BallReviews
Equipment Boards => Storm => Topic started by: 3835 on November 23, 2020, 12:59:56 PM
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As a former shop operator I have seen plenty of banged up bowling balls in my day. I also know what a hassle cracked balls can be. I normally don’t complain because of the wear and tear but this is ridiculous.
I bought a NIB 1st q Sure Lock middle of October. Took to the shop and punched it out pin above the fingers etc etc. First night of league I take my IT thumb out to put in my spare ball and the ring that glued to the inside at the top of the thumb hole falls out and has chunks of cover with it. The entire area around the thumb cracked and the IT ring can’t go back into place.
Take the ball back to the shop and provide the eBay auction I won with pictures to show it was just bought as the serial number was in the eBay pictures. Pro shop send the claim to Storm. Denied. Won’t replace and tough luck. Yes I saw the emailed response back from Storm to the shop owner.
Pretty crappy that a ball with less than 3 games cracks and they won’t warranty.
I know I can plug but not the point with a brand new ball that I paid a premium for.
Rant off. FYI for everyone reading this.
If anything changes I will come back and update.
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You really expect a ball that is not in the current line that you bought off Ebay to be warrantied?
Do you think Storm is going to do the research to see who the seller is?
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The ball has a One Year warranty from the date of purchase. It doesn't matter if it's a couple years old.
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Every company has a very specific set of guidelines that are examined when determining whether or not a ball is eligible for warranty replacement. You didn't provide us with all of the relevant details surrounding your individual situation, but if they decided not to replace the ball, especially a brand new ball, then there had to have been a specific reason why they opted not to do so. What did they give as a reason within the email?
These companies want to keep customers happy, so they usually opt to just go ahead and replace balls so as to avoid posts like this one. After all, bad publicity is never good for business. At the same time, they'd go broke if they just replaced everything with no questions asked. As such, again, there had to be something about the ball - where it was bought, how it was drilled, what they saw in the pictures, etc. - that made it clear that said ball was not eligible for replacement in this case.
I'm really sorry for your bad fortune. It sucks to be the one who loses out when something like this happens. Still, it's a bit unfair to make a post with a far-reaching claim like "Storm does NOT stand behind their warranty." I know several people who have had equipment warrantied by Storm over the years with no problem, myself included. As such, again, there had to be a reason why they chose to deny your claim.
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I had a warranty claim on a Storm ball years ago with no issues. After ball was drilled, it didn't roll right. Simply slid 60 ft. Wouldn't flip or make any movement on the lane. PSO came down to the lane and watched a few frames and said it just didn't look right. Contacted Storm, they requested the ball be shipped to them. They did some testing on it, determined it had an inherent internal manufacturing flaw of some sort, and sent a brand new replacement ball back to me.
I kind of don't blame Storm in this case. The Sure Lock is going on 4 years old despite this one having been NIB up until mid October. They tend to be a pretty bowler friendly company, so they must have had a legitimate and compelling reason to deny coverage. Their warranty guide online shows photographs of the types of damage that are not covered under warranty. What was described in this case seems to fall in line with some examples in their guide.
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Don't thumb inserts invalidate warranties, or has that changed over the years?
Either way, warranty doesn't apply to a ball bought on ebay, just as it wouldn't apply if you bought it at a garage sale. It's clearly been over a year since someone bought the ball new.
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All merchandise protected under this warranty must be returned, with a sales slip showing date of purchase, to the dealer from whom it was purchased.
*Storm Products Inc reserves the right to deny a warranty claim based on the installation of inserts, slugs, or interchangeable thumbs, but recognizes their utility and will therefore honor the warranty on almost all claims so long as the damage was not a direct result of their installation.
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Did you buy from a shop, or from an individual?
If from a shop, contact them through e-bay and see if they can do anything for you.
GOOD LUCK.
If from an individual, then their purchasing of said ball would've started the warranty period, and it would now be over, even if the ball was never drilled.
I've got an undrilled Ebonite Nitro/R in the closet from 1993. Think it is still covered, simply because it is undrilled? Probably not.
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Trying to catch all these questions in one response
Yes I do expect them to stand behind product that is only a few years old. If it was my shop that still had the ball as old stock and sold it to me instead of purchasing it on eBay does that make a difference? Original Ludicrous and Ludicrous Pearl are discontinued from Radical. Tons are sitting in Ace Mitchell’s warehouses. I buy one and in 3 games it cracks with the same circumstances. Am I not supposed to expect a warranty? I do and would be pissed if it was denied.
Seller on eBay is a pro shop but was told because they didn’t drill it to return the ball to my shop because they drilled it.
Email response simply stated they would not honor the warranty. Nothing specific.
I don’t use grips and pin is well away from the fingers but that didn’t crack. Just entirely around the thumb.
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A picture would be helpful. I think of cracking as a crater that goes around the entire ball. That would probably have been covered under Storm's warranty. Usually when a ball chips/cracks around a hole, it's pro shop error, not manufacturing defect, that's to blame. Dull drill bit, drilled too fast, too much glue...
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It’s not a chip. The crack came out from the top of the thumb I would guess 1/4 of an inch and circled the thumb. Ball is at the shop and I don’t have any pics. Won’t be there till Friday at best.
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Have you been back in contact with the seller to submit it to their distributor for warranty?
Storm is not going to do any research to see if the seller is an individual or a business selling on eBay. They are just going to assume it was a ball someone had sitting around and deny the warranty. If it was submitted through the distribution channel Storm would never know it was sold on eBay.
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Yes in my first response earlier today - he said because he didn’t drill it there was nothing he could do and to take it to whoever drilled it for a warranty claim.
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No, after the driller had it denied.
The ebay seller is just dumping you to the driller because he doesn't want to deal with it. Storm's website say the selling dealer is responsible for warranty claims.
I used to work for Bowlers Paradise and we never once told a customer to take a ball to the shop it was drilled for a warranty.
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I know you previously worked for them. You also know who I am but don’t realize it.
I agree the pro shop seller dumped me because he doesn’t want to deal with it but what can I do. Send it to him and let him sit on and do nothing anyway?
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No, you're screwed. EBay and PayPal will side with the seller as the ball has been drilled so it is no longer in the condition it was sold. The only possible option left is with your credit card provider if you didn't just use a PayPal balance.
I just looked through 33 pages of posts and I don't have a good guess.
Too many conflicting posts. I'm not a he, I'm a she, looking for size 14 LH Linds, etc.
Knowledgeable about the industry, former pro shop owner, St. Louis, no grips, been on 3 different ball staffs, friends with Del. Hmm, I'll figure it out.
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Storm has stood behind all three of the balls of mine that cracked. But I don't like only owning a ball for a few months then it cracks all the way around the ball. No more storm stuff for me. Big B or motiv for me.
I will say storm stuff performance is next to none I just can't afford to buy a new ball every 3 months
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Storm has stood behind all three of the balls of mine that cracked. But I don't like only owning a ball for a few months then it cracks all the way around the ball. No more storm stuff for me. Big B or motiv for me.
I will say storm stuff performance is next to none I just can't afford to buy a new ball every 3 months
Motiv balls crack just like others. Brunswick products do as well I suspect, but I don't use their stuff. I do, however use Motiv and tend to lose a ball now and then to cracking. My most recent one that cracked was the Rogue Assassin.
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You know, for every “bad†story somebody has, there is someone who has a good one, and I know for a fact that Storm/Rotogrip has warranted balls in the past for things that could’ve been turned down.
Too bad that they decided not to cover your ball, but Brunswick did something similar to me with an original Inferno once. Even though it was new to me, it was an “old stock†ball, and they said it was too old to qualify. I went ahead and fixed it, and it ended up being the ball i shot my only 800 series with.
Maybe good things will happen for you too!
Good luck man.
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I think this was a Pro Shop issue. Not a manufacturer issue.
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My pro shop wrote Storm back after the initial decline of warranty. Asked a couple of questions. No response. The rub - one of the shop employees is a Storm staffer - so there is an existing relationship here and yet the shop owner is getting stonewalled.
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To the OP, I'm sure if you send Chad McLean a message, he can provide some closure for you. It sounds like more of a drilling error than ball error though. Regardless, very sorry you had that happen to a gem.
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You're mentioning being "stonewalled" by Storm in terms of a response. I'm not sure from your posts when you've written to them, but assuming this is a current issue, you may want to keep in mind that we just had a holiday, so they may not have been in the office from as early as last Tuesday through today. I have no firsthand knowledge, but I that's certainly a possible reason why you haven't heard anything back yet.