over them without damage. 

Most recent rod purchases were from Asian Portal and FishingShop,kiwi. 

I'm curious whether quality of vendor packaging was a factor, and what Japan vendor you used. 

 

It was asian portal but I too was surprised at the packaging. It was a couple of boxes folded into a triangle essentially ... I'm sure it also didn't help that it's a super ultra light so it doesnt take quite as much 

Obviously when it arrived broken my immediate thought was ... its a sign .. you need to order the more expensive model you were looking at 

Made me look at some of my received packing. 

All in light but extremely stiff round, corrugated tube (cardboard).  Plat used corrugated plastic pipe. 

 

Except my 1-pc Valleyhill from AP came in a heavy square-section cardboard tube with a Daiwa label (probably from a rod they received) - guess I got lucky. 

My last two rods both came from Digitaka and were packed in heavy duty cardboard tubes.  I'd expect them to live through nuclear war, that cardboard was thick stuff!

Really surprising, I feel like the last rod I got from Asian portal was packed in PVC pipe. I wonder if they use different packing materials for different price point rods?

1 minute ago, fishwizzard said:

Really surprising, I feel like the last rod I got from Asian portal was packed in PVC pipe. I wonder if they use different packing materials for different price point rods?

 

No idea but honestly blessing in disguise ... refund is already in my bank account and I found a better model for only a few bucks more. Going plat this time. 

9 minutes ago, garroyo130 said:

 

No idea but honestly blessing in disguise ... refund is already in my bank account and I found a better model for only a few bucks more. Going plat this time. 

That’s a shockingly fast turn aroudn for a FedEx claim. Might want to pick up a lottery ticket along with the replacement rod.

1 minute ago, fishwizzard said:

That’s a shockingly fast turn aroudn for a FedEx claim. Might want to pick up a lottery ticket along with the replacement rod.

 

I contacted the seller and didnt hear a thing from them ... zero response so I started the claim. Then all of a sudden a refund showed up from the seller.

Asian Portal probably contracts their English interpretation - most of Japan does.

English-speaking people are at least as hard to find in Japan as Japanese-speaking people are to find here. 

It takes awhile for your e-mail to be forwarded, interpreted, sent back, and reviewed.

If they wrote you a reply, it would have to go back through the interpreter again. 

 

I can think of exactly six people in Japan I have communicated with over 20 years who have a working handle on English - one of them was a guide in Montana before returning to Japan.  English is just as foreign to the Japanese as Japanese is to you.