From the beginning, Creating the Difference has been committed to growing the sport of bowling. CtD has continued to provide education and information to the bowling community regarding updates and insight. Currently, there is an unfortunate situation regarding six Storm bowling balls which have been excluded from USBC National events. Click here to learn more. Storm made the decision to offer a voluntary replacement option for consumers impacted by this situation. One of the stipulations for replacement is that the consumer has to send the ball back to Storm at their expense. It is great that Storm is offering a replacement ball option. Unfortunately, it's going to cost Storm a lot of money and time to do so. As a result of the announcement, instead of seeing people support Storm with this decision, we saw an outcry by consumers who were upset. The reason why is because they have to pay to send a ball back, as this situation wasn't their fault.
CtD went to look and found prices as high as $55 to ship one ball to Storm headquarters in Utah. As a result, CtD has decided to help bowlers get back to bowling by leveraging our commercial shipping rates. We recently opened a shipping hub in Nevada; which gives us regional hubs to accept these returns and help speed the process for consumers.
How is Creating The Difference helping bowlers?
Staffers and Consumers
For anyone wishing to have CtD facilitate the return, there will be a form to fill out. Once the form is completed, CtD will send the customer a return label. This label will ship the drilled bowling ball(s) to CtD. Once CtD receives the bowling ball(s), we will copy the drill specs and the layout of each ball. As we collect balls we will palletize them before sending them to Storm. Once we receive the replacement ball(s), we will drill them to the specs we documented from your returned bowling ball(s) and ship you the drilled replacement ball.
The Cost
For verified CtD National Staffers in the continental US (who signed up prior to April 4, 2022), this will be a free service and member benefit. For CtD Regional Staffers in the continental US (who signed up prior to April 4, 2022), this service will cost $25 per ball. For anyone else in the continental US, this service will cost $35 per ball. It is the customer's responsibility to ensure the returned bowling ball(s) are double-boxed and securely packaged. The shipping label will need to be printed and taped to the outside of the box. Additionally, anyone utilizing this service is certifying that the bowling balls they send to CtD are their own bowling balls. If we find this program is being abused, we reserve the right to terminate without notice.
Per Storm's Official Statement, it could take anywhere from 3-8 weeks for us to receive the replacement bowling balls. Please allow up to 12 weeks for us to receive your bowling ball, drill it and ship it back out to you.
Pro Shops
If a consumer's pro shop is a member of proshoppricing.com (as of April 3, 2022), CtD will give the pro shop a $50 credit on the website. We are giving the pro shop a $50 product credit while saving them the time of drilling the replacement balls. If a pro shop is not registered, they can sign up for free by clicking here
Storm Products Incorporated
CtD is offering additional discounts, at their expense, on new reactive SPI Balls for National Staff members for the remainder of 2022. This is for members of the Creating the Difference National Staff program who signed up prior to 4/4/22 only. This is to help boost sales for Storm. In addition, Storm will save money on shipping the replacement bowling balls since the replacements will be in bulk and sent to only two locations.
Click here to start the exchange process. This offer expires on May 15th 2022.
If you have questions, please reach out to us at help@ctdbowling.com