Like many, I’m one of those that are critical when it comes to customer service. Customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you get some of those customers to come back, your business won’t be profitable for long.
Good customer service is all about that, bringing customers back. And about sending them away… happy. I’ve the opportunity to deal with the guys at Pure Fishing recently and it was certainly a vast difference from say, dealing with ANY of our civil servant offices which more often than not leaves you going home with a bitter taste in your mouth. That is if they managed somehow to not leave you fuming and cursing.
The Berkley Digital Scale promise.
The guys at Pure Fishing can set a good example for the other fishing tackle industry players.
It all started with my old faithful Abu Ambassadeur 6000C complaining when a sailfish flew off with the bait. The old Abu Garcia reel, which was serviced and oiled, shuddered and sputtered the freshly spooled 20 lb test Spiderwire Code Red braid out through the line guide. I thought immediately the drag had seen better days. What better fish to inform you of that than one of the fastest fish in the ocean? So I contacted Phil of Pure Fishing Malaysia and he replied “Sure bro. Bring it in”. We’ve chatted on the fishing forum and Facebook but have never met but Phil bro has always given me the impression of being a friendly guy. So a date was set between Abu, Phil and me!
The Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 6000C has seen action for over 20 years. Am I asking too much from it?
The Ambassadeur 6000C pictured with the worn-out drag washers.
It was also a coincidence that last week, the Berkley TEC Digital Scale I’ve been using for a couple of months decided to register a Haruan (Striped Snakehead) as weighing 10kg. Either the fish has balls of steel or the scaled pulled a muscle. We decided it must be the scale.
Innocently enough (or because of me just being silly) the scale allowed me to experience Pure Fishing’s customer service around the globe. Sort of. My intention of just getting Berkley USA’s opinion of what may be the problem with the scale was met with a very prompt response of the company’s concern for their fishermen customers. They duly offered an apology and asked for the defective tool to be returned for a replacement. This will also allow their Quality Assurance Team in improving product performance.
Great. But because I had only expected a possible diagnosis in the preceding email my reply to them this time stated my location. Funnily enough their equally quick response was asking me to contact the European Company for instructions. Which brings me back to my visit to the local Pure Fishing office.
Phil was not just friendly when we finally meet and shook hands but also efficient as before I was even led to his office, the Abu was handed to the service department for a check-up. Phil then introduced me to his boss Quek JK in his all things fishy room. Quek is very well known in the local if not regional fishing fraternity. Quek seem to have experienced an accident as his right hand is bandaged up pretty good. Hope he recovers soon.
The Berkley digital scale was finally brought out for inspection. Quek and Phil saw the problem with the scale and a replacement was brought out in no time. Fuss free. Seriously. I like these people.
We had a brief get to know one another session before I had to go for another appointment. Also bumped into Jerry Cheong on my way out, those familiar with jungle river fishing for Kelah (Malaysian Mahseer), Sebarau (Hampala Barb) and Rod & Line will undoubtedly have seen some of his adventures.
The quick responsive friendly customer service theme carried on. The Ambassaduer 6000C was already back with me when I left Pure Fishing with 4 new drag washers. Too bad the carbon washers were not in stock but I’m happy with the original as well. May last me 20 more years?!
From that experience, can you blame me for walking away feeling like I just landed a good-sized fish?
Read a review of my experience using the Berkley Digital Scale in an upcoming post soon.
Spanking new scale will not have to wait long to see some weighing action.
Pure Fishing Malaysia is located at No. 36, Jalan Kartunis U1/47, Kawasan Perindustrian Temasya, 40150 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan. Tel : 03 5032 9288 Email: info@my.purefishing.com
Good customer service is rare these days. The fact I prefer Abu spinning reels (although made in China and hence poorer manufacturing quality but good design) is simply because of the customer service of Pure Fishing. The reel parts are reasonably priced and I am assured of friendly service from the parts’ guy. I even had an enjoyable technical conversation with him once. I tested Daiwa and Shimano as well on the availability of spare parts for spinning reels and sadly I was very disappointed.
Great comment. That says a lot.