Horrible Service From A Company That Wants To Start A Bank

I've been saving up Discovery Miles this whole year to buy a special Christmas present for my wife. On Sunday the 16th of December I go on to Take A Lot to make the purchase using my miles. Discovery deducts the miles but never actually pays them over to Take A Lot. I call Discover and they apologize for the glitch in the system, and promise to have it sorted. They take so long that Take A Lot cancels the order. I call Discovery asking them if they could please refund me the Miles so that I can try the whole process again. They tell me it will take SEVEN DAYS! Imagine you buy something and your bank deducts the money from your account but doesn't actually pay it over to the Merchant. You then ask for the money back and your bank tells you it will take SEVEN days. In seven days Christmas will be over!

I asked for the call to be escalated to a manager and the manager said she can't do anything about that. I then said will what if we try and think out of the box. What if I use my credit card to purchase the gift, and then when the miles finally reflect you allocate the miles to my credit card. She said that is a possibility but another manager would have to authorize that. I said can you please ask this other manager to do that. She says all the managers who can do that are on HOLIDAY!!!

For a company that actually want to start their own bank I'm horrified by this service. I've been a customer with Discovery for 12 years. I have Medical Aid, Car Insurance, Household Insurance and Life Insurance and Credit Card with them and when I really need help this is the level of service I received. It's quite disappointing.