Archived Copies of Warranty Week

December 2002 to Today

Apple's Warranties & Service Contracts: In its brand new annual report, the company details its declining product warranty expenses while providing financial clues that suggest its market-leading extended warranty program had a really good year.
November 5, 2020
Extended Protection Plans: Change what you think is working. A truly effective extended protection plan program should harness predictive analytics. Failing to optimize extended protection plans could mean leaving money and valuable data on the table.
April 2, 2020
WCM Pre-Conference Workshops:  Warranty professionals heading to Orlando for the 15th annual Warranty Chain Management Conference could arrive a day early to attend any of six different workshops on topics such as fraud detection, claims handling, customer satisfaction, and how to launch or expand a commercial or consumer service contract program.
February 21, 2019
Apple's Warranties & Service Contracts: While AppleCare is still the biggest extended warranty program in the world, it hasn't grown much in years. And while Apple is spending more on product warranties than either GM or Ford, that's not growing either. No wonder investors are spooked by the company's future prospects.
November 15, 2018
Planning and Structuring a Successful Warranty Transformation Program: One of the biggest mistake companies make is failing to consider the needs of customers and stakeholders in other departments. Others fail to articulate the business benefits internally, or they fail to consider industry trends that will impact the warranty process.
June 23, 2016
New Leaf Service Contracts: Smaller retailers looking to sell service contracts usually had to choose between running the program themselves or selling another company's self-insured product. Now, there's a company trying to make it as easy as possible for small retailers to sell fully-insured service contracts.
November 7, 2013
Dell's Extended Warranties: Though its hardware sales have flattened, the importance of Dell's extended warranty program continues to rise. While a few years ago it was twice as large as the product warranty operation, now it's four times larger. And it accounts for a rising percentage of the company's total revenue.
January 24, 2013
Warranty Institute Opens: The Institute of Warranty Chain Management begins accepting memberships this weekend, more than two-and-a-half years after forming. The Web site's almost done, some 60 white papers are waiting to be downloaded, and a training program for warranty professionals is scheduled to begin in March.
October 30, 2008
Transforming a Warranty Program: IBM drives warranty service quality improvements through a Business Partners network. Its new Service Advisory Council suggests paying bonuses for achieving certain performance metrics.
July 5, 2006
Selling Customer Care: While an extended warranty is a type of insurance contract, NEW sells it as an enhanced customer assistance program, promising consumers 24x7 access to advice and boosting customer loyalty for retailers.
October 19, 2004