Tips to having success with warranties

When shopping for a new item (especially a large ticket item), people often compare what kind of warranty the item has. That is a wise thing to do, but you will only benefit from that effort if you have a sytem in place to file those warranties so you can locate them later.

Statistically, it is never a good idea to buy an extended warranty on items at the store or through third party vendors. There's a great article on this at http://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/07/warranties.asp

When you get home, tape your receipt to the owner's manual or information that you have cut off the box that gives you information on the warranty. Then file that receipt and manual away. Your filing system needs to be customized for your needs. When I was first married I had one file folder for each item that I had a manual for. That was way too cumbersome. Now I have one folder labeled warranties that all those receipts go into. Look at your life and figure out how many folders you need. One might work for you or you might want to consider making separate folders like kitchen items, tools, or electronics.

Then, when something breaks, take a minute to look through your warranties before replacing it. If it is a low ticket item (less than $20) it might not be worth walking through the warranty process to get it replaced. This is because you often have to send your defective product into the company at your cost.

Okay, so how about a happy story. My dear husband knows that I am often cold. For Christmas he bought me a heated mattress pad. I loved that mattress pad! After 4 1/2 years the controls started not working and erroring out. I can't tell you how disappointing it is to jump into bed expecting nice warm sheets and find out that the control errored out and it is freezing! I figured we would just need to get a new mattress pad. When we were getting ready to move, I was cleaning out files and I found the owner's manual and receipt and discovered that mattress pad had a 5 year warranty on it. I called the manufacturer and spoke with a very nice gal in their customer service department. She gave me instructions on how to mail it back to them and a return code to put on the outside of the box. She said as soon as they received it, they would be sending out the new mattress pad with a new five year warranty! I was happy to spend the $13.00 to send it back rather than have to pay $100 to get a new mattress pad.