Somebody else installed it, and it just failed
No install record, no registration history, and a customer expecting an answer.
Service work starts at the wrong end of the warranty. Claim Timer lets the record start there too: photograph the nameplate on the diagnostic visit, and work out what cover is actually left before you decide who pays for the truck.
- $200 and $25
- Enphase's published US rates: per truck roll, and per replaced microinverter.
- Serial first
- Photograph the nameplate on the diagnostic visit and the record starts from there.
- Denials logged
- In the manufacturer's own words, so you can see which brand keeps costing you.
The unknown history is the job
An installer starts with everything and has to keep it. A service company starts with nothing and has to reconstruct it, usually while standing in a garage in front of a dead inverter with the homeowner watching. What the original installer registered, whether the extended cover was ever claimed, whether the battery has been offline since a router change in 2023: all of it is unknown, and all of it decides who pays.
The reconstruction is mostly doable. Manufacturers care about the serial number and the evidence, not about who held the screwdriver. What kills a service claim is not the missing installer. It is a serial nobody photographed, an install date nobody can evidence, and a condition that stopped being true years before anybody looked.
Do that reconstruction before the truck rolls rather than after, and the visit stops being a gamble. Only 4 of the 19 brands in our catalogue pay anything toward labour, so on most of them a successful claim still leaves you carrying the visit.
Six things that matter on somebody else's install
All of them start from a serial number and a photograph, because that is all you are guaranteed to have.
Start the record at the failure
You are standing in front of equipment you did not install. Photograph the nameplate, get the make, model and serial off the label, and the record exists from that moment. There is nothing to import and nobody to ask.
Find out what the term actually is
Not the term on the brochure. Whether this brand attaches conditions, whether the extended cover needed a registration that may never have happened, and what the honest remaining term looks like either way.
Know before the visit who pays for labour
Only 4 of the 19 brands in our catalogue pay anything toward labour. Enphase publishes $200 per truck roll plus $25 per replaced microinverter in the United States. For most of the rest, the visit is yours.
Take on orphaned customers with your eyes open
When an installer closes, the workmanship cover dies with them and the manufacturer cover does not. That is a service pipeline, but only if you check which manufacturer conditions are still intact before you quote.
Build the claim from what you can actually get
The claim is a checklist: install record, registration confirmation, serial photo, what failed, failure photos, invoice. It shows you which rows you have and which you are missing before you spend an afternoon on a submission.
Log the denials in their own words
A denial reason is data. After a handful, you can see which manufacturer keeps refusing, on what grounds, and whether their equipment is worth quoting service on at all.
When the original installer is gone
A closed competitor is a service pipeline, and it is also a pile of warranties in unknown condition.
The workmanship cover
It died with the company that issued it. Nothing you or the homeowner can do brings it back, and the sooner that is said plainly the better the rest of the conversation goes.
The manufacturer cover
A manufacturer's obligation sits with the manufacturer, so the panels, the inverter and the battery still carry theirs. That is the part worth checking carefully, brand by brand, before you quote anything.
Whether the conditions held
GoodWe's ten years is five without its portal connection. Tesla's ten can be four without internet. REC's extended cover needed the installer to register. The closed company is not going to tell you which of those happened.
Some of it can still be fixed. GoodWe publishes no deadline on its portal connection, so reconnecting an orphaned inverter this afternoon may restore the longer term. That is a reason to check, and a reasonable thing to be paid for. Taking on orphaned solar customers goes through it properly.
Six questions before you quote the visit
The answers change who pays, and every one of them is easier to get before the truck moves.
Who installed it, and does that company still exist? Workmanship cover dies with the installer. Manufacturer cover does not.
What is the serial, and is there a photograph of the label rather than a number somebody typed?
Does this brand attach conditions to the full term, and has one of them quietly stopped being true?
Was the extended cover ever registered, or is the customer holding the shorter term without knowing it?
Does the manufacturer pay anything toward labour, or is the truck roll yours whatever happens?
If the claim is denied, who pays for the part, and has the customer been told that before you start?
What service companies ask
Including the reports that are not built yet.
We did not install the system. Is this any use to us?
That is the case it handles best. The record starts on your diagnostic visit: photograph the nameplate, capture the serial, and the equipment exists in Claim Timer from that point. You do not need the original installer's paperwork to open a record, and you often do not need it to open a claim either, because most manufacturers care about the serial and the evidence rather than about who fitted it.
What do we do about orphaned customers?
Check what is left before you quote. When a solar company closes, its customers keep their manufacturer warranties and lose their workmanship cover. Some of those manufacturer terms will be whole, some will have been shortened by a condition that stopped being true, and some extended cover was never registered at all. Those are three different conversations to have with the homeowner, and it is much better to have them before the visit than after the diagnosis.
How do we know whether a claim is worth the truck roll?
Labour is the number that decides it. Only 4 of the 19 brands in our catalogue pay anything toward labour, and Enphase is the one that publishes a rate: $200 per truck roll plus $25 per replaced microinverter, in the United States. A truck roll usually costs more than $200, so the free truck roll cost calculator is worth ten minutes before you build a service pricing model on assumptions.
Can we track systems we service but did not sell?
Yes. A record is a piece of equipment, not a sale. Add it on the visit that found it, and it carries the same conditions, the same serial photo and the same claim checklist as anything else.
Does Claim Timer submit claims to the manufacturer for us?
No. It builds the evidence pack: the install details you have, the serial photo, the registration confirmation number if one exists, the failure photos and the invoice, downloadable as one PDF with a cover sheet. A person still submits it. Automatic submission is not built.
Can we see what warranty work is costing us across a quarter?
Not yet. You can log the denial reason and the cost against a claim, and on the Shop plan you can see claim rate by manufacturer and by tech. Rolling cost up across a quarter is not built, and we would rather say so than imply a report that does not exist.
Read next
Taking on orphaned solar customers
The diligence to do before you take the job
Which brands pay for labour
And which leave you the truck roll
Why solar warranty claims get denied
The evidence that would have saved them
Every brand's warranty terms
19 brands, read from the manufacturer's own document
Free warranty tools
Truck roll cost, claim checklist, replacement cost
Claim Timer pricing
Per install, not per user. Free for 5 a month
Start the record on the visit that found the fault
Photograph the nameplate, capture the serial, and Claim Timer holds the equipment and its brand's conditions from there. It builds the claim pack. It does not file with the manufacturer for you.