Game in vaal mall poor service

My mum took a Redmi A3 phone on the 29th of November 2024 and the phone has never worked since that day. The phone is requesting a phone pin which is not in the box of the phone and tried to activate the phone but failed . My mum lost her receipt and we recently found out from game customer care that u can use your bank statement as a proof of purchase. So my mum took the phone back to the store on Saturday the 08/02/2025 to return the device that she has never used and she was told by a manager called Elisa Mthimkhulu that they cannot take the phone back because the box is dirty. So what I am asking myself is how does the dirty box affect the phone warranty. Does this mean that the warranty of the phone does not apply if the box is dirty. No one wants to buy something with R1900 that does not work. I am actually disappointed in game store customer service but this is not the first time their service is this bad especially the game in vaal mall. By the way the phone was bought at the game in vaal Mall.