iStore Clearwater mall - Part 2 of my saga with their horrible service, *******s and terrible staff.

Part two of my review* After I posted my initial review the store manager Lerato made contact with me a day later. She and Karabo advised that there was an error with my application which they could not resolve or figure out so they would redo a new application and escalate with Vodacom. Over Monday 10.01.2022 and Tuesday 11.01.2022 Lerato store manager kept in contact with me until I was advised that the contract was approved and that I can come in for invoicing and to collect the new phone and trade in the old phone for my cash back.

Issue 1: I get there and I get told “I don’t know if anyone mentioned it but there is a R250 admin fee”. No one had mentioned this and I don’t know what the admin fee is for. Unforeseen expense at this point I was too frustrated to argue the fee.

Issue 1.1 none of the consultants even explained if I get Apple care, the insurance terms of my contract or anything like that. They are so rushed that I had to force and ask on my own.

Issue 2: no POPI guidelines being followed. I had to air drop all of my personal documents such as payslip, proof of res, bank details and statements, divorce doc and copy of ID. Documents are being air dropped to multiple laptops and iPhones belonging to the store and its consultants. Consultants are sharing passwords in front of customers to unlock even the managers mac book. Anyone standing there long enough can access this personal information being air dropped and access these max books. I had to air drop my bank details confirmation letter to the managers personal phone as the one laptop battery died. You get zero assurance of how secure your personal documents are or if they will be safely filed or deleted. Absolutely disgusted at the lack of safety and security with customer personal info.

Issue 2: when I did the initial assessment of my old iphone 11 the consultant Braydeen marked it as valued at R8100 for my cash back amount subject to diagnostics passing. She assessed my phone without the cover on and did not mention any issues with a scratch on the side of the phone(not the screen which is fully intact and no cracks or scratches). Her assessment was logged and saved on their internal system. HOWEVER fast forward to Tuesday 12.01.2022 Manelise assesses the phone and says R5800 because he thinks it’s a dent.

We call Lerato the manager who is clearly tired of me and Braydeen who says she doesn’t remember doing my initial assessment. They pull up the initial assessment and then argue that I probably dropped and dented the phone since the last assessment which is why the phone value has now dropped. I’m an given immense attitude and patronised and I am telling them this is not the case the phone is as it was when we did the last assessment. Lerato then advises she can request footage from the day of the first assessment and check it there. This will then delay my cash back and I have no time frame or assurance of how quickly this can be done.

At this point another two female customers behind me join the heated conversation and say that they are being ********** the same way. They are being given different amounts after phone was initially assessed and being told they probably damaged the phone between assessments. The manager snaps at the two female customers. It becomes to frustrating to deal any further with the consultants or manager at this point that I tell them to just finish up. I will never use this store again.

My rating continues to be one star and I would go lower if Google allowed. The only reason I persisted to do a new contract via istore was for the cash back on trading in my iphone 11. Moving forward I’ll try any other istore branch if I need anything.