Warranty claims

A warranty claim is a structured question with a few documents attached: which product, bought when and where, what went wrong, and what the owner wants. That suits two agents well. The manufacturer’s agent can check coverage and run troubleshooting immediately, instead of the owner repeating the story to a phone queue. The decision itself, and anything that looks like a dispute, still needs clear rules and often a person.

How it works today

The owner finds the model and serial number, digs out the receipt, and files through a manufacturer’s web form, a retailer’s service desk or a phone line. Support walks through troubleshooting, then issues a return authorization and shipping label, books a technician, or sends a replacement. When the retailer and manufacturer each point at the other, the owner makes both calls.

United States. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and the FTC’s rules set the frame. The FTC’s business guide summarizes the parts that matter here:

• A full warranty must meet all the federal minimums, including service for anyone who owns the product during the warranty period, free of charge, with a choice of refund or replacement if repairs fail. It may not impose unreasonable duties; the FTC names requiring a registration card as one. Anything short of that is a limited warranty, which may require reasonable steps such as proof of purchase.
• The tie-in ban stops a warrantor from conditioning coverage on branded parts or service, unless those are provided free or the FTC grants a waiver. A warrantor may still decline to cover damage caused by unauthorized parts.
• The Pre-Sale Availability Rule lets warrantors meet their duty online, as long as there is also a non-internet way to get a copy.
• Under 16 CFR Part 703, a warrantor may require consumers to try its informal dispute mechanism before suing under the Act. The mechanism may not charge consumers, must be insulated from the warrantor’s influence, must decide within 40 days of notification, and its decisions are not legally binding.

Québec. Legal warranties of normal use, reasonable durability and freedom from hidden defects apply automatically. The consumer can claim against the merchant, the manufacturer or both, and a merchant may not insist the consumer deal with the manufacturer. From 5 October 2026, a new warranty of good working order covers listed goods for fixed periods: six years for stoves, refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners and heat pumps, five for washers, dryers and dishwashers, four for televisions, and three for laptops, desktops, game consoles, cellphones and tablets. The merchant or manufacturer must either repair the item free or let the consumer have a third party repair it at their expense.

Product identity. GS1 Digital Link encodes a GTIN, and optionally a serial or batch number, into a web address printed as a QR code. Scanning the product gives an agent the exact model and unit without anyone reading a label.

The agent-to-agent version

Illustrative. A dishwasher stops draining in month 14 of a two-year limited warranty. The owner’s agent scans the Digital Link code and files a claim with the manufacturer’s agent:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 9,
  "method": "SendMessage",
  "params": {
    "message": {
      "role": "ROLE_USER",
      "messageId": "msg-wc-0917",
      "parts": [
        {"text": "Warranty claim: dishwasher does not drain; standing water after every cycle since 2026-09-20."},
        {
          "data": {
            "gtin": "00614141123452",
            "serial": "DW7-2291-0048",
            "purchaseDate": "2025-07-12",
            "seller": "Example Appliances, Laval QC",
            "symptoms": ["no_drain", "error_code_E24"],
            "requestedRemedy": "repair"
          },
          "mediaType": "application/json"
        },
        {"url": "https://files.owner-agent.example/r/7f2c.pdf", "filename": "receipt.pdf", "mediaType": "application/pdf"}
      ]
    }
  }
}

1. The manufacturer’s agent matches the serial to its records and the receipt date to the warranty term.
2. It asks one troubleshooting question through TASK_STATE_INPUT_REQUIRED: has the filter been cleaned? The owner’s agent relays the question, or answers from a photo the owner already took.
3. Coverage confirmed, it books a technician from the owner’s available windows and returns the claim number and appointment as an artifact.
4. If it denies the claim, the artifact states the reason and how to reach the dispute mechanism, and the task goes to a person on both sides.

What has to be true

Identity. The manufacturer must know the claim comes from the owner’s agent and concerns this unit. For a limited warranty, proof of purchase does that work today. A signed receipt, or a serial number registered at sale, would let the agent prove it without a scanned PDF. The owner’s agent, in turn, must know it is talking to the manufacturer and not a look-alike “warranty service.”

Authority. Filing a claim, answering troubleshooting questions and accepting a free repair are safe to delegate. Accepting a partial refund in place of a repair, agreeing to a settlement, paying for out-of-warranty work or releasing personal data stored on a device are different decisions, and the owner should set explicit limits on them.

Record. Both sides need the same record: the claim as filed, each question and answer, the decision and its reason, and dates. Under Rule 703 the 40-day clock and the non-binding decision both depend on that timeline being clear.

Where Emissar fits

• Front Door (open to design partners) lets a manufacturer or retailer accept claims from owners’ agents in front of the warranty and service systems it already runs.
• Mandate (spec in progress) would carry the owner’s limits: file and accept repairs for this product, nothing more.
• Handoff (in development) routes denials and disputes to a person with the full exchange attached.
• Ledger (spec in progress) would give both sides a signed record of the claim and the decision.
• Settle (planned) would apply when the remedy is a refund.

Open questions

• Proof of purchase. Receipts are PDFs and photos. There is no common, verifiable purchase record an agent can present across retailers.
• Evidence integrity. Photos and videos of a fault are easy to fake. Manufacturers will want a way to tell a real capture from a generated one.
• Retailer or manufacturer. In Québec the consumer can claim against either or both. An agent filing with both at once needs a way to avoid duplicate remedies.
• Wrong diagnosis. If the owner’s agent reports a symptom badly and the technician visit is wasted, who bears the cost?
• Safety. Faults that caused injury or property damage are not routine claims. They belong with people from the first message.