I have 9 St Croix rods, including 2 of these Premier rods. Both Premiers are 7' ML 2-piece rods. There are more sensitive rods out there, but for the price point, the Premier rod is excellent. The cork handle quality is better than the China made rods in the same price point. I have only seen better cork on more expensive rods.
I have landed 45" and 46" Northerns on my 7' ML power Premiers with no trouble. I've hauled in large blue cats with one of these rods. I have absolutely no trouble with 18"-20" river smallies on my Premier rods. I even managed to boat a 60" sturgeon with a ML Premier rod. These are excellent rods and they should last you many outings, so long as you use them as intended.
After reading some of the posts here about people breaking their rods, I have to think a lot of the issues probably occur from misuse. The Premier does not use a $30 fiberglass blank that you can bend in half. You CANNOT high-stick a sensitive graphite rod like this, or it is going to snap.
I'm sure there are a handful of rods out there that might get damaged in shipping or on the display rack. I can see a situation where one of those breaks through no fault of the user. But, I just have a hard time believing the rod is at fault for every gripe in these reviews.

Great rod, super delivery.

I decided to finally upgrade from my $40 rod and got the Premier 7' medium power, fast action, 2 piece rod. I've only been able to use the rod a couple time, but just from those two days on the water I can tell that I'm gonna have a lot of fun fishing with it in the future. It's very light (a little tip heavy), has quality components, and doesn't break the bank. I was a little worried about the lure rating as it was only rated up to 5/8 oz (18 grams), but I casted 3/4 oz (21 grams) lures no problem with it. I paired it with a Shimano Sedina FJ 3000 and use it for Pike, Bass and Walleye fishing. Very excited to use my first St. Croix rod!

After filing and paying for the warranty program the service department reached out to me. I appreciated them following up. I have a new rod in hand and hopefully will have it for years to come.

Bought a premier series spinning rod for Canada trip. It broke about 18" down from tip on first day. I was able to land some fish prior to that, but it broke under normal use and had me pretty confused over it for a while. Tried 2 times for warranty on website with absolutely no reply. After some months, I have decided to bite the bullet and pay $60.00 for the "Excellerator" program. Not happy, but we'll see what happens.