IPhone 8 defect

My iPhone 8plus froze whilst I was working on it. Since it was still under guarantee, I happily took it in for repair only to be told by the agent and 2 iStores that the home button was cracked and not covered by the guarantee. One even suggested that I dropped the phone. I was charged R8 800 for the repair which I very reluctantly paid as I was getting nowhere with the robotic answers of "not covered...". I have since seen countless complaints with the same problem. (see link below). This clearly is a device problem and Apple won't acknowledge this or take responsibility for it. They did not repair the phone but gave me a new device which I am reluctant to take because of this.

Please help - I want my money back and the device recalled.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/ ********** ?answerId= ********** 6022# ********** 6022