Vodacom Repairs: Poor Service.

I took my phone in for repairs on the 25th of May and this matter has still not yet been resolved! My job number is ***7. When I took the phone in the only thing that was broken was the that the screen was cracked. Everything else worked perfectly on the phone. The evening of the 25th the technician called me and said the face ID recognition cannot be fixed and for that reason he will be putting in a claim for a new device for me. On the morning of the 26th of May I spoke to the Insurance consultant at the shop and she informed me that the claim was approved and I can come in to get the new device and pay the 15% excess. I asked her if I can please get the old phone so that I can do a data transfer when I come to get the new phone. She told me that is OK and that the old device will be there. On the 27th I went in to get the new device but was told that they don’t have what I wanted (iPhone 13, pink 512GB) and they would have to order the device for me. I then decided, I would like to take my old device home and use it while waiting for the new device to arrive as it was still working when I took it in. I collected the phone from the repair shop and went home. When I got home I realised that the phone wouldn’t charge or switch on. I then went back to the store and informed them of the issue. Sarah from the repair desk then went to the back to the technician and he said the phone is just flat and needs to be charged and it was charging at the back. I then left the phone there for an hour and came back to collect it. It only charged to 12% and it had the text “iPhone Unavailable” on it. She informed me to charge it overnight and all will be OK. I didn’t think of asking what that message meant as I was just relieved that the phone just needs to be charged. Got home and tried to charge the device but it wouldn’t charge at all! Went back to the store yesterday and spoke to them again. They told me the only way to fix the device is to a software reset and they sent me to the Cellucity store in Canal Walk and told me to ask that technician to do the reset as they couldn’t do it. Went to the Cellucity technician and left the phone by him for an hour. Went back to him and he told me he couldn’t do the reset for me as the phone is dead and it won’t charge. The charging input doesn’t work! I told him this phone was charging before I brought it. At this point I was now really getting frustrated and upset because I am being sent from pillar to post! I didn’t have to stay in the mall for an hour but I did because I thought the phone would be usable again! Went back to Vodacom Repair Shop and then insisted I speak to the technician because I wanted to know what he did to the phone? No one could assist me as he was not in. How could him assessing the damage on the phone result in the phone not working at all? What did he do? Is he able to work on iPhone 13’s? What if I told him I couldn’t afford the 15% excess for a new device and rather just wanted him to fix the screen? He wouldn’t have been able to do that because his assessment resulted in the phone not working at all! I then escalated the matter with Aneesa the Repairs Manager - long story but she could also not explain what had happened. I told them I am not prepared to pay the excess of 15% for a new phone (R3700) when the only problem was the screen was cracked. She then said she will have to send the phone to Jo'burg for an assessment. I then received an email saying the ROR was approved and the excess is R1500. I said no I do accept that as the excess should be R750. Finrite has updated the excess fee to R750.00 on the system but it is not reflecting on the Canal Walk repair system. They told me they are sorting it out. As soon as the excess fee is updated on the repair system they will accept if that is you are accepting the excess fee (13th of June).

Today I received a message from Vodacom Repairs to say my device was sent back as I didn't accept the qoute and the qoute has been rejected.

I am really losing my patience with this entire process. I called the store now 3 times and no one answers. This is really very bad service.

Do I know have to wait for this entire process to start again? This phone was brought into the Canal Walk branch a month ago and we have still have no success with resolving this matter! Can this matter be resolved already!

What is the hold up? Why am I having to struggle like this and this is not even as result of my fault!