IStore South Africa can't be trusted

I have had my iphone 8plus since March 19. Since then the device has been in for repairs twice for similar issues, in fact as I write this review my phone is still at the repair centre in Johannesburg.

The initial issue was simple- it kept giving me a no sim error message. I would have to reboot the device and it would then work for a couple of hours and you would inevitably have to restart it again. I went to the istore (not actually an apple store- Owned by The Core Group-but we will come back to that)in the Pavilion. The tech guys took a look and said i would have to send it in for repairs- another side note I had just spent R300 on a glass screen protector which i was told would have to be removed but that i would get a 20% discount off another one from their store once the phone was back from repairs. Now that already had made me angry as that's just throwing away clients money. I received only one sms from Core Group repairs in Jhb saying the device had been recieved in Jhb. No other communication from them until it was time to return the device ans then an sms which asked-must they send the device back to me?.....I don't understand the question- how can you ask me if I want my R18000.00 device back? Of course i said yes. When I asked what the fault with the device was they advised-"we cannot replicate the fault" ok......but is the device working? When I got it back it did work. Happy days. Later that week a friend of mine mentioned she had had the same issue......and guess what she was told- " it was an issue with the software that Apple was aware of...the fix was to do a software wipe and update." Why was I told something different? why lie?

Two months later my iphone stopped connecting to the internet-I could make calls but I could not connect using data only via WiFi. So I trouble shooted the device and rebooted/reset the device etc. Still didn't work. I then went to the istore...or should I say Core Group store in Pavilion and the tech side confirmed that the device indeed was faulty.....again!

That's where we find ourselves now. The device went in to the Core repair centre. Again i recieved a message advising the device was sent in and was received at repairs. I waited the entire week with no other correspondence and eventually went into the store. While waiting ages at the tech area I got a call from the Core repair centre - I was told they have been trying get hold of me on email but it just kept bouncing back to them. They had my email taksn down incorrectly-ok that's fine mistakes happen.

I enquired with the agent if she could tell me what the fault was......guess what she said......"the techs could not replicate the fault" really? I am now about to blow my lid. So I explained what had happen before.....she agreed that it was weird that I should get such a response. she suggested that I contact Apple international. She gave me the number and i contacted them and I got through to a lady who was a manager. She agreed that the device is faulty and she suggested the device should be replaced. She asked to speak to the technicians in the pavilion branch and I left thinking it was resolved. She had said she would email me to confirm what had going to be done. By the following day I had not received any emails or updates so I called Apple international again. I got through to a different person and when I requested to sepak to the lady id spoken to the day before I was toldby the gentleman he was unable to give me the information of who id dealt with. Instead he offered to help me which meant I had to reexplain the story again and he said he would sendan email to the Joburg techs to inform about our conversation and the phone exchange. I contacted the Core call centre again and asked for Amanda who is spoken to and unfortunately she was busy. The gentleman who assisted me had a look at my repair number and told me that there had been no communication from Apple international. I then went into iStore Pav and spoke to the manager Leon who asked me to send the reference number to him via email so he could escalate it to the repair centre. Leon got back to me and said that the repair centre had got nothing from Apple and would not replace the unit. So where does this leave me? A device that's in Joburg, Apple international who seems to be lying to clients and technicians who cannot seem to find the fault. This does not build confidence in such a well known product. In regards to the istore SA which is not the IStore (it is the Core group who owns the rights in SA to apple) they offer all these promises when you buy from them of help and service and it seems when you need it it never comes. You are better off dealing with Vodacom directly and this is what I will be doing for my wife's upgrade.