Vodacom 4U and Gullible us!

On 15/5/23 we took my husband’s 8-year-old iPhone to Vodacom 4U in Constantia Village to buy a new battery as it wasn’t holding its charge. The consultant said that a new battery wouldn’t last 10 months would cost around R1,000, whilst a new phone would be a better idea. My husband said he would consider it if he could afford it and the consultant sold him a new Vivo Y35 for R5,651 excl. which he said was just as easy to use. We are both in our late 70s and neither of us are tech savvy, we don’t have much of a clue about mobile phone differences, We were under the impression that we could return it if it didn’t work out. After two days of struggling to get used to it my husband returned to the shop for guidance on where to find various things on the new phone. Three days after that he was still struggling, so I took the phone back to them and asked if we could either buy a battery for his old phone and get a refund, or purchase an iPhone. I was told they couldn’t take it back as there was nothing wrong with it. I asked them if they could help us to sell it but just received silent nods. We then took the phone to the iPhone store in Cavendish and asked them if we could trade in this brand new Vivo for an iPhone. They were very sympathetic and said they could trade it in if this particular brand and model was listed on their list of products that they were allowed to exchange. Unfortunately, although a couple of Vivo phones were on their list, the Vivo Y35 was not. They then kindly directed us to another store to buy a battery for the old iPhone, which we did. We now have a new Vivo that we are trying to sell for R1,000 less than what we paid for it. This is a warning to other gullible people who may find themselves in a similar situation.