fixverso

Sending a device to a service centre: delivery note, quote and reminders

Updated 27 October 2026 · 2 min read

Not everything is fixed at your bench: motherboards, branded screens, devices under warranty. These go to an outside centre and leave your control for days or weeks. A few rules keep you from losing the device or the customer.

1. When it makes sense to send it out

  • The fault needs equipment or parts you do not have (motherboards, micro-soldering).
  • The device is under the maker's warranty: the authorised centre does the repair.
  • Doing it yourself would cost more than the centre, margin included.

2. The delivery note

Every shipment needs a delivery note with your own running number: what leaves, how many pieces, to whom, when. Write brand, model, serial number or IMEI, the fault and the accessories included. One copy stays with the device, one with you.

Photograph the device before packing it: if it comes back damaged you have proof of how it was.

3. The centre's quote and your margin

The centre often answers with a quote before repairing. That price is a cost for you: you offer the customer their own price, with your margin, and only when the customer approves do you give the centre the go-ahead. That way you never advance work the customer then refuses.

4. Following the stages

  • Sent, with the courier and tracking number.
  • Received by the centre, with their case number.
  • The centre's quote (and your answer).
  • Being repaired, with the expected return date.
  • Shipped back, then back in the shop: check the device again before telling the customer.

5. When it is late: reminding properly

Do not wait for the customer to ask. On the expected return date write to the centre: model, send date, delivery note number, days late, and ask where it stands and when it will be ready. If they answer by phone, write down at once what they said and the new date: in two weeks you will not remember.

6. What to tell the customer

The customer wants to know two things: where it stands and when they get it back. Give an honest date (the centre's plus a few days) and update them if it changes. No need to narrate every internal step.

Software like Fixverso keeps the shipment, the delivery note, the stages, reminder emails already written and the log of contacts together, and lets you choose what the customer sees on their page.