Insurance & Claims Assessments

A device damage report your insurer will actually accept — signed, in 24 hours.

When an insurer asks for an assessment, they are not asking someone to look at a cracked screen. They want a documented technical finding they can pay a claim against: verified IMEI, full diagnostic, photographic evidence, a view on whether the damage is consistent with the reported cause, and an itemised repair estimate — signed by the technician who did the work. That is what we produce. R650, or R850 fast-tracked to 24 hours.

24 hrsSigned report, fast-track tier
R650Standard full assessment
NationwideR199 insured collection
CreditedFee off your repair with us
5.0 ★59 Google reviews

Five questions to ask your insurer before you pay anyone.

Most rejected assessments are not rejected because the technician was wrong. They are rejected because nobody checked what the policy actually required. Ask these five questions first — it takes one phone call, and it can save you the whole fee.

Ask your insurer / broker

Send us the answers and we will scope the job exactly — or tell you we are not the right fit.

  1. Who is the insurer or underwriter, and is there a claim or reference number yet? The report must be addressed correctly and quote the claim reference, or it gets returned unprocessed.
  2. Have they specified what the report must contain, or issued a form? Some insurers have their own assessment template. If yours does, we complete theirs — not ours.
  3. Do they require a manufacturer-authorised assessor, or do they accept an independent qualified technician's report? This is the one that matters most. See the disclosure below.
  4. Is this a repair claim or a replacement / write-off claim? A repair claim needs an itemised parts-and-labour estimate. A write-off claim needs a pre-damage market value and an economic-repair conclusion. Different reports.
  5. Is there a submission deadline? If it is tight, take the fast-track tier — a late report can invalidate an otherwise valid claim.

Don't want to phone them? Forward us the insurer's email or claim letter on WhatsApp and we will read the requirements for you.

Honest disclosure — please read

MobiDokta is not an Apple Authorised Service Provider.

We are an independent repair and assessment provider. Our reports are issued and signed as an independent qualified technician's assessment, backed by iFixit repair standards, REWA micro-soldering standards, and Mechatronics engineering qualification.

In practice, most South African insurers and brokers accept an independent technical report — and many prefer it, because independents turn work around faster than authorised channels. But some policies specifically require a manufacturer-authorised assessor, and we will not pretend otherwise on a document an insurer relies on. If your policy requires an authorised assessor, we will tell you straight and point you to the right channel rather than take your money for a report that will be rejected.

What is actually in the report.

A signed PDF, emailed to you and to your insurer or broker if you ask us to. Same structure every time, so claims handlers know where to look — which is a large part of why reports get accepted first time.

1

Claim & owner identification

Insurer, underwriter, claim reference, policyholder details, date of loss, date of assessment, and the assessment reference number.

2

Device identity & IMEI verification

Make, model, storage, colour, IMEI / serial read directly off the device and cross-checked against the label and system. Confirms the assessed device is the insured device.

3

Blacklist & ownership status

IMEI blacklist check against the GSMA device registry, plus activation-lock and carrier-lock status. Flags a device reported stolen before a claim is paid on it.

4

Full hardware diagnostic

Display, digitiser, battery health and cycle count, cameras, speakers, microphones, sensors, Face ID / Touch ID, charging circuit, board-level inspection under magnification.

5

Software & firmware read-up

OS version, firmware state, diagnostic logs, panic and crash history, and evidence of prior repair or non-genuine parts — which insurers specifically look for.

6

Functional test matrix

Every subsystem tested and recorded as pass / fail / degraded, not described in prose. A claims handler can read the table in ten seconds.

7

Dated photographic evidence

Exterior from all faces, damage close-ups, IMEI / serial plate, internal board condition, corrosion or impact witness marks. Captioned and dated.

8

Damage cause-consistency opinion

Whether the physical evidence is consistent, partially consistent, or inconsistent with the reported cause of loss — stated as a technical opinion with the reasoning shown.

9

Itemised repair estimate

Line-by-line parts and labour, VAT shown separately, parts grade stated, with lead time. Priced so it can be approved as-is without a follow-up query.

10

Repairable or write-off conclusion

Economic-repair test against current pre-damage market value, with a clear recommendation: repair, replace, or write off — and the numbers behind it.

11

Data & POPIA handling record

What data was accessed, what was not, and confirmation that nothing was retained. Required for corporate and institutional claims.

12

Signed assessor declaration

Named technician, qualification, date, signature, and a declaration of independence — that we have no interest in the claim outcome.

What it costs, and why it isn't R200.

A quick look at a phone is free — we do that all day. An insurance assessment is a different procedure: 45–90 minutes of bench diagnostic, photographic documentation, market-value research, and a signed report that an insurer relies on to release money. The report carries our name and our liability. That is what you are paying for.

Standard

R650

Report in 2–3 working days

The full assessment and complete signed report. Right for claims without a tight deadline.

  • All 12 report sections
  • Full hardware, software & firmware diagnostic
  • Photographic evidence pack
  • Itemised repair estimate
  • Emailed to you and your insurer

Fleet / Bulk

From R450 / device

5+ devices · scheduled batch

For corporates, schools, institutions and brokers assessing multiple devices at once. Consolidated summary plus an individual report per device.

  • Per-device rate, quoted on volume
  • Consolidated fleet summary spreadsheet
  • Asset-tag and serial reconciliation
  • On-site assessment available in Gauteng
  • Direct invoicing to insurer or employer

The assessment fee comes off your repair.

If the claim is approved and you have the device repaired with us, the full assessment fee is credited against the repair invoice. So on a repaired device the assessment effectively costs you nothing — you only carry the fee if the device is written off or repaired elsewhere. Courier is R199 flat nationwide, insured, door-to-door; return courier is free on repairs over R1,500.

From damaged device to signed report.

You do step one. We do the rest, and you get an update at every stage on WhatsApp.

Send us the claim details

Insurer, claim reference, device and model, what happened, and any deadline. Forward the insurer's letter if you have it — we will read the requirements for you.

Get the device to us

Walk in to Shop 6 Madeira Isles, book a private drop-off, or take the R199 insured nationwide courier — we book it and send you tracking.

Bench assessment

45–90 minutes: full diagnostic, IMEI verification, blacklist check, board inspection under magnification, functional test matrix, photographic capture.

Report written & signed

Findings written up in the standard format, cause-consistency opinion formed, repair estimate itemised, market value researched, report signed and dated.

Issued to you and your insurer

Signed PDF emailed to you, and to the claims handler directly if you authorise it. We answer their technical queries at no extra charge.

Repair, or write-off route

Claim approved: we repair and credit the fee. Written off: certified data erasure, disposal certificate, and salvage buy-back if the device still holds value.

What we will and won't put in a report

We report what we find. If the damage is consistent with what you told your insurer, the report says so plainly and in technical detail — and that is worth far more to your claim than any favour we could do you. If the evidence points somewhere else, the report says that too.

We say this on the page rather than in the small print because it is the entire basis of the service. A signed assessment is a document an insurer releases money against. The moment an assessor is known to write reports to order, every claim that assessor has ever touched gets re-opened — which helps nobody, least of all the honest policyholder. Our independence is what makes your report useful.

We also have no financial interest in the claim outcome. Whether your device is repaired or written off, our fee is the same.

Policyholders, brokers, insurers and fleets.

Same engine, different deliverable. Tell us which one you are and we will send the right process.

Policyholders with a claim

Your insurer has asked for an assessment and you need it done properly, quickly, and in a format they will accept the first time.

Insurance brokers

You need a technical assessor you can hand a client to without worrying. Standard format, 24-hour turnaround, we deal with the client directly and keep you copied.

Insurers & cover providers

Device and gadget cover lives or dies on assessment turnaround. Panel rates, SLA, nationwide collection, and direct invoicing.

Loss adjusters

Outsource the technical device inspection. You get the findings, the photographic pack and the estimate; the file conclusion stays yours.

Corporate & institutional fleets

Staff device damage, warranty disputes, insurance claims, asset write-offs and end-of-life disposal — assessed in batches, reconciled to your asset register.

Schools & residences

Student and staff device claims, tablet and Chromebook programme damage, and bulk end-of-term assessments.

Pre-owned buyers & trade-in

The same diagnostic, issued as a condition-grading report — before you pay for a used device, or when you are pricing stock.

Disputes & warranty rejections

A supplier says it is your fault, you say it isn't. An independent technical finding is what moves that conversation.

When the device is written off, the job isn't finished.

A written-off device still holds two things: someone's data, and salvage value. Insurers and corporates are obliged to deal with the first, and almost nobody offers it cleanly. We do.

Certified data erasure

R250 per device

Verified multi-pass erasure or cryptographic wipe, with a signed data destruction certificate quoting device serial and method. Required evidence for POPIA compliance.

Certified disposal & e-waste

R150 per device

Documented disposal through a licensed e-waste stream, with a disposal certificate for your compliance and audit file. Bulk rates for fleets.

Salvage buy-back

We pay you

Where a written-off device still holds component value, we will make an offer for it. Reduces the net loss on the claim for the insurer or the owner.

Pre-damage valuation

Included

Current South African market value of the device in its pre-damage condition, sourced and shown — so the economic-repair conclusion can be checked, not just trusted.

Data recovery before write-off

From R799

Extract what is recoverable off the storage chip before the device leaves your hands for good. See Data & Access Recovery.

Replacement sourcing

Quoted

Certified pre-owned or new replacement supplied against an approved claim, so the policyholder isn't left without a device. Via Appl3City.

What we assess.

If it has a board in it and someone insured it, send it.

iPhone iPad Apple Watch MacBook & iMac Samsung Galaxy Android phones & tablets Windows laptops Desktop PCs Chromebooks PS5 · Xbox · Switch DJI drones GoPro & action cameras Smart watches & wearables Hard drives & SSDs Monitors & displays Networking & office equipment

Put us on your assessment panel.

Slow assessments are the single biggest cause of claim delay on device policies — and claim delay is what generates complaints. We are built around fixing that: one standard report format, an agreed per-device rate, and a 24-hour turnaround we commit to in writing.

24-hour SLA

Signed report within 24 hours of device receipt, committed contractually. Escalation contact on WhatsApp, not a ticket queue.

One standard format

Identical structure on every report, so your handlers learn it once. Or we complete your own template if you have one.

Nationwide collect-assess-return

Insured door-to-door anywhere in South Africa. Your client never travels and never speaks to a courier company.

Direct invoicing

We invoice the insurer, broker or employer directly. 30-day terms available on panel agreements.

Assess and repair in one place

Approve the estimate and the repair starts the same day — no second collection, no second assessor, no second delay.

B-BBEE Level 1 supplier

135% procurement recognition, CSD registered (MAAA1688961). Your procurement scorecard benefits from the spend.

Request the Partner Rate Sheet WhatsApp the Assessor

We will send you two anonymised sample reports so you can check the format against your own acceptance criteria before committing to anything.

Insurance assessment FAQ.

The things people ask before they book — answered properly.

Are you an Apple Authorised Service Provider?
No, and we won't imply it on a document an insurer relies on. MobiDokta is an independent repair and assessment provider; reports are signed as an independent qualified technician's assessment, backed by iFixit repair standards, REWA micro-soldering standards and Mechatronics engineering qualification. Most South African insurers accept an independent report and many prefer the turnaround — but if your policy specifically requires a manufacturer-authorised assessor, tell us and we will point you to the right channel instead of taking the job.
Why is an assessment R650 when a normal diagnosis is free?
Because they are different pieces of work. A free diagnosis tells you what is wrong so you can decide about a repair. An insurance assessment is 45–90 minutes of documented bench diagnostic, plus photographic evidence capture, market-value research, a written cause-consistency opinion, and a signed report that an insurer releases money against. The report carries our name and our liability — that is what the fee covers. If you then repair with us, the fee is credited against the repair.
How fast can I get the report?
Within 24 hours of us receiving the device on the fast-track tier (R850), or 2–3 working days on the standard tier (R650). If your insurer has set a deadline, tell us the date up front and take fast-track — a late report can invalidate a claim that was otherwise perfectly good.
My insurer sent me their own assessment form. Can you fill that in?
Yes — and that is usually the better route. Send us the form and we complete theirs rather than issuing ours, at the same price. If the form asks for something we cannot verify, we say so in writing on the form rather than guessing, and we tell you before you submit it.
I'm not in Pretoria. Can you still assess my device?
Yes, anywhere in South Africa. R199 flat for insured door-to-door collection — we book the courier, send you tracking on WhatsApp, assess the device and courier it back. You never deal with a courier company yourself. Build 1–2 days each way into your insurer's deadline.
Will the report say what I need it to say?
It will say what we find. If the damage is consistent with the cause you reported, the report states that plainly and in technical detail, which is far more useful to your claim than anything we could invent. If the evidence points elsewhere, it states that too. We sign these reports — an assessor known to write to order is worthless to insurers and therefore worthless to you.
What if my insurer rejects the report?
If it is rejected on format or because a required section was missing, we re-issue it corrected at no charge, and we speak to the claims handler directly to establish what they need. If it is rejected because they require an authorised assessor we told you about up front, we refund the assessment fee — that check should have happened before you paid.
Does the assessment erase my device or access my data?
No. An assessment is non-destructive — we read the system, run diagnostics and inspect the hardware. We do not restore, wipe or browse your content. What was accessed and what was not is recorded in the report's data-handling section. If the device needs to be powered up and you would rather remove your SIM or sign out first, do that before you send it.
The device is a total loss. What happens to it?
That is your call, or your insurer's. We can return it as-is, perform certified data erasure with a signed destruction certificate (R250), route it through licensed e-waste disposal with a disposal certificate (R150), or make you a salvage offer if the components still hold value. Written-off devices are often worth more than people assume.
Can you assess a device that was already repaired somewhere else?
Yes, and prior repair is one of the things the report specifically documents — non-genuine parts, previous board work and repair witness marks all show up in the diagnostic. Insurers look for this, so it is better that an independent report records it accurately than that they discover it later.
Do you assess devices for warranty disputes, not just insurance?
Yes. The same assessment works when a supplier has rejected a warranty claim and blamed the user, when a landlord or employer disputes responsibility for damage, or when a second-hand seller misrepresented a device. An independent technical finding is usually what breaks the deadlock.
We're a company with 40 damaged devices. How does that work?
Fleet rate from R450 per device on 5 or more, quoted on volume. You get an individual report per device plus a consolidated summary spreadsheet reconciled to your asset tags and serials. On-site assessment is available in Gauteng so the devices never leave your premises. Certified erasure and disposal certificates for the write-offs can be bundled in. Email techrepair@mobidokta.co.za with an approximate device list.

Send the claim details — we'll scope it before you pay.

Tell us the insurer, the claim reference, the device and what happened. We will confirm whether your policy accepts an independent report, which tier you actually need, and the exact turnaround — before any money changes hands.

WhatsApp the Assessor Email the Details

Shop 6, Madeira Isles Shopping Complex, 262 Klitsgras St, Danville, Pretoria West · Open 7 days · Mon–Sat 09:00–21:00 · Sun 12:00–21:00 · 078 154 1350