Warranty exchange fee

I switched to T-Moblie after being with Verizon for 26 years. I bought a Galaxy S25+ less than 3 weeks ago with this new carrier switch.  Had the first phone for less than 36 hours and the phone kept glitching and then got stuck in a Safemode loop.  They gave me a new phone.  On the exact day of my 14 day return window the new phone did the same exact thing.  They messed around with it, and did a software up date and it appeared to fix the Safemode loop issue...until today, now almost 3 weeks into having this S25+ the SAME ISSUE.  So they claimed they didn't have any phones at the store to exchange my phone with, but they "ordered" one and it will be in-store in about 5 days.  However, they said it would cost me $20 because I didn't buy the protection plan.  I didn't buy the protection plan because I am responsible with my phone, and didn't need that type of phone insurance.  So what does a protection plan have anything to do with a defective phone?????  Bad Bad business!