CANCELATION OF LAY-BUY BY STAFF

My mother made a lay-buy on behalf of me on the 7th of July 2025. Today, being the 25th of July 2025, my mother went to the Mitchells Plain, Town Centre branch to go and pay the balance and collect it the lay-buy. Upon arrival at the store she paid for the laybuy and Natasha, the cashier, who assisted her said that they were looking for the lay-buy which took about 15 minutes to search for. Natasha then asked my mother to come back which my mother did. Bare in mind at this stage my mother was already inconvenienced as she had to be elsewhere. This happened around 11 am. When she returned to the store around 1 o'clock she was told by Kayla that "You are not going to be very happy now, Mrs Burt". Kayla further explained that according to lay-buy stocktaking the laybuy was kicked out of the system. My question is this, how can a lay-buy that was not canceled by the customer, that was made on the 7th of July, be canceled by staff on or before the lay-buy is due which was only on the 10th of October 2025? It would have been a completely different story if I came to the store on the 7th of July and saw items that I did not put in a lay-buy and expect the selected items to still be in store on the 25th of July. I have called the store to speak to the manager Tasneema who was very empathetic, accommodating and helpful as she called a few different branches to find out if they have the selected items that was in the lay-buy. But unfortunately, the two items, one of which was a PU leather jacket which I desperately wanted, was not in stock at any of the branches that she called. Tasneema went above and beyond with trying to assist me, however, the fact remains that I did not get all of the items that I lay-buyed. I am extremely dissatisfied with what transpired because myself and my mother shop here often and we make lay-buys every other month and this has never happened before. The staff knows my mother by name that's how often we frequent the shop. I am utterly disappointed.