SONY MOBILE REFUSES TO ACKNOWLEDGE SCREEN CRACKING

I purchased a Sony Xperia Z1 on my renewing my contract with Vodacom in August 2014. I purchased this phone on discussing my requirements with the staff at the Vodacom who assured me that this was the phone for my requirements. I also purchased a protective cover that the staff at Vodacom suggested and placed that on the phone immediately. As I was not living in South Africa at that stage I used the cell phone for 3 weeks while on holiday, on returning back to Zambia, I put the phone away. On returning to South Africa in January, I started to use the phone which I did so for about 6 weeks until I woke up one morning and noticed a faint crack on the screen, 30 minutes later the screen was covered in cracks and the phone no longer worked I took it Vodacom and after having the phone sent away, I was quoted R2750 to fix the phone. <br> To pay R2750 to have a phone fixed that has barely been used is just ridiculous. I would be more than happy to pay a reasonable amount to have the screen fixed. I am now sitting with a phone that is completely unusable. What is even more frightening is that after doing some research, there are a number of people who have similar problem with Sony Xperia .