How a claim actually moves.

The six steps

1. The first call (or portal session). Your incident is described, dated, and recorded. Born here: loss-date discrepancies, wrong-peril descriptions, repair-vs-replacement routing.
2. Eligibility screening. Enrollment, device-on-line activity, claim count, filing window are checked against the record. Born here: the SIM/active-line denial, wrong-device denials, limit and deadline denials.
3. The deductible. Quoted from your tier — the moment most customers first hear the real number.
4. Fulfillment. A repair is booked, or a replacement ships (new or refurbished, at the administrator's election). Born here: bad refurbs and downgrades.
5. The return. Your damaged device goes back on their label inside ~10–15 days. Born here: non-return fees.
6. Aftermath. The claim counts against your limit for 12 months; repairs carry a 12-month warranty; the record of every step is what any later review grades.

Who decides what

Your carrier sold the plan and bills the premium. The administrator (Asurion for Verizon/AT&T; Assurant for T-Mobile) runs steps 1–5 — its agents, its scripts, its fulfillment. The underwriter (CNA, for AT&T's plan) carries the risk and answers to your state insurance regulator for how claims are handled. Three companies, three different incentives — the ladder in the kit works because it addresses each one at the step it owns.

The two disciplines that run through all six steps

• One version of the facts. Every step re-reads the record of the steps before it. The date and description you give at step 1 are the ones graded at step 6.
• Paper beats memory at every step. Reference numbers, timestamps, carrier activity records, arrival photos — the claim is a file before it is an argument, and the file is built by whoever keeps documents. Let that be you.