Has anyone ordered through this company? I am looking for a Charles Owen helmet for my daughter and they have pretty good prices.
We are Americans living in Australia and the cost is almost double here! Crazy. With the US dollar being quite strong against the pound, makes sense to me to just order one from the UK.
Thanks so much!!
I’ve ordered two helmets, one from Ireland and one from England over the years. Both times it came to well over 100$ Canadian cheaper, after shipping and duty.
That’s who I ordered my last Charles Owen from. They were good to deal with. Sorry I have no help with your particular website.
The usual advice is do not purchase a helmet without trying it on: the fit is too important not to take every care to get it right. Does it really have to be CO? Why not find an Australian brand that meets the same international standards? The safety standards are constant regardless of price or manufacturer but the fit will be different.
[QUOTE=Willesdon;8939649]
The usual advice is do not purchase a helmet without trying it on: the fit is too important not to take every care to get it right. Does it really have to be CO? Why not find an Australian brand that meets the same international standards? The safety standards are constant regardless of price or manufacturer but the fit will be different.[/QUOTE]
I’ve always tried on the size at my local tack shop and then ordered online, and I’ve never noticed a difference between a CO AYR8 in Ontario vs a CO AYR8 from Ireland or England. Just an FYI
Most, if not all, of the decent helmets are imported anyway. Pony Club used to make everyone ride in a PC approved Australian helmet that that made everyone look like they had giant eggs on their heads! Looked awful and they changed the rule to allow the international safety standards and the egg-head helmets are a thing of the past, thank goodness. They never fit my daughter’s head right, anyway.
The CO helmets fit my daughter’s head. She finds them more comfortable than any of the others. There is an almost $200 difference between buying the helmet from someone here (who has imported it from the UK) and just buying the same size directly from a UK merchant.
I buy a LOT of stuff when I am in the US visiting family!
I ordered a CO-Ayr8 on 11/2, and received it here, in CNY, yesterday. So, I had no problems, and would order from them again.
Thank you so much for your feedback! It helps a lot!
I’ve always tried on the size at my local tack shop and then ordered online,
… and then wondered why the local tack shop had gone out of business?
I stick to my point about fitting hats to be safe. Yes, models may not vary between Onterio or Ireland or Saudi Arabia but there is variation between styles and brands and new ones come along and some fit better than others. I usually buy the same brand but I try on many. Just a personal foible perhaps.
I agree and usually do try to support the local shops. Taking into account exchange rates and shipping, it still works out about $150 -$175 cheaper to order from overseas! Big chunk of change for me.
[QUOTE=c0608524;8939721]
I’ve always tried on the size at my local tack shop and then ordered online, and I’ve never noticed a difference between a CO AYR8 in Ontario vs a CO AYR8 from Ireland or England. Just an FYI[/QUOTE]
Wow. What a great way to support your local economy and horse community. Not.
[QUOTE=ozjb;8943651]
I agree and usually do try to support the local shops. Taking into account exchange rates and shipping, it still works out about $150 -$175 cheaper to order from overseas! Big chunk of change for me.[/QUOTE]
Then again you don’t have to order the most expensive helmet out there. Any helmet that meets industry standards for safety is just as good as any other. The idea of saving $150-$175 ordering from overseas is ludicrous to me – my helmet didn’t cost anywhere near that, and I bought it locally.
[QUOTE=MidnightWriter;8943670]
Wow. What a great way to support your local economy and horse community. Not.[/QUOTE]
Oh! Can you tell me what helmets are manufactured in Canada? If you can, let me know.
If you can honestly say you only buy from your local ma and pop shop down the road, and NEVER online from Dover, Smartpak, TOTD, etc good for you, but I’m not sure if I’d believe you.
Just because I’ll buy a helmet online doesn’t mean I don’t support my local economy in other ways. What a snarky reply to someone who’s trying to help out a fellow equestrian.
MidnightWriter, things are a bit different for those of us not in the US. My “local” tack shop is well over an hour away, is part of a large national chain and every time I go in there, they don’t have what I need or don’t have the correct size.
Not many helmets are made in Australia, either. Not much of a selection of anything if I were to follow your reasoning. Dublin or Weatherbeater. That would be it.
If the local shops didn’t up the cost to well over what I might pay ordering from overseas, I would buy here. The helmet I am looking for is over $600 AUD. That is more than double what you would have to pay.
Some things are more controlled, I suspect by the company. I like Back on Track products. They are priced about the same, here and in the US. So I buy them here. My local tack shop doesn’t carry that brand, so I order from a company that does, way over in Western Australia! (I am on the East Coast).
I support my local community and economy, just like everyone else. When we were applying for Permanent Residency, I used to joke that we should just tell Immigration that we have horses . . . they should be happy to have us based on the money we pump into the economy!
I also think you might be a bit harsh in your judgement of us.
I get cranky with some US online retailers who won’t ship internationally. Most do, some just won’t.
I think that poster was commenting on the rude behavior of trying something on locally then price shopping and buying online.
If you take up the time and resources of a local store and take advantage of their inventory, you should purchase the item from them. Behavior like this is why we have fewer and fewer local stores as the pressure to compete with online is too great.
In this case, it’s not available locally, so no big deal. But if you’re going and trying on a zillion helmets at the local store, saying “thanks for your time!” and then going and buying it online - yeah, that is rude, sorry.
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