Warranty claims management that stops invalid claims before payment and charges supplier defects back with proof
Invalid claims stopped before payment, and supplier defects charged back with proof.
See one case, screen by screen ↓Warranty claims management software that validates each claim against the warranty terms, proof of purchase and service records. Each claim opens on its serial's whole life, with three stamps — term, proof and history — each pass or fail with its source. Seven agents read, check, look for patterns across serials and draft supplier chargebacks; clean claims under the limit are approved by rule, and a named adjudicator decides the rest.
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A warranty claim is a promise being tested: was the unit covered on the day it failed, was it really bought when the receipt says, was it maintained as the terms require, and did the part fail or was the claim padded? An adjudicator answers those questions on three or four screens — the claim, the registration database, the service history, the labour time guide — one claim at a time. A receipt is checked by eye, and labour is paid at whatever is billed up to the guide.
Across claims, almost nobody looks. A dealer who bills the guide maximum on every job, or a compressor returned on two claims, is invisible to a one-claim-at-a-time desk. The failed part reaches the returns lab weeks after the claim was paid, and supplier recovery is batched months later — often including claims that were never genuine, which the supplier rightly disputes. Goodwill is approved by email, outside the claim system, and the reason for each decision is rarely written down.
Estimated split for one contested claim over the auto-approve limit, from the dealer's filing to a decision and the supplier chargeback, by hand and with the solution.
Seven agents lay out each unit's life, stamp term, proof and history, find patterns across serials and draft supplier recovery; a named adjudicator decides.
Kestrel & Vane Appliances makes commercial refrigeration and ice machines, and adjudicates claims from 8 servicing dealers in North America, Germany and the UK. On Wednesday 14 October, Northgate Appliances' claim WC-20418 for a failed compressor is on its adjudicator's desk. Here is what happens next, screen by screen, in the working solution.
Claims arrive through the dealer portal (286), by email as PDF claim forms (61), by EDI from dealers' service systems (48) and through the customer web form (17). The Intake agent reads each one, matches the serial and model, and asks the dealer for what is missing. One emailed form has a smudged serial that fits two units, so it asks the dealer for the plate photo rather than pick one.
“The serial is smudged on the form and the plate photo is missing. Two serials fit: HF-6426-C and HF-6826-C. The agent will not guess.”
Of 412 open claims, 318 passed all three stamps under $1,500 and were approved by rule; 47 need a person, $81,392 claimed. At the top: WC-20418, $2,870.00 for a compressor in a ProChill RC-48 reach-in refrigerator, serial CMP-7731-K, marked Pattern hold and Proof fail. The ribbon lays out the unit's life — sold, installed and registered in March 2024, three maintenance visits, an earlier start-relay claim — with the cover bands for its model and region underneath and the new claim pinned on 6 Oct 2026.
A dashed marker sits at “12 Mar 2025? Receipt's sale date · Conflicts with 2 records”.
Term: the compressor is inside the 60-month sealed-system cover to 12 Mar 2029, but labour and refrigerant ended with the 24-month cover on 12 Mar 2026, so $2,280.00 of the $2,870.00 is payable on the term alone. Service history: maintenance every 12 months, as §3.4 requires, and the earlier claim was a different part. Proof of purchase: fail. Under the stamps, each agent's step is listed with its source and how long it took.
“Agents recommend: Hold: pattern review. … If the bench confirms the compressor, pay the part only ($2,280.00) · confidence 91%.”
The receipt sent with the claim dates the sale 12 Mar 2025, which would put labour inside cover. The owner's registration and Northgate's own invoice NA-INV-55120 both say 12 Mar 2024. The date is set in Arial 9 pt while the rest of the receipt is Courier 10 pt, and the file, created in March 2024, was edited on 2 Oct 2026 — four days before the repair. The Proof agent found it at 94% confidence; the History agent confirmed it from the two records the dealer does not control alone.
“One source alone would be a warning, not a fail.” And: registration is not a condition of cover (§2.4; 16 CFR 700.7) — it is used as evidence of the date.
Pattern case PC-0412, opened at 07:14: Northgate filed 14 claims on code C-214, compressor fails to start, between 29 Sep and 7 Oct, against its usual 1.2 a month. Every one bills 2.5 hours, the guide maximum. The technician app shows under an hour on site for 8 of them, median 50 minutes. The returns lab found 6 genuine winding shorts, all from Varrick lot VC-2611; 3 showed no fault and 2 were compressors already returned on earlier claims.
“A case is never an accusation: the agent proposes, a named adjudicator decides, and the dealer sees the evidence.”
The agents propose and Elena decides the case in one dialog: pay the 6 genuine claims, $17,220.00, in Friday's credit run with AP-01; hold the 8 others, $22,960.00, with HD-03 · Hold: pattern review; pre-authorisation for C-214 at Northgate for 60 days; recovery from Varrick Compressors; and a letter to Gary Pell at Northgate. She adds a note to the record and signs.
“One decision for 14 claims. Each claim keeps its own reason on the record.”
RC-3381 to Varrick Compressors bills the 6 bench-confirmed failures under supply agreement VC-SA-2023-07, clause 11.3: $3,070.00 each for the compressor kit, labour at the guide of 2.5 h × $112, refrigerant and freight — $18,420.00 in all. The 8 held claims are listed as left out, each with why, and the bench reports, clause, technician time on site and labour time guide are attached. It goes to Dev Mallick, the supplier recovery analyst, to sign and send.
“A supplier pays for a bench-confirmed defect only. Billing a held claim would give Varrick Compressors a reason to dispute the whole chargeback.”
Gary Pell had asked on 12 Oct when Northgate's 14 open C-214 claims would be paid. The Dealer liaison agent drafts the answer: the 6 approved claims and their amount in Friday's credit, and each held claim with its reason — no fault found on the bench, a compressor already returned on an earlier claim. The scorecard beside it shows why Northgate is watched: labour at 131% of the guide and 71% of failed parts sent back.
The draft waits on “Send as Elena Varga”. The agent never sends without a person.
Pre-authorisation for Northgate's C-214 claims, prepared by Elena, now heads Marcus's approvals, beside a claim over $5,000, goodwill over $2,500 and a rule change to version 13. A dealer action carries two names. The labour-rate change Marcus prepared himself waits for another manager.
“You cannot sign what you prepared.”
The audit trail holds each action with its evidence and a record id: the Proof agent's finding, the History agent's confirmation from two independent sources, the pattern case, the Recovery agent's draft, Elena's decision with HD-03 and the letter waiting for her to press Send. Verify the chain, or export an evidence pack for a dealer dispute or an audit.
The same claim, seen by the four people who carry it — what their month looked like, and what it looks like now.
Seven agents lay out each unit's life, stamp term, proof and history, find patterns across serials and draft supplier recovery; a named adjudicator decides.
Reads claims from the dealer portal, EDI, email PDFs and the customer form; matches serial and model; asks for what is missing.
Reads the warranty terms for each model and region, works out cover per claim line, and applies the legal guarantee, the EU repair extension and the goodwill guide.
Checks the receipt against the serial, the registration and the dealer's sale record, and looks for edits in fonts, file history and totals.
Reads service visits, maintenance conditions and prior claims, finds duplicates by unit and part serial, and confirms or contradicts the Proof agent.
Clusters claims across serials by dealer, failure code, labour and parts lot, compares labour billed with time on site, and proposes a proportionate action.
Drafts supplier chargebacks for confirmed failures under each supply agreement, and answers disputes with the bench evidence.
Drafts plain-language letters to dealers with each decision, its reason and source, reminds on service levels and reads replies.
Decide over the limit; sign dealer actions. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Ask about any claim, dealer, supplier or cost, or say what to draft. Every figure in the answer cites its source, and the answer opens the screen it came from.
Why is WC-20418 on hold?
The receipt does not match two other records. It shows a sale on 12 Mar 2025, but the owner registered the unit on 20 Mar 2024 and Northgate's own invoice NA-INV-55120 is dated 12 Mar 2024. The date is in a different typeface and the file was edited on 2 Oct 2026. On the true date, labour and refrigerant are out of term; the compressor is still covered to 2029. Northgate also has 14 C-214 claims in 9 days at 2.5 h each.
Which dealers bill the labour guide maximum most often?
Northgate Appliances, far ahead. 100% of its last 14 C-214 claims bill 2.5 h, the guide maximum, and its labour runs at 131% of the guide over 90 days. The technician app shows 41–58 min on site for 8 of them. Next is Medway at 106%, explained by hinge wear, then Lakeshore at 104%.
What do we recover from Varrick for lot VC-2611?
$18,420.00 now, for 6 bench-confirmed failures. Each is $3,070.00 under clause 11.3: kit $2,280, labour at the guide 2.5 h × $112, refrigerant $310, freight $200. The 8 held Northgate claims are left out, so Varrick has no reason to dispute the batch. 1,240 units in service carry the lot, so an 8D request is suggested too.
How is cost per unit trending this year?
$11.80 a unit in service, down from $12.64. Ice machines cost most at $17.90, and C-214 compressor failures are the largest code at $9.8M of $40.9M. The claims rate is 1.41% of sales against an appliance average of 1.27%. The two biggest levers are money held before payment ($1.25M in 6 months) and supplier recovery, now 37% against a target of 85%.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
Every change is a new version; limits, rules and terms need the warranty manager. Version 12 is live.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-approve limit | $1,500, when all three stamps pass | Any amount, as a new version the warranty manager signs |
| Adjudicator limit per claim | $5,000 | Any amount; above it, the warranty manager decides |
| Open a pattern case at | 5 claims with one code at one dealer within 14 days | Number of claims and days, set as a new version |
| Or labour at the guide maximum on | 80% of a dealer's claims | Any share of a dealer's claims |
| Flag time on site under | 50% of the labour billed | Any share of the labour billed |
| Parts return window | 30 days after the repair | Any number of days |
| Pay labour at the time guide when more is billed · Apply the EU repair extension automatically | On | On · Off |
| A proof fail needs two independent sources · Nothing goes to a dealer or a supplier until a person presses Send · Chargebacks include bench-confirmed failures only | On | Locked: cannot be turned off |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample claims data · “target” = the design goal, measured in the live solution · “estimated” = our estimate · “typical” = published figures (Warranty Week, 23rd Annual Product Warranty Report, 2026 — claims 1.30% of US product sales, appliances 1.27%; invalid or padded claims put at 10–20% of warranty spend by AutoSuccess, a vendor, and 3–15% by IIM Bangalore). The EU repair extension is Directive (EU) 2024/1799; 16 CFR 700.7 is the US rule on registration cards. Kestrel & Vane Group, its dealers, suppliers and the people named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
Warranty claims management software that validates each claim against the warranty terms, proof of purchase and service records. Each claim opens on its serial's whole life, with three stamps — term, proof and history — each pass or fail with its source. Seven agents read, check, look for patterns across serials and draft supplier chargebacks; clean claims under the limit are approved by rule, and a named adjudicator decides the rest.
The Proof agent checks the receipt against the serial, the owner's registration and the dealer's own sale record, and looks for edits in fonts, file history and totals. A finding becomes a fail only when the History agent confirms it from a second, independent source; one source alone is a warning, never a hold.
The Pattern agent groups claims across serials by dealer, failure code, labour and parts lot, compares the labour billed with the technician app's time on site, and joins the returns lab's bench results. The History agent finds duplicates by part serial. A case opens at thresholds you set — 5 claims on one code at one dealer in 14 days by default — and a person decides it.
Yes, for confirmed failures only. The Recovery agent drafts the chargeback under each supply agreement from the bench reports, prices each line by the clause and leaves out every held or unconfirmed claim, listing why. The supplier recovery analyst signs and sends it.
The Coverage agent applies the legal guarantee by region and the 12-month extension after a repair within the legal guarantee, and records it on the unit. It never refuses a claim on registration alone where other proof of the date exists; registration is used as evidence of the date, not as a condition of cover.
Yes. Agents never approve over the limit, never hold, reject or accuse on their own, and never send anything to a dealer or supplier. A named adjudicator decides with a reason code, the warranty manager signs dealer actions, goodwill over $2,500 and claims over $5,000, and nobody can sign what they prepared.
Yes. The auto-approve and adjudicator limits, pattern thresholds, time-on-site flag, parts return window, reason codes, roles, service levels and the warranty terms by model and region are settings. Every change is a new version the warranty manager approves, and three rules are locked.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your warranty terms, supply agreements and a sample of past claims — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. A new product line is brought on in six steps, with a trial on 90 days of past claims before it goes live.
Policy changes reach every article in a day, and the bot never answers from a stale page.
1-min demoReturns ManagementFraud held before the refund; every item sent to the lane that recovers the most.
1-min demoChargeback ManagementMore chargebacks won, weak ones accepted fast, and no dispute left to expire.
1-min demoWe'll run Warranty Claims Management on a sample of your own past claims, terms and service records.