Some service agreements and warranties change over time. Coverage for an older component may be reduced, a limit may fall, or a line may apply only up to a certain point in the system's life. The schedule that sets this out is often a separate page, a table, or a clause that points to another document. Find it before you rely on the headline terms.
What a declining schedule is
A declining schedule ties what an agreement will contribute to the age of the item at the time of a claim. Read how the age is counted. It may run from the install date, the purchase date, or the date the agreement began. Those start points can produce different results for the same system.
Questions to ask
Ask which start date the schedule uses. Ask whether the reduction applies per part or per system. Ask whether it applies to labor as well as parts. Ask whether the reduction changes the term, the limit, or both. Ask the seller to point to the exact clause or table, in writing.
What to compare on paper
Set the schedule beside the agreement's definitions, exclusions, and waiting period. A schedule that looks generous can be narrowed by a definition on another page. Check whether an exclusion also begins to apply as the item ages, or whether only the schedule changes.
Where the planning figures are
This site does not publish the terms of any company's agreement. For typical planning ages of the systems themselves, see the ranking of major appliances by typical service life. Treat those ages as a planning input, and read your own schedule for what it actually covers.
Keep the schedule with the paper
Save the schedule with the agreement and with the install record. When you need to compare the agreement against the system's age, the schedule is the page that tells you what the age line means.