Telkom and their insurance are the worst! Dont make my mistake otherwise you will be going in circles with robots!

I bought a iPhone from Telkom on contract last year September and had no issues till this year July. The phone started restarting itself every 2 minutes and FaceID was deactivated with no way to re-activate. After searching online about possible causes the conclusion was that it was firmware malfunction and there is nothing I could do as a user to fix the issue.

I then took the phone to the store in July and they booked it in. 2-3 weeks later I get a call from the store saying I need to collect the phone as I had also taken Telkom insurance when I bought the phone so that means I need to claim from insurance. I asked them on what grounds should I be claiming from insurance when you cant tell me what is wrong with the phone and what exactly am I claiming for as the phone is not broken or ******. They told me I should just fetch the phone and insurance will be in touch.

I then received a claim from form the Telkom Insurance and filled it out with the same complaint as above that the phone restarts itself and is unusable. Since then I have been struggling to get through to anyone from the insurance line. The Whatsapp line goes unanswered, the phone is also robots. You can never get to speak to anyone to try to understand what it going on. I have had the device at my house now for 2 weeks since collecting it from the store with no indication of when the insurance will arrange for a pick up of the device from my house.

Then today I receive an email telling me I need to pay an excess of R1,6 to their bank account. I have no idea how we got here because they still haven't fetched the device or communicated an resolution to the claim.

I am so frustrated because if the store agents cant assist, they are also subjected to the same robots. I'm at a loss right now, I pay R1,6 every month and have not had a phone since July.