There have been numerous threads asking about Warrantee Policy for Salomon. The next several paragraphs were posted in another thread, but it was requested that I post a new self standing thread for those who did not see it.
First of all, my name is Mike, and I am the Product Manager for the US for Salomon. We will absolutely stand behind every pair of park skis that has broken after minimal use. We build products for the sport of skiing, and we want lifetime skiers respecting and trusting our brand. If you had a bad experience, or were shut down for warrantee, I want you to contact us through your local shop.
Contrary to some "haters" view that Salomon is building skis as inexpensively as possible so that they will fall apart and we can pocket your money.....you are wrong. We actually went to sidewall constructed wood core skis because this is what many riders (and NS members) asked for. It has been our first year with this new construction, and we are continually working to improve it.
We want you to like the way the product skis, fits (in the case of boots) and holds you in (in the case of bindings). Yes we are in business to sell skis. And we plan to be in this business for a long time and we strive to build product that performs for the best skiers in the world. It does us no good to build product that is inferior. We can not (and will not) afford to treat anyone less than fairly when it comes to product issues, and we are commited to standing behind our product with regard to quality.
Now, What IS and what IS NOT covered under warrantee??
First, as far as WHAT is covered: Any reasonable damage that is beyond what should be expected for normal usage within the skis reasonable life span. This will cover rails under certain conditions. If the ski is broken, it will be covered without question.
For edges, I don't mean to be vague, but it does need to be case by case. Some edge breakage should be covered (and will) provided the damage stems from impact that is less than what the ski should endure. If you land so hard that the edge broke on your lines, armadas, rossis, amplids, libertys, 4frnt, or core-upts, chances are that impact could break any ski. If you hopped on a rail with minimal impact just to slide, and the edge cracked, we will take care of you. Anything in between those two needs to be evaluated case by case. As a general rule, if you can see significant damage on the base, or if the sidewall is crushed, or visibly impacted, you may get a "no". However, even in these cases we will do what we can to get you either a replacement single ski, or a discounted single replacement. We want to keep you riding our stuff, and happy about it.
The next question to answer is "What is a reasonable lifespan" for a ski. Some people in here have thrown around 2-3 years, but the better way to measure how much a ski can take is the number of days used. We have always believed that 100-120 full days of use is a reasonable period of time for a ski to live its useable life. This has been the number used for big mountain, all mountain, and all terrain skis for quite a while. Due to the violent abuse park skis are getting, that number of reasonable days might be closer to the 75-100 range.
Now I know that many of you will take a couple of years (maybe even 3) to get to that 80-100 days or so. Our warrantee process has always been that a pair of skis mounted with our bindings gets a 2 year warrantee. Keep your receipt in a place you can find it when you buy our stuff. It really helps us to make sure you bought from a legit source and also documents your purchase date. This 2 year warrantee should be more than adequate to cover you if you have issues.
If for some reason you would like to use another brand of binding, you still get a full 1 year warrantee, which is standard for most brands.
There have been questions about whether skis perchased Online are covered:
If you bought your skis on ebay, they will not be covered.
When buying online, be sure that you purchase from an AUTHORIZED Salomon online dealer. If you buy from any authorized online dealer, you will be covered if the damage falls under the above mentionned points.
If you have issues, I strongly reccomend bringing the skis back to the store that you bought them in order to process a warrantee. I know the internet is a great place for deals sometimes, and I know it can suck to deal with mail order to deal with a warrantee situation, but if you bought online from an authorized dealer, I would reccomend you contact that dealer to process your warrantee.
Because there are so many ways to get product on the internet now (this site, ebay, swap pages, etc), it is even more important to re-emphasize the proof of purchase. I know you guys are all too smart to buy from shady sources, so don't. If you aren't supporting the dealers who are servicing the sport, then you forfiet things like warrantees.
Keep your receipts from your purchase at an authorized dealer. It really helps us to make sure you bought from a legit source and also documents your purchase date.
Any dealer who is an authorized Salomon dealer CAN process the warrantee for you, but if you bought somewhere else, they may charge you a service charge for the warrantee processing fee. If you price shopped online to save 50-100 bucks versus buying at a physical location, don't be surprised to be charged for a warrantee service from a specialty shop. It is the shops discretion.
If for some reason you have a problem with a replacement pair, they will be covered as well (provided you are within the warrantee period of your original purchase). It is getting late in the season for 08/09, and our inventory is getting thin, so if you have a pair of skis that is going to be covered, but we don't have any left, we may ask if you would like to wait to receive next years version. Although the 2010 Suspect is the same mold, shape and construction (wood core with ABS sidewalls), we have not begun to produce the new skis yet, and every step is being taken to improve the durability of the skis.
Somebody posted that Salomon was having the same problem with 2010 versions of our skis, which is BS. The only skis we have built with 2010 graphics are samples for athletes and reps, and we have not even begun to produce the skis you will see in shops in the mid summer. We are always working to improve our products (performance AND durability) and this is no exception.
The last question was about a recall. We are not considering a recall of any of our skis at this time. We will cover and warrantee any pair that falls into the description of usage/ damage as I listed above, but although some of the threads on this site make it sound like every pair of our skis is breaking, that is simply not true.
If there are questions that this doesn't answer, let us know. I do hope this helps.
Mike Aicher
Product Category Manager
Salomon Alpine
Ogden, UT
