iStore Cresta Mall Lack Of Accountability, Shoddy Customer Sales & Attempted ********

Please help me with this issue. My name is Mpho and I'm a 42-year-old unemployed single father who has taken up to the digital space to try and make living money online.

I have a Macbook pro from 2011 which I use to do freelance SEO work and other such digital sphere work-related activities. Yesterday I bought a new 85W Magsafe charger for my machine and after charging my machine while it was off, I tried switching it on and it wouldn't get to the login prompt page.

I took the brand new charger along with the machine back to them today and after explaining my issue and suspicion regarding the charger which I believe is faulty and has somehow damaged my machine, I was given four different explanations as to why they can't help me.

First they said it won't switch on without the charger which was proven to be untrue after which they tried to play it off as the machine being old to which I argued that Toyota would never turn one of their 2010 models away if a customer decided to service with them. Then they said they can't run diagnostics on the machine because it's obsolete and has no parts with which they can fix 'the issue' to which I responded with the question: why then do you still sell accessories for an obsolete machine knowing that there is no support and therefore no channel for recourse should anyone encounter a problem such as this? They had no answer.

I then requested a refund for the charger and was told that they would dock R300 from the refund fee because I had inboxes and used the charger. I obviously refused and stood my ground to which Sachin, the store manager, then said he would need to escalate my request to 'whoever.' He went into some room for less than a minute and came back agreeing to not dock my R300.

I then asked why they could not book my machine in to make an accurate and definitive assessment as to whether the charger was faulty and led to my machine being rendered useless and they outright refused - even after explaining that should they find that it was the machine and not the charger, I would then pay for the repair job.

Mind you, it took Sachin a full twenty minutes to come attend to me while I rightfully app**** pressure to the front desk technician by the name of Katlego who seemed clueless to say the least.

Please help me address this situation Wendy. I am desperate. I don't have another machine that will give me access to the platforms I require and use to sustain day-to-day living for myself and my daughter.

My machine is not pirated or anything of the sort. It is a legitimate Apple Macbook Pro that was bought with honestly earned money. They need to ensure that it was not their charger that damaged my machine and if it was, they need to fix it - I am not asking for a new machine.

I have tried to research the Apple SA headquarters and I keep running into The Core Group which I have cc'd with the hope that they might intervene.