Blackberry — Refurbished Blackberry phones

I am a vodacom contract subscriber for about 20 years.
My contract was due for upgrade in October 2011 and I upgraded to the Blackberry Bold 9780. Upon any upgraded Vodacom indicate the phones you may upgrade to and which they endorse. After a couple of months I experienced problems with my phone and handed it in for repairs. I received the phone back only to find out that it was a refurbished phone. Upon enquiry I was informed that it is vodacom policy not to replace any faulty or unrepairable devices, but only to issue clients with a refurbished phone. I then requested that they return my original phone, only to be told that it was repaired and already been issued to someone else as a refurbished phone.

I then also experienced problems with the refurbished phone and again requested a replacement with a new phone. Once again I was told that I will have to be satisfied with a refurbished phone, again!
And now being without a phone that was part of the contract.
I then requested that my contract be cancelled, since I have not been issued with a new phone, in fact I have no device even the second refurbished phone is apparently unrepairable.

For the past months my life have been extremely disrupted and inconvenienced by these events:
My phone is an essential part to perform my work duties and must be in a good working order at all times. I also need to be able to receive emails on my phone at all times.
Some contacts and other information have been lost on my phone which have serious conse-quences.
I still need to pay a contract for a device I cannot use and do not have and service I cannot use or receive.
I have been to and from vodacom shops, phoning, emailing which is costly and also takes up valuable time, with no positive outcomes.
At this stage I am using my wives’ old blackberry curve which is very frustrating.

Apart from submitting numerous complaints in various ways to Vodacom I have also lodged a complaint with “Helo Peter” only to find many other complaints regarding the refurbished phones issue and utter appalling attitude and service from vodacom.

I have also made attempts to contact Blackberry, but it seems a mission impossible to find any contact details.

It is disgraceful that such a company keep on receiving contract payments from how many clients who not being able to use the services or have a proper device.
It is unacceptable that Vodacom regard themselves to big a company to comply with the provisions and stipulations with regard to defect products in terms of the new Consumer Protection Act …