If anyone is interested today is the end of the X Ray blank sale.....$85 each, they say they have stock and shipping will be quick.
If anyone is interested today is the end of the X Ray blank sale.....$85 each, they say they have stock and shipping will be quick.
Sure they will...I ordered 4 on 3/19 and haven't heard anything yet.
Lol..... order now for Black Friday delivery!
Got mine within 2 weeks. friend got 7 in less than 2 weeks
i ordered 4 on March 15th and 4 more on the 22nd and received all 8 yesterday
If you think you've waited a long time for those 4 blanks, you haven't been doing this long. Try getting a Lamiglas blank now while you're at it. Two weeks isn't nothing in rod blanks and components. I've gone over two months lots of times. Waiting till the last bit of time during a sale is just about a guaranty of having to wait till
they have enough orders to build another batch of those blanks. My last NFC order was bought the day the sale started, the order was on my porch in 3 days.
i wasnt complaining i thought i received mine in good delivery time, in fact i ordered 8 more to get the sale price and was told they were in stock
I don't care how good these blanks supposedly are, I'll never order another. They did their dealers dirty when they started selling direct to consumers and left the dealers stuck with a bunch of product.
I've been doing this plenty long, been building since 2004. I copied below from a response I put on the Custom Rod Builders Guild FB page. NFC blanks are fine for the sale price. They have to have sales because anyone who would pay their listed retail price would be someone who hasn't been doing this long. There's a lot of Gary Loomis apologists out there. I get that he's a pioneer and one of the most talented and influential blank designers ever but IMO the way the company is run is just bad. I can't imagine that he has much involvement outside of design anymore. NFC should be embarrassed by some of what they let get out the door. My last order of 8 blanks had 4 that no one would look at and consider acceptably straight. The orders below cover I'll bet 30+ blanks. Besides a good number that had a big curve, I've had 2 (1 HM and 1 Xray) that I had to cut the tip off of 1/2 or 3/4" down because it was at probably a 20 deg angle.Originally Posted by Spoonplugger1
As far as their business model of selling direct to the builder...again, not very smart IMO. I had a long conversation with Steve Pitcock from NFC about that. Instead of selling to a handful of distributors they are essentially selling to hundreds if not thousands of distributors. Anyone who builds rods for others is a distributor. I only order from them for stock in the shop. I've had too many times where I ordered a blank for a build and I had to order something else for a customer because it was taking too long. Not knowing how long it's going to take puts builders in a bad spot. The last order that I received is the only one where I was able to get a timely response about status. I've either been strung along or gotten no response for everything previous to that.
Yes I still order from them because there are a few models that I really like the actions on. Even then I don't think I'd pay over $100 for anything they offer. Not worth the hassle.
Have seen 2 weeks once in 2018. Here's my order date and ship date of every NFC order I've made...ordered 3/17/18 shipped 4/10/18...ordered 5/22/18 shipped 7/9/18...ordered 8/8/18 shipped 9/24/18 (these were just reel seats)...ordered 12/18/18 shipped 2/4/19...ordered 12/20/18 shipped 2/19/19...ordered 4/15/19 some shipped 6/3/19 some shipped 6/26/19...ordered 11/24/20 shipped 1/18/21. This last order I will say that I have had good communication. Prior to that communication was poor at best. I'm not bashing just pointing out that over 7 orders 6 have been from just over a month to just under 3 months.
That’s a weird turn around time for sure. I ordered from them once, the blank isn’t as straight as I’d like it to be (2/3 down the blank it curves to about 0.75” off center) but it’s just for me so Ill lick my wounds and build it anyways. I ordered during the Black Friday sale in 2020, was at the house 2 weeks later. From Washington-NY in 2 weeks during the busiest time of the year is acceptable to me. I can’t afford to buy multiple blanks just to increase my chances at having a perfectly straight blank so next time I’ll probably get an MHX or Hydra
1995 Ranger 481v
1995 Johnson Fast Strike 175hp
Well said, Gary's name goes a long way but there is also a lot of competition out there now.
I placed an order on March 23rd and received it on April 3rd. Honestly, I was really nervous about ordering anything after all the research and negative reviews. This was my first order, only because of the 65% off sale and because I wanted to try the heavy moderate hybrid blank. I ordered two of the same blank and looks like I received two identical blanks with equal weight. One appears to be better than the other in terms of quality. May call them on the one.
2018 LEGEND 211R | 250 MERC PROXS
Ordered 4 blanks, got them in 9 days. That's where the good stops. 3 of the 4 a crooked like a home grown carrot. No way those blanks should have made it through quality control. Returns aren't worth the time, just call it a loss and never order from them again. Can't believe gary lommis let's them put his name on those things
Guess they at least fixed the shipping issue? Last time I ordered some it was like 6 months before they arrived and this was pre-covid.
Allen
Worst customer service I have ever seen! If I didn’t like the blanks so much I’d really blast them. That is if they don’t break even before I build them. I firmly believe it’s not poor quality control, ITS NO QUALITY CONTROL.
Got my 4 blanks on Friday. 3 of the 4 are straight so that's an improvement. All 4 also have long (probably 10-12") scratches down the middle of the blank though so that's great.
It's amazing that there are people that will defend NFC for this kind of crap too.
This is why I’ll just spend $400 on a GLX or NRX
Say what you want ... GLoomis still leads the way
2008 Stratos 201 Pro XL
Evinrude 250
And if they still sold blanks to builders, I would likely use them. Since they don't, Loomis is nothing more to me than a poorly assembled rod that I will keep repairing for others.
Agree, I had Dick Dorman build me a couple of IMX's with the weibe reel seats, sic guides, etc., years ago, and I will put those rods up against any of the mass produced Loomis rods of today.
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