Revolting service/ passing the buck and broke my device

Booked my phone in at Vodacom4U Northgate (V4U) as it wasn't going on after charging it. V4U sent it to Vodacom Eastgate (VE) (assuring me no proof of purchase was needed). This is a contract devise. V4U was then completely uncontactable when Eastgate tried to get hold of them to get proof of purchase so the phone was sent back after 2 weeks on nothing being done. V4U called me to get proof of purchase only after the device was sent back to them. I then escalated the matter to the store manager (Johan Van der Walt) as they had not followed up during that time nor had they contacted me for the proof of purchase and they had given me the incorrect information the day it was booked in. He assured me he would contact Vodacom Fourways (VF) to get the proof of purchase as thats where the contract had been taken out. He did nothing. Three days later I called to follow up and was told he wasn't in and nothing had been done. I got the proof of purchase from VF (took 5 min) and sent it to Vodacom Head Office (VH)(boitumelo.mogotsi) on the 21st of Dec. .. The device was only booked in again with VE on the 3rd of Jan ( a month after original book in). They replaced the main bored and it was sent back to V4U. Because we have both (my husband and myself) owned Sony phones for the last 7 years and have had a device come back from Vodacom repairs not being water proof before, we tested whether the devise was still water proof by washing it in the sink. It wasn't water proof anymore. Rather than deal with V4U again we took the devise to Vodacom Fourways (VF) and told them what happened. The lady at the front desk, before even booking the phone in or testing the device, tried to tell me that I not closed the doors and convince me that Vodacom would never send a device back without checking the water proofing. Even after I told her we had had this happen before with Vodacom and that time they just replaced the devise without issue. When the device came back (water damage confirmed and "Larence" tells me I must claim from my insurance) The store manager tried to tell me if you don't check the sim door very carefully the device will work with the seal open. Considering that I have a second device (mine - my husbands is the broken one) this was easily shown to be absolute *******. The Xperia ZX restarts the moment the seal is broken. You cannot operate the devise with the sim seal open. There was absolutely no way that devise was damaged by us. When I explained this to him and asked that he get an xperia on his side to see for himself he said he didn't have any devises handy and anyway each store is separately owned so we would have to take it back to VE to address the matter with them or claim from our insurance. This service is revolting.. not only have I been paying for the contract the whole time that Vodacom (whatever of the three, four if you include head office, stores) have bounced the device round ( going for three months now) for the initial repair. The fact that I'm being set from pillar to post to handle all of this and that no one can help because it's the other branches fault/responsibility/ problem is completely unacceptable. VE sent the devise back without it being water proof. The devise is now written off. VF should be able to speak to them and sort what ever they need to without me being involved. I should not be wasting my time phoning 4 different stores trying to follow up and arrange for them to get this sorted out. I should be getting a replacement device and being sent home. Vodacom should not be allowed to hide behind franchise agreements when it suits them.