3 Step System For Tracking Warranty For The Products You Purchase

Recently I had to purchase a new printer because the replacement cost of the part that I needed was almost the same amount as the printer, and I couldn’t find the paperwork to see if it was still under warranty. Today’s post is going to be helpful only for you as a business person but it will also be helpful in you’re home as well.

Many times we purchase equipment or electronics that come with a warranty. We may even sometimes base our purchasing decision on the warranty choices that come with the item.

We get the item home or to the office and we are very excited about our new purchase and how it can help us either at work or at home, then we might remember to put the receipt with the warranty information that we received from the store. Then we may remember to put it in a file folder or a place where we think we’re going to remember it later. Does this sound familiar to you?

Now think about some of the products that you have purchased a while ago, maybe it is a printer or perhaps a gaming system for your kids, do you know if they are still under warranty? If something were to happen to them today, would you know where the warranty and the original receipt is?

I have noticed there are a few flaws with most of the systems that people use to keep track of these things. First of all most people don’t remember when they purchased a product after they’ve had it for a while, or how long the warranty actually lasts on the product that they purchased. An even bigger problem is if you happen to remember that you have warranty on the product you might not be able to find your paperwork, or the receipt.

This three step system that I am going to share with you was developed over time, and I want to share it with you so that it will save you time and money in the future.

1. When you get home you take the receipt from the item you purchased and make a copy of it with your printer. This step is important, because the receipts you get from stores are generally made with a thermal printer and they will fade overtime. Having a copy of that receipt on a piece of paper could be the difference between you having your warranty claim approved rather than denied.
2. Now you need to staple the original receipt, the copy of the receipt, and the warranty information together. Now you can choose how you want to file this warranty information. If your home is in a different location then your business, logically you would file your home items in a filing cabinet at home and your business items in filing cabinet in your business. However some of you have home offices, you may want to have two separate files, one for business and one for home as well, but that is up to you.
3. This final step will allow you to be able to make sure you know when your warranty is no longer valid. If you have a label maker, this step is quite easy. Just make a label with the date your warranty expires, then place that legal on the equipment somewhere you won’t forget where it is, but maybe somewhere that isn’t in your way. If you don’t have a label maker I would suggest hand writing the date on a sticker. Regardless of how you make the label, make sure that you use the actual word for the month, so that you aren’t wondering if it expires on the second or May or the fifth of February.

Now that you have completed these three steps, you will always know how long you have warranty for, and if something were to happen to that item before the warranty was up you would be able to locate the paperwork required to file a warranty claim and your receipt won’t be faded.