Get Service before the Warranty Expiration Date

Have you ever called for repair just few days after the warranty expiration date, and end up to pay hundred bucks which should be free of charge if you had called for repair earlier? I have the experience on that. My notebook CD ROM was not workable for few days, but I did not call for service immediately. Just missing few days, my notebook was no more under warranty. I had to pay for fixing the CD ROM, and this made me feel very unworthy. I did not use CD ROM often, so I gave us the repairment, but it made my notebook handicapped. Whenever I need to install driver of a printer or a card reader, I need to bother others to read the CD for me, then get the driver file from internet or a flash drive. Recently, I also heard of some person's story that he just called several hours late after the expiration date for car engine issue, but got no more warranty service. This really made him piss off. I am thinking how to prevent this situation. If a thing is just broken after the expiration date, we can do nothing for it. However, sometimes, things were damaged for a while, but we were just too busy to ask for service right away. If we have a warning mechanism to remind us the expiration date, this may help us to prevent the unnecessary cost. ExpireTrack is such kind of iPhone/iPod Touch application that offers simple way to record expiration date of anything, including Warranty and Insurance, etc. It can notify users at the specific time before each thing's expiration date by Google calendar, or show all the things on iPhone/iPod Touch which will be expired in report under the condition set by users. Hmmm...so, ExpireTrack can also reduce unnecessary cost for missing the warranty time.