Warranty not honoured

I bought something for R2,000 in August 2023 and that piece of hardware failed after 5 months. It's under warranty, so I took it back to the store. I was told that the same item now costs R2,699 (!!!) and so they cannot replace the broken one unless I pay the difference. If I don't like that arrangement, I can have a refund of the R2,000.

Now, I don't want a refund. I bought the item for a reason, I still need it and I've already been inconvenienced because it broke. I also certainly don't want to pay more for the same thing just 5 months later. I told them that I don't like their offers and that I would like to insist on a replacement. They stubbornly refused.

How is any of this my problem? I didn't break the device, I didn't raise the price of the item by 35%. I have a legitimate warranty claim. If Incredible Connection so desparately needs to recover it's inflationary R699, they should take it up with their supplier who delivered inferior goods.

Incredible Connection uses ridiculous price hikes so that they don't have to honour warranties. It is dirty and it smells.