Device under warranty and Vodacom not taking ownership of repairs

I bought an Alcatel "Back to School" special tablet early this year from the Vodacom 4U store at the Mall of Africa, which comes with a free Office 365 Package. When I brought the device home, I experienced endless problems in trying to log onto the device. The following weekend I took the device back to the Mall of Africa and was directed to go to 3 different shops in search of a technician. After spending 5 hours in the store and not getting any joy, I left the store and contacted the National call center with not much luck - I was advised to go back to the store. The next weekend I was back at the store and the same story transpired only this time I was told to go to Dion wired and they would help me for a fee of R350. Due to not having enough time I could not wait and left with NO help.

The next weekend - I then went back to the Vodacom 4U store and spoke to the manager and told her that I needed the tablet before the following Tuesday as my son needed it for a test. I left the tablet with her and told her that she needs to sort the issue out. The manager did not call me once in the 4 days of them having the tablet.

I was given a call by one of the store ladies that sold me the device only to be told that they did not give me the disk with the windows software. This was loaded onto the tablet and it worked fine up until now this weekend.

The tablet does not log onto the Wifi so I took it back to the store at Mall of Africa, same story again - walk from store to store looking for a technician. I eventually get a technician who tells me that he will check the device and it will costs R110. I told him that the device was still under warranty but I agreed to pay the money cos I really did not want to go back and forth again. After 1 1/2 hrs the technician tells me to take the tablet to Dion wired where they will reload the Operating System (OS) at a cost of R375, and if I did not want to pay I can go to Vodaworld in Midrand - It was my choice as he could not help.

- I am a single mother that has been trying to sort this issue and cannot afford to run around trying to sort out a faulty device. - My son needs to downloads notes for his exam which starts next week and we don't have access to a tablet. - I live 21kms away from the Mall of Africa and dont go there regularly. - Vodacom used to pride itself with great customer service - What Happened??????