Bad Service/Lack of Refund/Embarassment

My husband paid for a spa day for me at Placecol (Mall of Africa), valued at R1500, but unfortunately I was not available to attend on the day (as it was a surprise). I then physically went to the shop and insisted to the staff there that it would be best to get a refund so I can use my birthday gift elsewhere as I had not heard good reviews about the service from there (although I did not mention this to them), and just said I would prefer a refund (this was the 21st of December). A lady there by the name of Amanda took down my details and said she would talk to the manager/owner and get back to me.

Two days later, no one had contacted me. I placed a call to there to find out what had happened and to emphasize how I wish they would just refund us our money . Amanda then said they had forgotten to talk about the issue and asked me to give her my details (again) as she had misplaced them; again I iterated to her that this was bad customer service and that it would be best we just get our money and remove ourselves from the situation. A day later I got a call saying they had now made a voucher for the money instead of a refund and that I should come and collect it. I collected the voucher.

On the 6th of December I called them to verify that the voucher would indeed work if I used it at the other outlets other than at Placecol (The voucher card is supposed to work at Dream Nails and Perfect10 too), and they said yes so I made an appointment to do my nails at Dream Nails Mall of Africa. Once my nails were done and it was time to pay, the voucher did not work. I was so humiliated at the till at Dream Nails now that the system just reflected "card voucher number does not exist" - seeing as I was at the same mall as Placecol and thinking it would be a simple thing to fix, I called them to rely the story and how I feel this is why I had wanted a refund in the first place. Amanda said there was nothing they could do except that I should pay the R520 from my own pocket and that they would sort me out on Tuesday when the manager got back to work. I was appalled to say the least. They did not even have the decency to walk up to Dream Nails where I was to find out what the issue was and I was just supposed to used my own money to pay (money I had not even budgeted for).

The lady at Dream Nails then went downstairs, with the dis-functioning voucher, to them to explain how this was not good customer service and how they should be the ones trying to sort me out instead of making excuses, and also try and sort out their mess. I had to spend another hour or so embarrassingly waiting by the check out point at Dream Nails so this could be sorted, and it never was so I used my own money to pay just to get the Dream Nails staff out of this problem.

I then went downstairs to Placecol to insist that they give me a refund for my money as even the voucher they had given me did not work; They insisted to call the manager, Dakalo Singo, who told me that because the money had gone into the owner's account ***ner is Minigie Bhebhe) they could not refund it immediately but that she would make an effort to have it paid back by Tuesday when she got back to work. I then insisted that we sign down on this agreement on the receipt, with Amanda as she was the one attending to it, and hope that they will stick to their words as I been embarrassed enough by their bad customer service and inefficiency.

Today it is Thursday and still nothing has been done. When my husband called Dakalo this morning to find out what had happened she said she had relayed the issue to head-office who should have gotten back to us by now, but as I type this message, still nothing has been done. Please assist.