Cellphone Nightmare

I bought a cellphone at pep stores on march 2019 , the phone is Mobicell Astro, and along the way the phone started giving me a problem with the speaker. I took the phone back to the store for repairs on the 07th March 2020.

The phone was booked in for repairs and they said going to take 7 to 14 working days . And during the process of me waiting then there was a lockdown and when they eased the lockdown to level 4 I went to check as to how far the process is .

Then they said the phone is not back yet , then I went back again after a month , then we called Mobicel head office and they gave me the phone to talk to someone from mobicel so the guy told me that the phone fell into water and I have to pay R1040.00 , of which I bought the phone for R 429.00. I know that my phone didn't fall into water. And I told him that I won't be able to pay that R1040.

Then the guy told me that they will bring my phone back but there's a certain amount of money that I have to pay for the phone to come back , the amount that he told me to pay is R250.00

Now I'm completetly unhappy with the service I got from the shop and from the mobicel head office. And I would like to know as to am I supposed to pay money that is more that the money I paid to buy the phone. That money is too much for me and I might as well buy another phone with that money they want me to pay .