I bet he also asked you how you set the hook. Then gave you a long lecture on how to properlly set a hook. I guess this sort of bothered me a bit, but we all have our off days so I wrote it off too one of us PMSing that day. Mine broke right at the reel seat below the cork. Finally once he found out I wasn't some beek trying to dead lift a fridge out of the river he finally said that any rod can break or have a defect. That I will buy because any rod can have a defect that gets missed in production. I still had no problem exchanging the rod, a little lecture aside, no problem.

MJ