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I heard my head hit the pavement in the crash, but the helmet looks to be only cosmetically damaged. However, it’s been drilled into me that helmets are good for only a single use.

So I went to the Bell website to look for their crash return policy that I rememered from reading the papers that came with the helmet. (I found it here.)

The instructions are to send
1) The Helmet
2) Copy of the dated receipt
3) Letter describing the accident
4) Check for $35.00

Since the Ghisallo is a $100 helmet, a $35 replacement is short money. (The best onlne deal I could find is still $75)

I tore the house up looking for that receipt. I know I have it. I never throw anything away, but I couldn’t find it. I found the Gyro receipt, but not the Bell. I bought the helmet from REI using my member points, and I’d returned some shorts that I’d bought way long ago without a receipt, and they looked me up on their big brother machine to see when I’d bought them and how much I paid. I figured they could do the same for the helmet. I called them up and they said while they couldn’t give me an actual copy of the receipt they could give me a printout saying when I’d bought it an how much I paid.

Result!

Now to call Bell to see if that’s acceptable documentation. After a brief period on hold, “Jan” came on the line. I told her that I’d been in an accident and that I’d like to take advatage of their crash return but I couldn’t find the receipt even after turning the house upside down. She said “oh dear, you didn’t need to do that, we’re not sticklers for that.” I said I could send what REI said they could give me and she said I could do that if I wanted, but it wasn’t really necessary.

She told me they’ve always had a crash replacement policy, but it’s changed a bit over the years. They used to get the helmet, inspect it, and if it’s only cosmetic damage, they’d send the helmet and your check back to you. But people started to get angry about that thinking they were trying to pull something. Or something. So now they just replace the helmet. If, in the letter, I say I don’t care about cosmetics, they’ll inspect it and return it if it’s okay (with a printout of the inspection report). I’m undecided which way to go, but in any case, this is great news.

Now I just need to write the letter and a check.

Thanks, Bell, that’s what customer service is all about. You’ve got my business forever.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 24th, 2005 at 11:11 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.