I am terrible with any warranties that aren't tracked online by the merchants. I'm wondering if we could connect with manufacturers to handle this as a service with them.

This idea has legs. A good source of revenue might be garnered from the manufacturers themselves...as not only a service to their customers, but and advertising medium targeted to people who purchase their wares. I'll keep an eye on this one. :)

I like this idea as well. Could be done simply enough with a decal or a sticker when you buy the product tracked on your website. Similar to trackitback.

I think you would basically be offering a warranty management service. By printing a sticker at the time of purchase (or for phones a text message) with warranty number, you could offer this program to retail without needing buy-in on the manufacturing level (ie: inscribing unique info or programming a chip into every unit).

They make warranties hard to claim for a reason. Companies don't want to pay to fix stuff.

Cant we get this done with a RFID tag? Many retailer in US are already going for this technology. What is so diff in ur idea?

I agree with Kevin_Cox. Helping people to make warranty claims will make the warranty have no value to the manufacturer and would make none of them offer a warranty. Or more important, never use your service.

i like it

I think thestarwheel's suggestion is very important, as integrating this at a manufacturing level will be VERY difficult. I see potential for selling something like this to retail sites who offer their own warranties on top of the manufacturers' guarantees.

Perhaps the cynical Kevin_Cox has a point, but I think in the end both retailers and manufacturers will offer what people want - would you want to be the first company in the market to stop offering extended warranties?

Get the technology sorted then lobby to get it made law as a way to make warranty deals fairer.

The sticker / database idea has merit but you would need a wide range of sticker types, sizes etc. How about microdots instead of stickers - then combine this with the security registration services?

Hmm on the chips, its not hard to build that function in but you need infrastructure / a larger BOM for the device to burn the date code on the chip. Making the date permanent would rule out easily extending the warranty - a very profitable business.

Mastercard-visa already do this.

Companies like HP uses the PC's serial-numbers on the back to track sales-dates, warranty etc.

How does this organize the reciepts, which is what I normally lose.

I love the idea, I still can't believe when I am asked for the invoice or the box for something I bought to request a warranty..............!!!!!!!!!!
(happened again today)