Vodacom headoffice refuse to exchange device

My mother is an elderly woman living alone in a retirement village. She had a hip and 2 knee replacements and is therefore very frail. She has been a loyal customer to both Vodacom and Samsung for more than 10 years, but today we are faced with the following situation.. Her new phone, Samsung Galaxy A6 plus, does not have any reception were she stays and no one can phone her nor can she make calls from her phone. However when she inserts her sim card into her old phone, Samsung Galaxy A3, all calls go through and it works as normal. The contract for the A6 plus started on 2nd August 2018. It has been in for repairs for this problem on the following dates: 1- 24 October – local Vodashop in Vanderbijlpark – Job number: ********** 2 (returned 26/10) 2- 27 October – Vodacom head office Midrand – Job number: ********** 2 (returned 5/11) 3- 5 November – did a sim swop to try rectify the situation 4- 6 November – Vodacom head office Midrand – Job number: ********** 3 (returned 12/11) 5- 19 November – Samsung repair shop in Three Rivers. The technician advised us to have the phone exchanged by Samsung seeing that it is still warrantee and went in for the same repair more than 3 times. 6- 20 November – Vodacom head office Midrand – Job number: ********** 6 (returned 26/11)

After countless attempts to fix this problem, there is still no improvement regarding the signal, and still no calls can be made nor received. We even made contact with the online Samsung product service help line. They recommended taking the phone to the closest authorized Samsung repair centre in Three Rivers. The technician who assisted us made us aware of the Samsung policy: “During the applicable warranty period, provided the Product is returned in accordance with the terms of this Standard Limited Warranty, Samsung will repair or replace the Product, at Samsung?s sole option, without charge.” From www.samsung.com under warrantee section. But still after we went through all this trouble, Vodacom Head office still refuses to replace the phone. To me this is a safety issue, and without a phone with proper communication my mom is totally disconnected from the outside world. If she should fall or get hurt, she cannot let anyone know about this because of a malfunctioning phone. At this stage it is a life threatening concern.