Take your dead phone and go

My iPhone died. There is no apple accredited store near me. Booked my phone in supplying all details. Drove 400km and handed the phone in. Two days later picked phone up, unfixed. The reason: ‘we could not work on the phone as we could not switch it on’. (That is why it is there???) And they cannot give me a report for my insurance. ‘Because the phone was purchased in the US. And this is a iStore and not a Apple store’. I had to pay upfront before they would look at the phone. Now: When booking in the phone, iStore knows everything about the phone, when and where it was purchased. And, if I am an American bringing in my dead phone while visiting South Africa, would they also send me away with absolutely no solution?