Passing the buck to the consumer

After a 4 hour ordeal to receive my new insurance claim handset I got very excited when the assistant finally came walking out with my new boxed Samsung A3. Little did I know..<br> I opened the box in front of the assistant and took out the phone to immediately insert my Sim card, expect the Sim card holder wouldn't open. The assistant tried, and then two other assistants, no luck. <br> At this point I hadn't signed ownership of the phone and (in my opinion rightly) refused to sign for a clearly factory defect phone. <br> Both the assistant and manager tried to make it out to be human error (i had managed to break the unit in the 30sec. i got to hold it (but no mention of the 3 assistants who also tried) and insisted I sign to have the unit sent off for 'assessment' - meaning another min. 7 days without a phone and a possible repair fee. <br> No new/replace phone, and no loan phone for the interim. <br> I refused to sign for ownership of the phone, or for having the phone sent for assessment (as this would mean I accept liability over the phone).<br> Now I'm stuck without a phone as Vodacom refuses to give me a new phone as agreed under contract! <br> Where do VC take responsibility for the stock they carry?