Failure to Honour Warranties

I purchased a cellphone with Takealot last year - the first big item that I've purchased on the site since becoming a regular customer. The phone had a 2 year warranty.

On the 19th of December ( a year after the initial purchase) the phone didn't want to charge. I then logged a return on Takealot in order for the phone to be replaced or refunded.

After days of back and forth, Takealot sent me a generic email stating that my warranty has been cancelled because the phone is damaged, and provided me with an invoice amounting to 3k to have the issue fixed.

I am disgusted. The phone was sent in great condition. They told me that the phone had food and dust particles in the speaker (of course, the phone was in use every day).

They also stated that there is a hairline Crack in the camera which I had not noticed before. I would have understood if the warranty was cancelled because of sending the phone in because of issues related to this, but at this point it is clear that the main aim was to find something wrong with the device in order to not have the warranty honored.

They keep blaming the supplier but the item was purchased from takealot, not some random third party supplier.

I will never ever purchase a mechanical item from takealot and would strongly advise that no one else trust them either.