18 month Fight with Vodacom & their Insurance just to get a replacement of Iphone 11 (which doesn't even work!?)

Before I start, I'd like to mention that my dad (who is the main account holder of my Vodacom contract) has been a client of theirs for 25 years. I have been with Vodacom since my first phone.

I upgraded from my Huawei p30 Lite to an iPhone 11 in December 2019 from Sandton iStore which was financed through Vodacom. Included in the monthly amount was comprehensive insurance. When the phone was damaged and handed in for repairs we were contacted by the insurance company and told that the phone will only be repaired if we pay in R2148. This is apparently because the comprehensive insurance was not upgraded from the old huawei contract to the new iPhone. I am surprised that this was never done.

It was first claimed that the insurance premium paid was not upgraded to an iphone (from my previous Huawei), and that I must pay the difference of the insurance between the amount for the Huawei and the Iphone. When I referred to the Vodacom contract that clearly stated that the upgrade of the insurance of the phone is the responsibility of Vodacom, the story changed to that the insurance was upgraded to an iPhone, however, it was not insured for the full value, only for R3500. As you are aware, the value of an iPhone is much more than that and I was then told to pay the difference of around R8 000 to replace the phone.

The contract with vodacom states that "If you already have device insurance with Vodacom, your insurance will automatically be upgraded to cover your device " This clearly did not happen. It is clearly not the case. We were not made aware that the insurance of the phone will not be for the full value. We faithfully continued to pay the insurance premium.

We then received information that the phone needed to be handed in, which we did. We were hopeful to receive feedback that we will have to pay the excess of R1000, and that Vodacom will replace the phone. However, when I went to Vodacom to hand in my phone (once again)I was then informed that we will have to pay the shortfall of over R4000 before the phone could be replaced.

Back-and-forth multiple times where Vodacom changes their story, excuses upon excuses and excess amount of calls to Finrite.

After 1 full year of this fun little game. I finally get an answer to all of the above with Vodacom replacing my broken Iphone 11 with a Second Hand Iphone 11. Yay. Only to come home and find this replacement phone is not working, took it into the Istore to see if they could fix and the technician could not fix the phone and stated I should return the phone to Vodacom as it is impossible to even overwrite the system of that phone to fix it.

I would like a replacement of my phone that actually works! Absolutely cannot believe this is the service we get for being customers for over 20 years. Absolutely ridiculous.

My number is *** and my dad's number ***