A virus ate my phone hardware and this now needs to be replaced?

<p>I am a Telkom Mobile phone contract holder, my phone had problems starting up and I took it back to Telkom as according to me it is still under warrenty. I was told that there was a virus on my phone, and sotfware is not covered by warrenty. Which makes sense, I will format the phone. But I was informed that they need to now replace the Mainboard & Reboard, which is hardware on the phone because the virus damaged the hardware. I now have to pay for these repairs, even though hardware is covered by the warrenty. But these damages to the hardware was caused by the virus, that is why it is not covered. I have never in my life heard of a virus (software) that damages the hardware that it needs to be replaced. This is not a viable explanation to me. Secondly I was contacted by an outside contractor from Create, after I was informed by Telkom that my phone will be sent to Samsung for repairs. The person I talked to was Melanie Madar, the manager of Create. She also informed me that if I want to escelate the problem I will have to contact Telkom directly. My reference number is: TRL 030 454.</p> <p>My phone is not even 6 months into the contract, I have not yet received a copy of my contract from Telkom which I was promised they would mail to me. And the phone has been in for repairs for over a month. I moved over to Telkom from Vodacom due to bad service, but it seems that there is no real service available anywhere</p>