Vodacom is a VodaNO from me!!

Let me start by saying that my husband and I have been customers, loyal I might add, of Vodacom almost since the very beginning in 1994/1995, when we still used the Nokia "Brick" Phones, and have never even considered moving over to another service provider. Until now that is!!!!! I currently have 4 contracts on my name (and my husband 2 or 3 on his name), one of mine was upgraded in May of 2017, and the other, which belongs to my son, at the end of September, 2017. He decided to go with the new Nokia 8, as it had come highly recommended by the store, and needless to say, it has been the worst experience ever with a service provider and cellphone device!!!!! Within 2 weeks of the upgrade, the phone started saying that there was no simcard inserted and we were unable to do anything with the phone. It went into the VODACOM REPAIRS CENTRE at UMHLANGA RIDGE in Durban, (we are based in Richards Bay), and after a week the phone was returned supposedly sorted out. It continued to have the same issue, No Sim card inserted, and was returned back to the REPAIRS CENTRE. After almost 3 weeks, (at this stage we are almost mid November with the backwards and forwards), I am informed that the phone is irreparable and I will be "getting a new device exchange". What they don't tell you is that it is a "refurbished" phone, so basically some of what did work on one person's phone and a bit of another's gets put together to give the customer a "new" phone. Well, when we got the "new" device back, minus the screen protector that had cost me almost R400, it was in worse condition than the irreparable phone that had been exchanged! It had dents on the back and scratches on both the front and back, and looked as if it had hail damage. Low and behold, a week later the phone stopped working again. This time the screen view had literally been split down the middle and had what looked to be a black and white bar code filling the one half. I promptly went back to the Vodashop outlet situated in Richards Bay's Boardwalk Shopping Centre, and told the Manager that I did NOT want this phone bac**** My son had literally had what was supposed to be a new, upgraded phone in his possession for maybe a total of 3 weeks, from the end of September 2017, until the 2nd of January 2018, when I took the phone back to VODASHOP. The Manager told me the could try and do an "out of box exchange", (I think that's what they called it). It was sent back to UMHLANGA REPAIR CENTRE, and returned on 17th January, this time with everything having been exchanged on the phone except the back cover!!!! I refused to accept the phone and told the Manageress that I had stressed before that I did NOT want this phone back, having told them on the previous occasion that I was even prepared to pay in for a different phone model, (which I should not even have to do), if that is what it took to get a decent functioning phone. What does a customer do when you have all this corporate red tape thrown at you, and told that the phone has to go in at least 3 times for the same problem before they will consider exchanging it for a new or different model?? The phone has been returned 4 or 5 times now in the past 3 months, (I lose count), and NO ONE can offer me a resolution??????? I have never been so disappointed and angry with a Service Provider before, especially one of Vodacom's size and stature, and will NOT be renewing any of my other contracts in the future. For the record, the only updates I received during this whole nightmare was impersonal sms's on the status of where the phone was, from the Vodacom Store to the repair centre and back and forth. No personal updates, (which I had requested), or potential resolutions. I have kept all the sms's, have videos and photos of what the phone was doing, and all everyone involved seems to be doing is hide behind their Corporate Red tape. As they say, if you want loyalty, get a dog!!!