Telkom acts in bad faith

My wife purchased a fone on contract with Telkom ( Honor X9b).

She initially requested an i-phone 14 pro max and was told there was none available in store. Instead of checking which store had it in stock the consultant convinced my wife of the specs regarding the Honor.

My wife then took the fone and within the first 7days returned the fone to the store due to defects identified with it namely the short battery life and the over heating of the phone.

When we arrived at the store my wife spoke with the store manager in Canal Walk and told him about the defects identified with the phone.

At the same time as us being there another client came into the store with the same issue on the Honor X9b.

Both fones were then assessed instore and found to have defects. My wife requested that as the phone is defective that she has no confidence in the brand and would like to exercise her right under the consumer protection act S56 (2)to replace with a brand of her choice.

The manager informed her that the company policy was to give the brand a second try and if the issue persists then the phones would be replaced with a phone of her choice.

Within the same week of receiving the replacement device the same issue persisted for both my wife and the other client ( as we took her details to find out if the devices were faulty or not with the one they received).

We subsequently informed the manager of the store in Canal Walk that the same issue persists and he then changed his words saying that the device must now be booked in due to the fact that a larger credit was involved.

We disputed that it's not a situation of the credit however a situation of defective devices and that in the first instance it was assessed in store and not sent away for 21 days.

It was brought to our attention that the client who received a device along with my wife also returned her phone for having ghe same issues and till date did not receive her device again.