No refund of holding deposit from thrifty

My husband and I rented a car from thrifty Cape Town Airport (rental agreement no. ********** ) on 12th December 2017 and paid a holding deposit of R10 000 using two credit cards as per their requirement. R5000 was deducted from my credit card and another R5000 was deducted from my husband’s credit card but we did not get any invoices. We returned the car on 16th December and were told that the holding deposit will reflect in 7 working days in our accounts. On 19th I noticed that they deducted R226.20 from my credit card and called them to find out why they are deducting money because they are supposed refund us. Lizle indicated that they deducted petrol money and the holding deposit will reflect in our credit cards in 7 working days. I called again on 28 December because the money still didn’t reflect in our credit cards, Lizle said the refund was processed and gave me reference numbers (025653 and 025727) to check with our bank (Absa). The R5000 rand does not reflect in our statements and the only transaction that appears is the R3, 067 payment from my husband’s credit card.

The money hasn’t reflected in our accounts up to now and Absa is unable to assist us because according to them it appears as if the transaction never took place, they can’t use the reference numbers to trace the transaction. According to them reference numbers disappear after a few days. I’m also disappointed in Absa’s system because how can I perform a transaction not appear on the bank statement. What recourse do we have now? Have we been ****** just like that?