Thursday, November 12, 2009

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

There is an Elephant in the room, and I'm not talking about the wonderful conference call I was on today at the office. Somebody placed us on hold and so the rest of us were stuck trying to continue the meeting while everybody pretended to ignore the horrible elevator music that was playing in the background. Suffice to say it was impossible and we ended up dropping the conference bridge and then doing a jerry-rigged 4-way x 4-way conference call.

However I digress, this isn't the Elephant I'm talking about. I'm talking about a new service called Warranty Elephant.

Now some folks are very particular about their paperwork. They file things in perfect alphabetical or chronological order in specially designed shelving systems or rows of matching bankers boxes they bought at a store that specializes in selling fancy organizating systems for people who I am quite positive should not be trusted.

I am not one of those people. The shelf to the left of the desk I am sitting at right now has a 3 foot deep pile of old bills, assorted paperwork, warranty cards, receipts, mortgage documents and 4 years worth of tax returns combined with a mish-mash of magazines I should have long ago recycled and crayon drawings courtesy of my 3-year old.

The Warranty Elephant concept is simple. You register on the site, then you enter the details of your recent purchase (television, computer, digital camera, etc.). You can even upload scanned copies of your receipt or the warranty itself to create a digital archive. The Warranty Elephant service then sends you email 3 months, 1 month and 1 week before the warranty on your purchase expires. You can also access your account at any time to review your current warranties and their status. Never again will you need to search thru old receipts and root thru garbage attempting to find the lone scrap of paper that will remind you if that fancy new gadget you bought last summer is still under warranty or if you are suddenly in the market for an upgraded model. With Warranty Elephant you can sort at ease thru the manufacturers, store, or extended warranty details of all your purchases.

Warranty Elephant has also launched a similar tracking service for your Medications, which could not only help an individual keep tabs on the contents of those mystery bottles in all of our medicine cabinets but is a brilliant idea for anybody caring for an aging family member. Check it out today, the service is free so you have nothing to lose.

2 comments:

rob said...

Insightful post Colin. If I ever buy anything bigger than a laptop I will probably use the service.

Anonymous said...

Wow, great post. Seems like a no brainer. www.warrantyelephant.com is free, so I signed up and already entered my camera.