CellC unfair business practices Huawei Nova13i contract

I have made every effort to adjust to the Huawei Nova i13 - that was aggressively sold me, unsolicited, by telephone, by the CellC retentions department on 19 February 2025 – to no avail. It has proved to be an inadequate phone that does not meet the aggressive sales pitch, nor my expressed needs. Because of the unfair marketing and business practices, coupled with very poor customer support, I believe that CellC is obliged to take back the phone and change my contract. I did request this of CellC on 28 March but it refused owing to their ‘... Clause on the return policy’ in the contract that was emailed to me. If I had approached CellC and requested a Huawei contract I would live with it for the next 3 years. However, while I had decided that I wanted to upgrade my contract with CellC – an arrangement that I have enjoyed for about 30 years – I was not in the market for a Huawei owing to the fact that in 2019 Google barred Huawei from Android updates, except for its open-source version (this version does not allow for Google Play Store and apps). I did know that Huawei was not using Android and Google Play Store and had therefore decided never to buy a Huawei, owing to my heavy reliance on this operating system and software. However, Malibongwe, countered my objections by saying that they were not true and that this software was available. He also assured me that he, personally, and CellC stores, in general, would be available to assist me with all aspects of transferring data and setting up the necessary apps. He told me how wonderful the phone is and how it is hugely competitive in price to an equivalent Samsung. And, as a result, sold me the phone. My experience of the phone, which will cost me more than R13,000 over 3 years, has in no way matched up to the CellC sales pitch. In fact, buying this contract has been a very stressful, nightmarish experience which has landed up being extremely disappointing, rendering a phone that is far away from what I wanted and needed. This is grossly unfair and reflects extremely poor faith on the part of CellC that appears to be all about optimising sales and commissions and minimizing customer support and loyalty. Surely, he could have heard my objections and, instead, sold me a Samsung or Oppo? Why did I not act earlier? I made an attempt to return the phone within the first 14 days but was told that it could only be collected from the address to which it was delivered. I was however about to return to Howick from Norwood, Johannesburg, where I had received delivery. I did, entirely without help from CellC, discover the GBox app that allowed me to download Play Store apps. While holding most of my apps in a separate location to the main screen was not ideal, I decided that I could live with it. But, I have been experiencing a number of problems associate with having to go through the ‘sandbox’ GBox, which appears to be a patch to get access to Google Play Store Products and is therefore unstable and not up to the standard enjoy via full Android access. I am finding the apps are not stable and they often give problems. They shut down arbitrarily, they often do not function when required, experience quirky behaviour that forces one to go back to scratch, kick one out frequently and, they require to be updated frequently. Then, the updates require one to hold one’s finger on the screen and wait. One cannot request for them to update overnight nor is one able to carry on undertaking other tasks or even to put the phone down and do something else! I believe that there are other problems, including not receiving updates of content via Google Cloud. One is frequently forced to use the Huawei apps that do not have as good a user experience/functionality as Android-based apps. Malibongwe sold this phone to me against my own expressed reservations, assuring me that it was fit for purpose, which it is not. My record with CellC will reveal that I have never before tried to return a phone, nor have I made any complaints. This is not my style and this is partly why I have not acted earlier as I was initially determined to live with the phone. But it is too problematic and requires me enduring a sub standard telephone experience over the course of a 3-year contract, and then I wouldn’t be happy to pass it over, free of charge, to a friend. I don't blame Malibongwe as it appears that the staff are put under pressure, as a result of the way CellC chooses to set its priorities, to sell Huawei phones at all cost. I place the blame squarely on the executive leadership that is making very poor decisions on the way that the company is structured.