Out of Box Failure - Additional payment required??

<div>I opened a new contract on 21/04/2016. (<span class="aBn" tabindex="0" data-term="goog_***"><span class="aQJ">Thursday</span></span>)</div> <div>My sim swap activated only on the morning of 23/04/2016 (Saturday)</div> <div>The phone&nbsp;connection ranged between H &amp; no connection constantly and I phoned the customer care during the night of 23/04/2016. Still did not resolve the connection problem. I then went in to the&nbsp;Repair centre and was told to return on Monday 25/04/2016 to submit the phone for an out of box failure as it was established&nbsp;the phone did not read the sim card.</div> <div>On Thursday 05/05/2016 (ten days after submission) I&nbsp;phoned the Vodacom shop and was told that I can collect the phone and there is an additional cost of between &nbsp;<strong><u>R206 &amp; R1500</u></strong>&nbsp;before I can receive&nbsp;a new phone.</div> <div>Now my question is Why??</div> <div>This is a brand new phone not used since it was received, should it have worked since day one, I would not have had any additional costs. How can I now be charged for something that was not my fault?</div> <div>I phoned customer care who could not assist me, I then e-mailed the Vodacom Repairs Escalation department and received the following reply on 06/05/2016:</div> <div>"<span style="font-family: Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Good day,&nbsp;<br /> Please be advised that the manufacture credit according to the resent market value of this model .<br />It is advisable to take the same make and model it will be for the same amount .<br />Regards"</span></div> <div><span style="font-family: Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">My response to this was on the same day that I did request the same make and model, but was still required to pay the additional fee. To date I have not received any feedback from any Vodacom source whatsoever.</span></div> <div><span style="font-family: Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">How can a customer be held responsible for the escalation of a handset that was supp**** faulty?</span></div> <div><span style="font-family: Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Should this escalation not be sorted out between Vodacom (who supplies the client) and the supplier who supplies Vodacom??</span></div>