There are a couple posts in the archives where people have ordered from them and seemed happy with their purchases.

As I said in another thread recently, they ship from the UK and so their shipping prices are pretty terrible for those of us over here. $20 to ship a reel? No thanks.

 

Ooooh yeah the british pound is brutal. When I was stationed in Germany I visited every country in Europe but refused to hit England because of the exchange rate. 6$ just for a pepsi....Nah im good. God forbid you have to put gas in your car.

 

I picked up one of their A4 reels and some spools and I think it is a good quality product and a good value. Yes their shipping rates are higher than some due to their location overseas, but if you are buying items that are priced well below the retail competition to begin with, the total cost is still pretty reasonable.

I have also bought from Allen, also a direct seller, and their early products had poor R&D and weren't that great, and they had delivery issues, yet they developed a following because they had low prices. Allen has righted the ship, and their quality control is much better now. I would say the Allen and Aleka products are pretty comparable quality and price point, and they all are made by a knock off expert in China someplace and sold direct, which cuts out the specialty merchants and keeps the prices low.

Yes, for a flynbox it is not worth the shipping, but if you look at the total cost, a $70 A3, or a $110 A4 is a good deal from Aleka.

 

and they all are made by a knock off expert in China someplace and sold direct, which cuts out the specialty merchants and keeps the prices low.

I would say the hours I spend working on product design wouldn't be considered "knock off" work. Our rods are also not made in China. I've been working tirelessly over the last two years to bring Allen up to compete with the rest of the industry. That isn't going to happen with knock off products.

 

Allen stuff is solid. More importantly, they have guys who fish hard (like Evan) helping to run the show. That is important to me.

 

Ive owned Allen rods and reels. They both are good quality. Very sturdy with strong drag systems. They are a bit heavy but worth the money IMO.

 

Done.

 

Thanks. Didn't want to hijack the thread any more than I already had.

 

Contributing to the hijack, I've got an Allen rod and two reels. One is an early model not suited to saltwater use, but I used it in Mexico to land a permit. My infinitely adjustable finger on the spool, along with the reel's drag set to max, was adequate to the task. But the new Alpha II is much better. The single hand Allen rod is as nice as any graphite rod in my collection, but I don't use it much due to my 2-handed rod addiction.

Sg