SAA unable to respond to customer complaints

On the 26 April 2017 I returned on an SAA flight from Dar es Salaam to find my connecting flight with SAA had been cancelled. An aircrew strike was the cause, and grounded ALL internal SAA flights. I made arrangements to hire a car and drive home to Durban, rather than staying Johannesburg over night. This complaint was sent in writing to ********** within a day or two. I received no acknowledgement of this communication for several weeks. eventually getting an assigned customer'case route reference', and a request to attache to an email proof of the costs incurred for reimbur*****t. Over the course of many weeks following this 200 more emails were sent to SAA without a single acknowledgement or progress notification of my refund. I also made three telephone calls to their 'customerservice' call centre. One was never answered, the other answered and my complaint noted. The third was never answered in a waiting time of 50 minutes. During 'waiting' I am assured many times that "my call will be answered soon" and if I did not have time to wait I may send in the complaint / issue via email to the same address i have been sending emails to. I also received during this period an email from SAA's marketing department asking me to rate the 'service I received' using a basic list of question without any space to elaborate on the nature of my complaint. I am still sending emails using the 'case route' reference given but to date have not received any correspondence from them. I find this complete disregard for a customer and the legitimate request for a refund of my canceled ticket totally unacceptable. I am now close to opening legal proceedings against SAA for this refund. Without refunding me expenses and / or inconvenience uncured as a result of their own actions, and within an acceptable period. I consider this theft.

Regards Paul Smith reference....South African Airways [ ref:_00Dw0loUW._500w01d4eOW:ref ]