Buyer Beware!! Poor support from iStore - buy elsewhere

Buyer Beware: having done a lot of research on the best products in the market, I bought a Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD hard drive to back up my Mac, from an iStore in Cape Town. The product packaging advertised a 5 year warranty. I paid R3000 for it - and on the till slip, iStore printed the advice "....refer to the product packaging for warranty information..." or words to that effect. So, I walked away feeling fairly confident that I had bought the right thing, with sufficient peace of mind that it would keep my info safe for the next 5 years. Fast forward 2 years: the product had been used by me probably only once every 2 months on average since purchase, purely to back up my Mac, after which it was carefully placed back in its original packaging and stored in a drawer in a desk. It still looked brand new. However, in the middle of a back up, it suddenly stopped working. Nothing could bring it to life and after taking both the diagnostic steps recommended on the manufacturer's website and then having it checked in iStore, it was confirmed that the product was no longer functioning. However....iStore simply told me that their store warranty only lasts 1 year - and that I must deal with the manufacturer directly. In other words, they didn't want anything more to do with it!! They then told me that I could contact their distributor - who were not helpful and couldn't be less interested. It took a long time for me to navigate to the correct channels and the conclusion was that I eventually got through to the manufacturer and had to send it back to the Czech Republic (!), at my own considerable expense, whereupon they would check it and replace or repair. The postage alone was around R1000!! Then the other day I went to another Apple specialist reseller in Cape Town (Digicape), who sell the same SanDisk products. They told me categorically that if I had bought the product from them, their policy is to cover all warranty issues under the manufacturer's 5 year warranty, at no cost to the customer. What a difference. In conclusion, save yourself a lot of hassle and a fair amount of money and buy from a retailer with a proper, meaningful customer support policy. Don't buy from iStore.