rw wrote:

........ The trick is to
learn how to deal with customer service reps. If you are very polite,
and if you're are lucky enough to reach someone who is having a good day
(otherwise, call back later), and if you explain your situation clearly
and calmly, you will get better turnaround. Don't ask for a hard
deadline -- only ask for some priority consideration, because it's your
favorite rod and you don't want to fish with some second-best non-Sage
POS. :-)

Good advice. Also, saying things like "I *thought* by paying such a
large amount for the rod, I was also paying for good customer
service.....", or anything else bordering on the sarcastic (not that
Tyler necessarily did, mind you), are guaranteed to make the service rep
a whole lot less likely to want to give that special consideration.

JR