Workplace Warranty Claim
employment attorney Indiana Jul 26, 2026
Location: Indiana As part of my job I am to maintain certain equipment for my company. A faulty item worth approximately $4,000 was reported to me by staff, I took a look, and performed my range of troubleshooting. I placed a warranty claim for the item. The vendor sent out their tech, confirmed it is faulty, and shipped a new replacement. I had the new replacement still sealed in box in my storage closet. Around this same time, my boss asked me how many of this same item need purchased for some new workstations being provisioned. I gave him the correct quantity, and that was the end of conversation. At some point, he must have came thru my office and saw the item new in box, subtracted it from my quantity to order, and directed contractors to install my warranty-replaced item in lieu of purchasing another, likely not knowing at the time of the story of this item, albeit not bothering to ask me. This is almost certainly done to save money. Here's where the problem lies: After I found out what happened, I informed him that item was slated for a warranty replacement. I told him we cannot use it as a new one, as it's replacing a faulty one at location xyz. He asked what's wrong with the faulty one, and I answered. He told me we are going to leave that one in service in its marginally faulty state because it fits the need for that location still. I insisted it needs to be recycled per historical precedent of recycling warranty-claimed items from this vendor in the past. This vendor comes thru and physically collects serial numbers from the items in service, likely to sell upgrades and replacements at EOL. But it may also expose this unit which should be marked in their system as disposed. This audit has happened a few times already from this vendor since I've worked here, so I know it's just a matter of time. He said that's not for me to worry about, then stopped replying. I asked for an email recap of it, but didn't get one of course. This was all on our chat platform, and I screencapped the conversation. It's on an official licensed platform that can be e-discovered if he deletes messages. I am concerned because of the item's value and that my name is on the warranty claim, that I may face consequences individually if the vendor discovers this. I also do not want to fight this battle internally down the line if my boss does not take accountability, which is very likely given his past behavior. As part of the replacement I didn't sign anything except to receive the package from the freight company, nor were any warranty terms sent in the correspondence to receive the replacement. I assume, though cannot confirm, that they require these items to be recycled as part of the business to business contract signed by the executive team. They used to ask for faulty items to be shipped back, but have not done so for the last few years. The most info I personally have is that we can insist for a shipping label to send it back or we can use our own recyclers, but that was thru a low-level service contact for that vendor, not an official policy I could read thru. I am going to try one more time to suggest alternatives to the boss that still allow this item to be recycled properly, but failing that, what can I do to protect myself in this situation both legally and from retribution from my employer?
