On a recent trip, one of my Helinox LB135 trekking poles failed at the beginning of the hike. This wouldn't be that big a deal except I was relying on the poles as my tent poles as well as walking poles. All was not lost as the pole still extended enough to work with a rock as its base. Even in some of the windy conditions the pole held well.
After returning from my trip I contacted Norm from Helinox in Brisbane and gave him the low down on the failure. I wanted to make sure I got to him as I noticed I had purchased the poles exactly one year ago so was concerned about warranty expiring. Norm was very apologetic about the pole failure and immediately mailed me brand new poles as a replacement (even before I had mailed the offending pole to him). They arrived the next day and are a new model, the LB 130 which look great.
So props to Helinox and Norm for his fantastic customer service and responsiveness. I'll certainly keep buying from him.