System offline 27/11 - one of the busiest shopping days of the year!

I went to Edgars at The Pavilion on Sunday, 27/11. There were gift packs of perfumes on offer, so I decided to buy 2. The assistant advised me to pay at the Kelso counter, instead of waiting in the long queue around the corner. After a fairly long wait, it was my turn. I had two gift cards that i wanted to use to pay for my purchase. The cashier told me that I could not use it as her paypoint was offline. She advised me to go the the account queries counter. At that counter, the system went offline just before the transaction could be started. As a result, I wasted more than 20 minutes of my time. I did not purchase the items. How can such a large store not have any type of plan for this situation? This is not the first time that i have had such a pathetic experience in this store - it is ongoing. Am i ever going to be able to use my gift cards, as they do not allow you to pay your account with it either.