I have several Cumara rods and have used the over the counter warranty exchange at Bass Pro a couple of times, but have never dealt with Shimano directly.

About 2 years ago I broke a large portion of the rod tip off and tried to exchange at bass pro a couple of times with no luck. The rod was a gift purchased with cash and the receipt was no where to be found. Bass Pro has a no receipt no exchange policy. So the broken rod ended up in the corner of my storage building.

I found the rod again before Christmas and read a post about sending it straight to Shimano, so I thought I would try the same thing. I found the warranty form online which also required a receipt, but thought it would be worth the risk. I already had a broken rod that couldn't be fixed, so I would pay shipping and see what happened. I cut the rod in half, put it in the box, paid for $10 for shipping one way...

Got an email today saying my new rod was shipped out today. In my opinion that's good customer service!

Thanks Shimano