The warranty claim that comes down to a number nobody wrote

A customer returns eight months after purchase with a fault. The shop's position depends entirely on being able to say: this is the handset we sold you, on this date, and it is inside or outside its cover.

Why the record is usually incomplete

Because capturing an IMEI at the counter is fifteen extra seconds during a sale where the customer is already impatient and the box is already open. When it is optional, it is skipped, and it is skipped most often on busy days — which are the days with the most sales.

Six months later the missing entries are exactly the ones being disputed.

What makes capture actually happen

Scanning rather than typing, and the field being required on handset lines only. A blanket requirement across every accessory sale produces resentment and workarounds; a targeted one on the category that generates disputes is accepted quickly, because staff have also had the argument.

The second benefit

Unit-level stock. A model-level count says there are four of a handset; it does not say which four, or that one has been on the shelf since a price revision and is now worth less than it is carried at. In a category where value falls monthly, that distinction is the difference between a margin and a write-down.