Warranty Service Claims Procedure

Submitting Warranty Claims:

1. All warranty Service Claims must be submitted either on Brother Support Web Site at www.brothersupport.com under On-Line Warranty Claims or on a Brother Warranty Service Report form within 60 days of the date of repair as stipulated in your contract. Claims should be mailed to:

Brother International Corporation
100 Somerset Corporate Blvd
Bridgewater, NJ 08807-0911
Attn: National Service Administration

2. All requested information on the Warranty Claim form must be provided or the claim will be returned. All returned claims must be resubmitted with the information requested within 30 days of the date of return as stated in your contract.

3. All claims must include the ASC’s invoice or reference number for you to track your payment.

4. A copy of the customer’s sales receipt providing proof that the machine is within the warranty period must be submitted with the paper claim for any machine where the serial number indicates it was manufactured more than one year or 90 days (depending on the length of the warranty) prior to the date the unit was brought in for service. (Unless specifically waived in writing by Brother.) For the On-Line Claims the ASC must hold on to the Proof Of Purchase for a year for auditing purposes. With On-Line Claims Brother may call up to verify warranty on a specific claim.

5. No Work Order is required from Brother for machines, which are clearly under warranty. This is based upon either the date of manufacture (determined from the serial number) or a valid sales receipt provided by the customer indicating the machine is still within the warranty period. (For direction on how to read a serial number, please see the section in these procedures titles “How to Determine the Serial Number Production Date.”) A valid receipt should be a register receipt or computer printout from the retailer and must not contradict the fact that the customer is the first end-user. If you have any questions as to the validity of a customer’s sales receipt, please call the Brother Administration Department for further direction.

6. Warranty Service Claims are for labor only. (All claims for parts reimbursement must be sent to the Brother Parts Department.) *Please note that On-Line claims are first priority over paper claims and in most cases checks are sent out next business day.

How to Determine the Serial Number Production Date:

The first letter of the serial number indicates the month of production. The first number of the serial number indicates the year of production. There are several variations on the configuration of the serial numbers. 

They may read as follows:
Sample 1: A49876543 Serial number is: A49876543 Manufacture date is: January, 2004 
Sample 2: U56545L22984310 Serial number is: L22984310 Manufacture date is: November, 2002
Sample 3: U56462E3J231117 Serial number is: E3J231117 Manufacture date is: May, 2003 

Note that the letter indicating the month of production is the 9th character from the end of the serial number. The number indicating the year of production is the 8th character from the end of the serial number. In all cases, the serial number will be a letter followed by eight alpha/numeric characters.

Month Codes:
A = January
B = February
C = March
D = April
E = May
F = June
G = July
H = August
J = September
K = October
L = November
M = December

Note there is no letter “I” in this series.

Year Codes:
4 = 2004
3 = 2003
2 = 2002
1 = 2001
0 = 2000
9 = 1999
8 = 1998

Note that you must also be conscious of the approximate time frame in which a product was introduced. For example, a “1” for the year of manufacture could also be 1991 on very old products. We trust that our ASCs know the approximate age of our product lines. (If you’re not sure, please call Tech Support or the Administration Department for assistance.)

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