You really expect a ball that is not in the current line that you bought off Ebay to be warrantied? 

Do you think Storm is going to do the research to see who the seller is?

Every company has a very specific set of guidelines that are examined when determining whether or not a ball is eligible for warranty replacement. You didn't provide us with all of the relevant details surrounding your individual situation, but if they decided not to replace the ball, especially a brand new ball, then there had to have been a specific reason why they opted not to do so. What did they give as a reason within the email?

These companies want to keep customers happy, so they usually opt to just go ahead and replace balls so as to avoid posts like this one. After all, bad publicity is never good for business. At the same time, they'd go broke if they just replaced everything with no questions asked. As such, again, there had to be something about the ball - where it was bought, how it was drilled, what they saw in the pictures, etc. - that made it clear that said ball was not eligible for replacement in this case.

I'm really sorry for your bad fortune. It sucks to be the one who loses out when something like this happens. Still, it's a bit unfair to make a post with a far-reaching claim like "Storm does NOT stand behind their warranty." I know several people who have had equipment warrantied by Storm over the years with no problem, myself included. As such, again, there had to be a reason why they chose to deny your claim.

Don't thumb inserts invalidate warranties, or has that changed over the years?

Either way, warranty doesn't apply to a ball bought on ebay, just as it wouldn't apply if you bought it at a garage sale.  It's clearly been over a year since someone bought the ball new.

 Did you buy from a shop, or from an individual?

 If from a shop, contact them through e-bay and see if they can do anything for you.

 GOOD LUCK.

 If from an individual, then their purchasing of said ball would've started the warranty period, and it would now be over, even if the ball was never drilled.

 I've got an undrilled Ebonite Nitro/R in the closet from 1993. Think it is still covered, simply because it is undrilled? Probably not.

 

A picture would be helpful.  I think of cracking as a crater that goes around the entire ball.  That would probably have been covered under Storm's warranty.  Usually when a ball chips/cracks around a hole, it's pro shop error, not manufacturing defect, that's to blame.  Dull drill bit, drilled too fast, too much glue...

Have you been back in contact with the seller to submit it to their distributor for warranty?

Storm is not going to do any research to see if the seller is an individual or a business selling on eBay.  They are just going to assume it was a ball someone had sitting around and deny the warranty.  If it was submitted through the distribution channel Storm would never know it was sold on eBay.   

No, after the driller had it denied.

The ebay seller is just dumping you to the driller because he doesn't want to deal with it.  Storm's website say the selling dealer is responsible for warranty claims. 

I used to work for Bowlers Paradise and we never once told a customer to take a ball to the shop it was drilled for a warranty.