Cell C forcing debt on their customers

So I had a 2year contract with this company and that finished, I was sent an email to upgrade and at the time the pandemic hit and had to cancel within 14 days as per the contract terms. I called customer service and told them about this and I wouldn't be able to afford this as I wasn't sure if I had a job as I started a new job and was on probation. The person said I needed to go to the store and tell the manager I want to cancel, I couldn't go to the store because I wasn't well and called explained the situation and the manager said with No empathy to the situation. I was very clear that I couldn't afford this and they knew about this as all their calls are recorded. As far as I know I did everything required of me as a consumer and they knew the situation, I then couldn't pay this account and after a few months they canceled this contract and billed me R29000 which I think is unfair and could affect me negatively now because one of their managers were having a bad day or needed to make a sale. I am speaking to my lawyer about this as well as they didn't contact me about this for months and when I called them they didn't know anything about the account or who it was handed over to. Please can someone call me from Cell C as this whole situation was ******* to begin with and forced this debt on me after the fact that I tried getting this sorted out withing the 14days they allow you to cancel contracts