Gift cards expired in less than a month, WHY???

Went to Makro in Montague this afternoon, filled up my trolley with urgent things I needed. Upon my arrival at the till, I told them that I'm going to pay with 2 Makro gift card. The lady took the cards tried to check the balance then she told me that they had expired. I can not begin to explain my frustration. I purchased the 2 Makro gift cards in December 2023 and they had expired in less than a month. I tried to send the sms to the number in the back of the cards for the balance, the SMS didn't even go through (I have enough airtime). Tried calling with 3 different phones, which are on 3 different networks still call didn't go through. I had in my trolley a gate that needed to be installed a the installer was waiting at my house, so I had to pay him a callout fee (waste of my money), and you can imagine how much it was as it was already after 18:00 when I was told the cards expired, I also had a gas stove to assist with loadshedding as it was starting in my area at 18:00, guess what my 2 year old kids slept hungry, because Mommy couldn't cook for them as the stove was left in the trolley at Makro. The pillows that I needed also. It's scary that the cards can expire in less than a month and I had loaded R2000 on each to cover me for January. and every I had to leave at the store, because your system is making cards expire before the 3 years that were mentioned.

I need to understand how is this possible. I wasted my time and my fuel going there as the trip was fruitless, because your system is awful. I need this to be resolved and treated with urgency.