Poor service equals no iphone

I would like to bring to your attention how disappointed I'm am with the service I have received from istore. I traded my iphone at the gateway istore on 7th September 2024. My phone and watch was traded in, I was then told that they would give me a receipt as and contact me regarding the gift card as the machine was not working ( which is understandable ). I enquired if the money could be put into my bank account ( like it says on the website ) but I was told no they only issue gift cards. Spoke to the manager and he confirmed gift cards will be sorted by the next week. Emailed them on 10 September to get some answers as the pre-orders opened in 3 days. I was told the card machine is still not working. I asked how long this would take and they could not answer. 13 September iphone orders opened and here I was sitting without my iphone and only a piece of paper that said we owe you this amount of money. Again I had to reach out to the store and the admin lady said next week ( same week as the release ). I had already missed out on the pre-order special of free airpods since I didn't have the gift card. I asked the lady if a unit could be kept aside for me on release day since this is not my fault. She said she would send the GM a message on and get back to me on Monday 16 September 2024. At 2:30 on Monday I had to call again, I was now told the GM had not responded but my gift card is ready. They emailed it to me and I immediately placed the pre-order which was 4 days before the release. Today I get a message from istore stating they have no stock and I will receive my iphone late next week. It is truly sad how the istore has conducted itself during this entire process which has ended with me not having a phone for weeks and hoping I get an iphone 16 next week while people who did not pre order go to the store on Friday ( which I refuse to do as this was not my fault ) and get their new iphones. As much as I love the Apple brand this experience has made me question whether this is the kind of service I would have received had I purchased a Samsung phone. By the way I made 6 seperate visits to the istore during this time, spoke to 6 different people who gave me 6 different excuses. I hope this email finds someone who can realise that if this kinds of service continues when we we paying a premium price for apple phones in South Africa then the istore brand will not last very long.