What a forgotten warranty really costs you

Everyone has lived this scene. An appliance breaks down, you think “darn, it’s surely out of warranty by now”, you pay for the repair — or buy a brand-new replacement outright. A few weeks later, you stumble on the invoice: the appliance was still covered.

That little lapse has a name and a price. It’s the cost of the forgotten warranty: money you spend on something that should have been free. And contrary to what most people assume, it doesn’t add up to tens of euros — it often adds up to hundreds.

Why warranties get “forgotten”

A warranty is almost never lost through bad faith. It’s lost through friction:

• The receipt is gone. Thermal till receipts fade within months and become unreadable. Yet after-sales service demands dated proof of purchase. No proof, no warranty.
• Nobody knows the end date. No one remembers “the dishwasher was bought on 14 March 2024, covered until 14 March 2026”. When the breakdown comes, in doubt, you give up.
• People don’t know their rights. Many believe they only get “one year” of coverage. For consumers in France, that’s wrong (see below).

The result: the coverage exists, but it never gets used.

Putting numbers on it

Here’s the ballpark cost of an out-of-warranty repair on everyday appliances. Under warranty, the same job costs you €0.

Indicative ranges; they vary by brand and model.

One single appliance repaired at the right moment, and the warranty “pays back” more than a full year’s subscription to a tracking tool. That’s the whole paradox: the cost you avoid far outweighs the cost of not forgetting.

The warranty almost nobody uses

This is the least understood part. In France, a consumer buying from a professional seller is covered by the legal guarantee of conformity (2 years), starting from delivery of the goods (Articles L.217-3 and following of the French Consumer Code). It’s free, automatic, and comes on top of the manufacturer’s commercial warranty.

In practice:

• It covers lack of conformity (the product doesn’t work the way it should).
• For the first 24 months (12 months for second-hand goods), it’s up to the seller to prove the defect didn’t exist — not up to you.
• A repair under this guarantee extends the coverage by 6 months; a replacement restarts a fresh 2-year period.

In other words: many breakdowns that happen between year one and year two are covered, even though most people have already written their warranty off. That’s exactly where the biggest avoidable cost hides.

The avoided-cost math

No need for a fancy spreadsheet. A typical household easily has 10 to 15 items under warranty at any given moment (appliances, computers, phones, tools…). Over the lifetime of those items, the odds that at least one breaks down while still covered are high.

It only takes one recovered claim — a smartphone screen, a dishwasher control board — to save €150 to €400. The real risk isn’t “tracking your warranties too closely”; it’s letting one slip away.

For a business managing a fleet of equipment, the reasoning is the same, multiplied: every unused warranty is a repair or replacement bill that drains cash for no reason.

How to never lose another one

Three habits are enough:

1. Keep the proof. Photograph the invoice or receipt on the day of purchase — before it fades.
2. Know the end date. Note the warranty length; the expiry date follows from it.
3. Get warned in time. A reminder before the deadline leaves you time to act.

That’s exactly what Keept does: you add an item in seconds (photo of the invoice included), the app works out the warranty expiry date and emails you before it runs out. The day something breaks, you pull up the invoice and the dates in one click — and you know right away whether it’s covered.

A forgotten warranty is money left on the table. Tracking costs next to nothing. The math is easy.