Hisense - poor customer care

I am 82 years old & with the help of a friend, on 25th July 2023, I purchased a Hisense 508L No Frost Side by Side Fridge Freezer on TakeAlot. I chose this unit because of the 5 year warranty. The unit has functioned perfectly well for the last 18 months until 28th January when the fridge stopped getting cold. I tried to log a fault with Takealot, who informed me that I had to work directly with Hisense because they do not process returns or faults for these units. I subsequently contacted Hisense Customer Care on Saturday 1st February to log a fault, who informed me that a Technician would be out the following week to assess the unit. The Technician duly came out on Monday afternoon (3rd of February) only to tell me the unit was mot repairable so it would be replaced. They said that it should take 3 to 4 days. Up until this point, things had gone rather smoothly except for the week delay & the fact that I was now without a fridge/freezer! By Friday afternoon (7th February) I had not heard anything more, so I called Hisense Customer Care, who looked up the ticket & service tag & assured me that the replacement of the unit had been logged by the Technician on 4th February, as expected & that I would be contacted in the next week to arrange collection of the unit. All week I tried to contact Hisense Customer Care but their lines were not functioning. By Friday 14th February, I still had not heard anything about the collection of the unit, so I found an alternate number to call & called Hisense Customer Care again. I was informed that they were terribly sorry about the delay & they would escalate the problem to be dealt with the following week. Needless to say, by Friday 21st February, I still had not heard anything more so I called Hisense Customer Care again. This time I was understandably more irate! After really giving the call center agent a piece of my mind, I was assured that the supervisor had been informed & had contacted the collections department directly to get the unit collected by the beginning of the next week. Only when I checked my email on Monday evening, did I find an email from collections asking for all of the contact & pick up details yet again (all of which was logged by the Customer Care Agent in the first place)!! As a result, the unit was not collected on Monday, because they were waiting for all of this detail again! Only after I sent a very strongly worded email to the collections department has any action been taken. I am hoping collection will take place today? The call centre agent I spoke to on Friday 21st February also proceeded to inform me that once the unit was collected, it has to reach their warehouse before the TakeAlot credit will be sent, then I have to go onto TakeAlot to purchase a new unit (which I have discovered is now R15 000 & not the original R10 904 which I paid for it!!). I am still confused as to how this will happen because I was not able to process a return on my TakeAlot account in the first place which prompted this nightmare journey I have been on for the last 3 weeks! Throughout this process, not a single person tried to call me, sent me an update email or made any effort to assist me. I have now been with out a fridge/freezer for 3 and a half weeks! I have had to hire a fridge to keep me going, which I think Hisense should foot the bill for & I have not been able to park my car in my garage as the faulty unit has been sitting in my garage awaiting collection for 3 weeks! Needless to say, I will not be purchasing a Hisense fridge with my TakeAlot credit & will be uploading a very negative review on the TakeAlot web site. Never in my 82 years of existence, have I been treated with such disdain nor have I experienced such incompetence! Hisense is not a brand I would recommend nor will I use ever again!