A field warranty claim, assembled and read against your written terms for your warranty administrator.

A claim usually shows up with a model and serial number, a failure date and a description of the part. Your administrator finds the order and the ship date, looks for the start-up report or registration, works out which version of the warranty applied when the unit shipped, and goes back to the rep or contractor for whatever is missing. The failed part may still be on a roof, on its way back or long gone.

For the test, AI works from copies of those files and assembles each claim into one file: serial number and model, ship date, start-up date and the record behind it, the failed part and its return paperwork, the coverage period each failed part falls under with the clause quoted, and a list of what is missing. It doesn't say whether the claim is covered, and nothing reaches the person who filed it.

One serial number carries several warranties. A published warranty for one line of commercial air handlers runs two years on internal functional parts and five on the casing, both counted from shipment, while accessories delivered but not built in get one year from the certificate of occupancy or a certified start-up date. A commercial rooftop warranty counts its longer periods from the end of its first-year parts warranty: four more years on the motor compressor, two on controls, and nine on the heat exchanger, or fourteen where the gas-fired heater is stainless. Another rooftop certificate starts everything on the original installation date and gives fifteen or ten years on the heat exchanger, five on the compressor and one on parts. A fan maker's terms run one year from shipment, with five on certain duct fans. The draft works each failed part through the period that covers it and shows the arithmetic.

The start-up record proves more than a date. One commercial rooftop maker's installation manual says to return its registration form to the warranty department within 10 days. The form takes the unit's model and serial, the model and serial of up to six compressors, the person who did the start-up, fan motor amps per phase, fan rpm, supply and return static pressure, and whether crankcase heaters ran for 24 hours before start-up. A file without it leaves the first date unproven, and a file with it can raise questions of its own. Construction use is one: a published commercial air handler warranty lists use during construction among what it won't cover, and the chairman of SMACNA's HVAC contractors council steering committee told ACHR News in 2004 that at least one maker's written material says construction use voids all warranties. The draft names any start-up record it finds, the date on it and any entry left blank.

The failed part has its own paper trail. Under one rooftop maker's procedure, material other than compressors comes back only with factory permission, on a return goods tag, freight prepaid, and sending a part back doesn't count as ordering its replacement: a purchase order goes in through the local representative, and credit follows if the factory finds a defect within the period. A failed compressor that never comes back gets billed. A fan maker refuses any return without a Return Materials Authorization number, any collect shipment and special orders outright. A published air handler warranty is void for work done without prior authorization and an authorization number, and it excludes any part whose tag or nameplate was removed, altered or defaced. One rooftop warranty limits the remedy to the part its own inspection shows to be defective, F.O.B. factory. So the draft records the return tag or authorization, the part and unit numbers, where the part is, and whether an inspection result is on file.

Written terms turn on how the unit was run, and the law sits behind them. Published commercial terms exclude freezing of water, corrosive atmospheres, voltage problems, filter changes and coil cleaning. One certificate requires proof of maintenance at least once a year and coverage only at the original installation location, and asks for written notice by certified or registered letter at least 30 days before any legal action. Under the Uniform Commercial Code, which each state adopts in its own form, section 2-719 lets a contract make a remedy exclusive and opens other remedies when a limited one fails of its essential purpose, and it does not treat a limit on commercial consequential damages as presumptively unconscionable. Section 2-725 allows four years to sue, reducible by agreement to not less than one, and a breach of warranty occurs at tender of delivery unless the warranty explicitly extends to future performance. So the ship date can matter for more than the coverage period. The draft quotes the clause it read; what that means for a given claim belongs to your administrator and your counsel.

What your reviewer watches. Usually your warranty administrator: the serial number tied to the right order, the right record behind each date, each failed part under its own period, nothing assumed about a start-up no record shows, exclusions quoted and never applied, and every missing item named. Claims you denied, cut or paid as goodwill belong in the sample, because the test is whether the file would have shown your administrator what your administrator needed to see.

With your reviewer's yes, new claims get the same assembly for about 30 days.

Your warranty administrator still decides every claim, and decisions and credits go out the way they do now.

The comparison keeps running on live claims. A next job is priced separately, with monthly support after that.