Buzz-erd--is "YOUR personal experience" based on your owning and fishing a Van Staal? Is it based on seeing people having problems with it while they were fishing with you? Or, is it based on, "I was talking to this guy who said his buddy bought a Van Staal and he said it crapped the bed on his first fish ever"?
Based on my personal experience, they work flawlessly for 5 years without ever seeing the Van Staal service department. But maybe I just got lucky
