The appliance breaks fourteen months in. The warranty was two years. You are covered, and then you spend an hour failing to find a receipt that faded to nothing in a kitchen drawer.
Three dates, not one
Most purchases carry more than one deadline, and they are easy to confuse:
- The return window. Shortest, usually counted in days or weeks. This is the one for changing your mind.
- The warranty period. Longer, and about faults rather than regret.
- Extended cover, if you bought it. It often starts when the standard warranty ends rather than at purchase, which trips people up.
Track the return window for anything you are unsure about, and the warranty for anything expensive or mechanical.
What a claim actually asks for
Claim processes are more predictable than they seem. Having these four things ready turns a bad afternoon into a short phone call:
- Proof of purchase — the receipt, invoice or order confirmation
- The purchase date
- The model and serial number
- Where you bought it, because the retailer is often the right first contact rather than the manufacturer
Photograph the serial number while the thing is new and reachable. It is frequently on the back, the underside, or inside a door — trivial on day one, genuinely annoying once the appliance is plumbed in.
Worth tracking
- Large appliances — washing machines, fridges, ovens
- Computers, phones, tablets and anything with a battery
- Tools and garden equipment
- Furniture with a structural guarantee
- Anything installed in the home: boilers, alarms, solar
- Bicycles and e-bikes, where frame warranties can run long
How Timely handles it
Photograph the receipt and the AI reads the purchase date off it, then files the item with the receipt attached. Set the reminder for shortly before cover ends — the useful nudge is the one that arrives while you can still act, which for an intermittent fault means weeks rather than days.
Because attachments live with the item, the receipt and the date stop being two separate things you have to reunite under pressure.
Common questions
How long do warranties usually last?
It varies by product, by retailer and by country, so treat the number on the box as a starting point rather than the answer. Many consumer electronics come with one or two years. Separately from any manufacturer warranty, a lot of countries give buyers statutory rights that last longer and cannot be signed away. Record what your paperwork says, and check your local consumer rights before assuming you are out of time.
What should I keep with each item?
The purchase date, the retailer, the receipt itself as a photo, and the serial number if there is one. That combination covers almost every claim process. The serial number matters more than people expect, because it is often the first thing a support agent asks for and it usually sits on a label that becomes unreachable once the thing is installed.
Why photograph a receipt I already have?
Because till receipts are usually printed on thermal paper, and thermal paper fades. A receipt kept in a drawer for two years can come out blank at exactly the moment you need it. A photo taken on the day does not fade.
Track it before it catches you out
Timely is free on the App Store. Scan a label, a receipt or a document and it remembers the date for you.
Download on theApp Store