Refund still outstanding after 3 weeks despite 8 followups

On 23 August I placed an online order with Absolute Pets for pet food (R1,070). I was contacted on WhatsApp and told the items were out of stock and that I could get a refund. I requested the refund and went to a physical store to purchase the same items instead.

It’s now been over three weeks with no refund and no meaningful communication. I’ve phoned eight times. On six of those calls I was told, verbatim, “I’ll confirm with our finance department and contact you back in 5 minutes.” No one called back each time I had to follow up again and got the same promise. I also emailed with Sharon, who has since stopped responding with the last three follow up emails going unanswered.

This pattern of multiple staff giving the same script, no callbacks, and ignored emails looks like deliberate obstruction of refunds. It feels like the retailer is imposing unreasonable barriers and bad faith delays instead of honoring its stated refund policy.

At this point I’ve given up on receiving the refund and will take my business elsewhere.