Ordered two, several days apart.

First arrived. Very minimal box damage.

Inside wrapped perfectly and all good!

Second order-/box showed evidence of rough handling.

Inside, reel had come off rod & shifting around in shipping box. The ties to the stuff cardboard piece to protect the rod were all broken. The white drape was partly off the rod.Is a gift to son & will have to see if rod & reel work as should.

Purchased this combo from Canadian tire for the start of salmon fishing this Friday here in BC. Spooled with 17lb line and the bail release broken after pushing it in...Will bne returning it. This is not the quality of my old freshwater C4 and C3 reels. BTW I use these in saltwater and have had absolutely no issues. They have all been going strong for the past 15 years without fail. I happened to notice where this product is made and it is NOT from where they used to be from! I will not be purchasing and Abu products into the future.

New customer and first time purchase with this seller. Bought the Abu Garcia "Ambassadeur" S Combo. Box came undamaged but handle on reel was bent. I called the customer service folks and they told me to "take pictures" and email them top the customer service folks listed on their website? I reluctantly did this only to get 3 additional emails with questions before the seller was satisfied they had all the information they needed. One email was what was the order number, another was what is you mailing address, etc. I ordered the item from the company, shouldn't they have all that from the person especially when I said I called the customer service on the phone? Poor service! Don't order from these folks unless you don't mind dealing with red tape.

The reel was damaged. The handle was bent as was the star drag, making the drag rub against the handle so firmly that it couldn't be adjusted in either direction. When I called, I was told I was responsible for shipping costs and needed to return it to them. They blamed the shipping company which sounded reasonable at first. I told them that although it may have been Fed-Ex fault this was still unacceptable ethically. A technician then offered to send me a drag and handle for me to change on my own. Although I was disappointed that I wouldn't have my new rod and reel for the weekend, at least I didn't have to pay shipping and be inconvenienced by sending it back out. Now, here is the questionable part; When I suggested that the parts were defective I was immediately brushed off as though Abu can not possibly make a manufacturing mistake. Surely this was Fed-Ex fault... I have a couple hundred dollars worth of Abu apparel. I shout them out on YouTube. I own 6 Abu rods and this is not my first rod/reel combo of theirs either. Never once have I bought one that came with a reel schematic stapled to the tag, or at all. It's almost as if the warehouse guys were like, "This is our last left handed reel in stock. We know it's broken, but we are going to ship it to you anyway and let you order the parts that we know are broken. Here's a schematic so that you know what part numbers to order. By the way, you are responsible for shipping." They may as well have circled the part numbers…