Cannot get a straight answer

I have had previous dealings with Takealot which have been pleasant but today I am not so happy.

I bought 4 items from them a couple of days ago and paid for it in full. As my order was just under R900 I qualified for free shipping which was great. I received a mail today stating that they have removed one of the items on my order as their supplier is out of stock and they credited my account with the value of that item (R120). This I can understand fully, however, I obviously ordered that item because I need it and I would now like to replace it with a similar one.

The thing is - They are unable to replace that item on the original order and I have to make a new order for the replacement product and now I will have to pay shipping on the new order as the value of the order is less than R450.

My original order have not been shipped yet, but upon inquiry about the possibility of shipping the new order with the original order, the customer care consultant avoided the question.

I have now removed the new Item from my cart and will definitely explore other shopping options in the future.