Never trust the repair centre

My husbands telephone would not charge about 2 weeks ago, blank screen etc. The phone is a Samsung S3 mini phone. After taking battery out etc and trying to reboot phone to no avail, we took the phone to our local Vodacom shop who sent it away for repairs. On Friday we received the phone back with a report saying the phone is irrepairable. We decided to claim the phone and were busy getting all the necessary paper work together when my husband decided to take it to a local cell repair shop. Lo and behold all that was fault is that the battery needs to be replaced. What incompetence on the repairs hubs side or else they are fooling every person who sends a phone in to be repaired. They obviously want you to spend more money and buy a new phone when it is not necessary.