Warranty claims management system for online stores

A warranty claim differs from a return by more than the fact that the item goes back to the store in both cases. The legal basis is different, the deadlines are different, and the case runs differently. A warranty claims management system keeps track of those differences instead of a person having to.

What a warranty claims management system is

It’s a tool that carries a case from the customer’s report of a defect through to a resolution: repair, replacement, a price reduction, or a refund. It’s responsible for accepting the request with a description of the defect, tracking deadlines, documenting the decision, and staying in touch with the customer for the whole time the case is open.

How a warranty claim differs from a return

This distinction decides whether the tool is needed at all.

• The reason. A return is a change of mind, and the customer doesn’t have to justify it. A warranty claim reports a defect, so describing the problem is the whole point of the case.
• The customer’s deadline. Withdrawal from the contract is available for 14 days. A claim for goods not conforming to the contract applies for much longer.
• The store’s deadline. For a consumer warranty claim, the store has 14 days to respond to the request. No response within that time works against the store.
• The process. A return usually ends with a refund. A warranty claim can run through several stages: inspection, decision, repair or replacement, sometimes correspondence spread over weeks.

That’s why handling warranty claims on the same track as returns usually ends with cases stalling while deadlines keep running.

Who needs it

Above all, stores selling goods that can break or turn out not to match the description: electronics, equipment, everyday items. Warranty claim volume tends to be lower than return volume, but a single case is heavier, runs longer, and needs a contact history.

The second case is stores selling on several channels. Every channel has its own rules and its own expectations for response time, and the cases still have to be handled by one team.

What such a system does day to day

• Accepts the defect report together with a description and photos, because a decision can’t be made without them.
• Tracks both deadlines at once: the one the customer is entitled to, and the one the store has to answer within.
• Keeps the whole case history in one place, including what was agreed and when.
• Tracks the warranty claim parcel on its way to the store and back to the customer.
• Flags cases at risk, meaning the ones where the response deadline is running out.

How RetJet handles warranty claims

In RetJet, a warranty claim is its own request type, not a return with a different label. The consequences are practical.

You set the rules separately for warranty claims and separately for returns, for each sales channel. You also set two deadlines separately: how much time the customer has to submit the claim, and how many days the case has to be resolved in. The second one maps directly onto the 14 days for responding to a consumer warranty claim.

The warranty claim form can ask its own questions that a return doesn’t have: a description of the defect, when it appeared, the circumstances. That way the case reaches the team already carrying what’s needed for a decision, instead of starting with follow-up questions.

Warranty claims from every connected channel land in one dashboard, together with returns, but as their own request type. Correspondence stays with the request, so the next person sees what was agreed without reconstructing it from emails.

Warranty claims and returns in one tool

Separating the two processes doesn’t mean you need two programs. The same dashboard runs both, just along different paths. We write about the other one on the returns management system page.

Where to start

Check how many warranty claims you handle a month, and how many of them run past 14 days from the request. If that happens, the problem isn’t volume, but not having a place where a running deadline is visible. You can connect your store and see this against your own cases.