PENN® Senator® Combo, Black/Smoke/Red, 6’6″- Medium Heavy- 1pcs

I have used older Penn Reels for years and they are still as good as the day I bought them with annual cleaning and servicing. I got this combo and right out of the box you could tell there was no grease or oil in the reel and the gears were grinding just turning the handle. The freespool was also not…free spooling. Sent right back to pennoutlet.com. For those familiar with the older Penn’s this just seemed like a plastic toy to me. I’m sure some may argue but this is my observation. The Rod this comes with seems decent but can’t say anything at all positive about reel. The only reason I didn’t give it 1 star was I want to have some hope that this was a fluke and after some greasing and oiling the reel would come back to life but right out of the box and given the overall feel of the reel, I wouldn’t bet on it or would want to ever depend on it. I went to a store to look at these in person since I couldn’t believe this experience and while they didn’t have the same mechanical problems, these reels just feel cheap. Sad to see how cheap Penn products have gotten unless you are buying their high end International reels.