Vodacom terrible service

I am very disappointed with the product and service that I received from Vodacom.

I bought a phone (Galaxy A04e) cash from the Vodacom store in January but as soon as we started the phone up a message appeared and rendered the phone inoperable. (Hi your smartphone has been locked. To unlock it, please pay the outstanding Easy2Own bill at any Vodacom store. T&C's apply. Further together. Vodacom)

I made numerous calls to the Vodacom help desk where they tried different techniques to get rid of the message which did not work.

I took the phone back to the Randfontein branch where I was informed that the phones are supp**** by some company (easy2own I presume). The Vodacom employee sent an email to the said company including a slip where the full payment was made l as proof, yet the message still remained on the phone.

I then went back to the branch where I was told that the phone needed to be booked in and sent to the service centre to be repaired.

I handed them the phone to send for repairs.

Not very long after the phone reached the service centre, I received a call explaining that this repair including shipping will cost me R310. Obviously I complained about being charged to fix a phone that was received faulty but was told that the phone will not be repaired if I don't pay.So my wife went to pay it at the branch.

I received 3 or 4 calls from the service centre requesting payment after the payment was mad and had to explain the same story each time.

Today I collected the phone from the branch and the problem is still there and the phone still not working.

Biggest joke of all is that I bought the same phone from PEP and don't have a problem with that phone.

Needless to say I am very disappointed in the service I received from Vodacom and will definitely be sharing my terrible experience.