Our experience of using FC-Moto

We were especially keen to test out buying a crash helmet from FC-Moto, mainly because we’re based in England and they’re in Germany so we were interested to see how long it’d take.

As usual, we were also going to test out their returns process to see how well they handle replacing the helmet with a different size and suss out the costs and turnaround times involved.

So, we went on their website and ordered one of our best rated modular helmets, the Caberg Duke, taking good note of their stated dispatch times which are much longer than most retailers (5-7 days is normal but can be up to 10 days in the height of riding season!)

Here’s what happened:

Helmet ordered 22nd April around 2pm.

Added helmet to basket – this immediately showed postage as £3.86 but that increased to £6.23 later on in the process when we chose the delivery method.

Note, it was tricky finding UK in the massive country drop down menu, but it’s there if you persist!

Total came to £126.80 or €160.89.

On checking out, it took me to 3rd party https payment site – Wirecard – to conduct the transaction – but it all went through smoothly.

By 27th April 3.50pm – my online ordering status still hadn’t changed (login to your FC-Moto account to see this) so I emailed them to ask about the order. They didn’t give me a direct reply but I then started getting emails saying my order had been dispatched. Looks like I prodded them into action though, to give them their due, I was still within their stated despatch time.

Note – their update emails are sent through with English text but most of the other standard text is in German which isn’t great.

The helmet was delivered Friday 29th Apr around midday – it came in a plain box with the helmet box moving around inside without packing materials to secure it – not ideal but the helmet was fine inside the branded helmet box.

That means it took 7 days from ordering to delivery; which is in-line with FC-Moto’s stated delivery times.

To return the helmet for an exchange with FC-Moto, you have 14 days to return without reason.

So I downloaded their pdf returns form to star the process. However, clicking the email link to let them know I’ll return the package didn’t work. Also, the PDF returns form is in dodgy English so not everything’s entirely clear. However, I emailed them through the contacts page on their website and printed out and filled out the form as best as I could and included it in the box.

With FC-Moto, you need to pay for return shipping.

Hermes quoted £11.34 incl vat – but I took out the optional insurance for a £130 helmet which was an additional £5.50.

The total came to £17.94 with VAT – if my maths is right – to return it via Hermes on 3rd May.

By 11th May, I hadn’t heard back to hear if they’d received it OK so I emailed them to find out the status of my order. They didn’t reply to that so I emailed again 13th May. This time I heard back quickly that they’ve now dispatched the replacement saying i should get a tracking code via email.

The return was delivered five days later by trackable DH, arriving on 18th May. The helmet was obviously new and came with all the expected accessories.

Overall

Even though the timescales were in line with those stated on the website, the return seemed to take quite a while. First delivery took 7 days which was acceptable but the 15 days round trip for returning the wrong helmet and receiving the new one felt a long time. If you want to get your helmet quickly, I’d try one of our other recommended retailers – but if you’re not in a massive rush and want a wide range of helmets to choose from, FC-Moto will deliver. It’s just you’ve gotta be the patient type!