A lot of the things we buy these days have warranties tied to them right when we buy them. They’re sometimes prominently advertised, and sometimes it’s a nice surprised. A lot of people don’t use them though. Either because they don’t know they could have used the warranty or because they didn’t plan ahead to be able to use them. Warranties can be useful, and they can save you some money if you just do a little bit of work.
The easiest way to show you have to use a warranty is to just tell you how I used one for a chair I bought from Staples. I’m actually sitting in this chair right now. The chair is about 4 years old, and it has a 5 year warranty when I bought it. When I bought it I didn’t make my decision because of the warranty, and neither should you, however, since it does have one I was definitely going to use it.
How I used my warranty from Staples on my computer chair
So, I bought the chair because it was comfortable, and I liked how it felt in the store. For the most part, this is still true, however the chair began to peel. What happened was the leather, or the fake leather, began to peel at the armrests and the seat bottom. I waited a few weeks and then it started to get really bad. I was going to just get rid of it and get a new one, but then I remembered that it may be under warranty. I checked my paperwork and sure enough it was. All I had to do was call up this number and hopefully I can get it fixed.
Thankfully, I plan for all of this ahead of time by filing away all the paperwork for the chair. I had the original receipt, as well as a picture taken of the receipt in case the receipt faded. I also had the paperwork that came with the chair when I bought it. I looked at the paperwork and in there it had the warranty info and a number to call.
Before I go on and tell you what happened it would be good to stop here and note the things that you should keep and file away in case you need them in the future for a warranty issue. You don’t want to be stuck with a defective product because you didn’t plan ahead and save everything you needed for your warranty repair request.
This is what you should do when you buy something that has a warranty, or anything of any real value really.
1- You should always save the original receipt.
2- Take a picture or scan the receipt so that you also have a digital copy for your records.
3- Save the warranty paperwork from the product (sometimes you can also find it online)
4- if you see any labels on the product you buy and you decide to peel it off and throw it away you need to be sure you take a picture of it first, and maybe save it and file it away also.
That’s it really. If you have these things then you’ll be armed with everything you need for that warranty to work out for you.
What happened when I made the warranty request for the Staples chair?
I called the number that was on the warranty info and I got to speak to someone on the phone without having to wait. It seemed almost too easy really. No wait? I was already pleased.
The rep told me they needed some information. They first asked for my receipt number, which I had of course. Then he asked me to check underneath the chair and to read out the SKU/VGS number. Before this, I had no idea that I would ever need those numbers on the bottom of the chair. I’m glad I didn’t decide to rip them off and thrown them away. I’m not sure if it really would have mattered anyway, but it made it easy to have everything they needed.
Then the rep asked me what was wrong with it. I explained what was happened, and he offered to send me out the replacement parts for free. I would just need to send him an email with the scan of the receipt. No problem there.
I sent him the email with the receipt, and about a week later I got the parts shipped to my house. This all cost me nothing but my time. I did have to take apart the chair, and then put it back together with the new parts, but that wasn’t too difficult. A lot cheaper than buying a whole new chair that’s for sure.
So the next time something of yours stops working or gets messed up for whatever reason you should definitely try to see if that item has any warranty you can take advantage of. You never know what might be covered. The worst they could do is say no. It’s worth a shot.