INTERNET WARRANTY REGISTRATION/CLAIMS GOES ONLINE

The cooperative warranty registration and claims service of FEMA, NAEDA and FEWA-AIMRA is now online. FEMA Regular Members, who now use the old telephone/post-card/written claims warranty registration forms and warranty claims settlements, are now able to enter the 21st century and begin competing on an equal basis with both major tractor companies and large specialized farm equipment manufacturers.
Even if your firm already has an established online warranty claims system, you’ll want to be linked to the all new Warranty Claim Program. Should you choose not to accept warranty registrations and claims settlements over the Warranty Claim Program, you may well want to simply post your current warranty policy on the site and state clearly that you will not accept claims made on it.
Since being posted on the site and accepting claims made over it must be your “opt in” choice, for those manufacturers who do nothing, they will not be listed on the site.
This online system was developed following years of expressed dealer concerns over the volume of differing printed warranty claims forms and varying company warranty policies from an array of shortline manufacturers they were forced to comply with. On warranty work, for those manufacturers using the Warranty Claim Program, the servicing tech will have right at his fingertips, the appropriate manufacturer’s warranty policy and acceptable claim form. If it clearly states that the machine must be returned to the manufacturer for repair or replacement, a manufacturer won’t have to spend hours of telephone time explaining this fact.
The online system will also allow the attachment of photos and other images of the proposed warranty work to be attached with the claim form.
Of the utmost concern of all three organizations when developing the system was the maintenance of privacy for your registration and claims information from unauthorized use. While a very limited number of staff from FEMA, as well as Advantech Consulting Group, the vendor of the online program, have limited access to this information, binding confidentiality agreements have been signed by all individuals who have such access. Users of the system, manufacturers, dealers and distributors alike must enter user names and passwords to enter the system.
Additionally, all claims filed over the system will be maintained for a very short time for billing purposes, only. After that, these records will be destroyed.
There will be no cost to post your warranty policy on the electronic claims service. The system, however, will deduct $2.00 from the amount requested for reimbursement by the dealer to help cover the cost of maintaining the system. Quarterly, FEMA will bill participating manufacturers $2.00 for each claim approved by that manufacturer.
In no way will the Warranty Claim Program affect how you accept or reject warranty claims, nor will it necessitate changes in your warranty policy. It will merely concentrate in one source the location of that warranty policy and ease the delivery, approval and/or rejection of those warranty claims from the maze of hundreds of printed forms with which dealers must now contend. And it will quite likely increase warranty registrations when the equipment is purchased.
Please feel free to check out this new system. If you want to see what it looks like for a manufacturer, go to www.EquipWarranty.com and enter the temporary User Name of “54321” and a Password of “54321.” To see what a dealer might see, on the same website and enter the temporary User Name “12345”: and the Password, “12345.” (Continued)
If you have further questions, call the FEMA office and the staff will walk you through the system. Later on this week, all Regular FEMA members will receive a detailed letter from Vernon Schmidt which more fully explains how your firm may enter the program along with your company’s permanent user name and password.
Don’t ignore the ease with which modern electronic communication has lightened the burden and lessened errors between dealer and supplier on warranty registration and claims issues. This Internet-based warranty claim program is designed to save the shortline manufacturer, distributor and dealer both time and money. ♦