UTTERLY APPALING AND PATHETIC NETWORK!!!!!

A couple of months ago my husband bought a Samsung Galaxy S4. We have never taken the sim card out of the phone or ever needed to repair the phone. i have never been a fan of Cell C seeing as many people i knew on the network had so many problems with the network itself and not the phones they supply. Going against my better judgement, and after a battle with my inner consumer, i decided to go against my better judgement, and gave him the go ahead to buy the phone. WHAT A MISTAKE!!Now a couple of months (yes months) down the line and the sim card is refusing to register and we cannot use the phone at all unless connected to our home wifi! this is so pathetic. The reason i am ****ed is because we went into the store and was told that we needed to pay to get a new sim card and pay R100 and odd rand to have it replaced in store or buy a sim card for x amount and do it over the phone as that would be cheaper. Now i myself am true Vodacom believer and they would never ever have offered this pathetic excuse. Why must i buy another sim card and pay for something that should not have broken at all? Did i take the sim card out and chew it?? Why should i have to pay for something doubly