Hooray, it's time to praise a supplier for customer service beyond the call. Riding to work in Thursday morning's bitter cold, my sensors quickly detected that all was not well in the cosiness department. My left hand was freezing. It seemed as though my £100 investment in a pair of Gerbing's heated gloves, two years ago, had come 50 percent unstuck.

Heated grips just don't do the same job. Perhaps it's my poor circulation, but boiling palms and freezing knuckles and fingertips, ouch. I had to stop half-way for a warm. And continually changing hand position to try and optimise heat transfer does nothing for safety or concentration.

Got out the multimeter in the evening and, sure enough, the left glove was open-circuit. Perhaps not too surprising – flexible heating elements are notoriously hard to achieve, and all that clutch work - but still disappointing.

So yesterday – fortunately not quite so cold - I phoned Gerbing's UK distributor to report my plight. Imagine my surprise at being told the gloves would be replaced immediately, and for no charge. This morning I was even more surprised to be asked to sign for a parcel containing a brand new pair. Well done, Gerbing's! (And well done, the Post Office.) The words "lifetime guarantee" mean just what they say, and make the gloves excellent value. Chilly mortals like me need look no further.