I have read here on BF that, when pedal eye threads are trashed, they can be replaced with a threaded insert, and be even stronger than before.

I have a crank with completely trashed pedal eye threads, I called my local higher-end LBS to ask for a price, and they pushed back, not giving a price, and saying they don't think it's worth doing because it will be weaker. BUT if I want I could come by the shop and they can take a look and see what they can do...

So what's the story here? Is this LBS giving me the runaround? Are they just hedging because there are some cases that are absolutely beyond repair (and they haven't seen mine yet)? Did I talk to someone who didn't know what they were talking about? (Actually I did, he went and asked somebody else, and came back and gave me that answer)

Does "threaded insert" mean helicoil? Or is it like drilling a smooth larger hole and inserting a cylinder that has a normal-size threaded hole, and getting the cylinder to stay in place with epoxy or something?

The deets, if you care:

A while back, some friends were over and after lunch we decided to sit out front while all of our boys played in the culdesac. Since the garage was open, and everybody was just sitting there chatting, I figured I'd toss my bike on the stand and swap out a crankset I'd been meaning to do.

So this one kid from the other family seemed interested, I let him help, use the crank puller, put the new crankset on (let him figure out that the NDS crank can't be pointing the same direction as DS!) etc. Last step I let him put my pedals on.

The kid ended up cross-threading my right pedal. I don't blame him, it's my fault for not checking his work. I rode it that way for a few days before I noticed, by then it was too late. When I got it out the outside half of the threads were gone. Chased with the pedal from the other side, but still couldn't thread the pedal in the normal way. Had a shop chase better with a tap (different shop, but lower-end, don't expect they could do extensive repair here), was able to screw the pedal back in, it seemed to be holding on to the threads in the back OK, rode it for a few weeks that way until yesterday I start a hard push to get up our long uphill driveway, and FLOP, the right pedal basically just pulls out. Not falling all the way out, but like 30deg askew.

So that's where I am now. It's a pretty nice 600 52/39 crankset that I got from a bike that my dad gave me, so it's got sentimental value for me, and I'd like to save it if I can. For under $40.

Advice anyone?