Takealot marked my refund as processed nearly 2 months ago, but I still have not received my money

I returned a hamster cage to Takealot, and the item was collected on 19 February. On 20 February, the return status showed as concluded. Since then, I have been trying to get my refund of R665, and almost two months later, I still have not received it.

I opened a support ticket and was told the query would be escalated. I was then told that the refund had supposedly been processed, and Takealot sent me “proof” from their payment gateway. Based on that, I contacted my bank. My bank confirmed that they do not see the funds, there are no pending funds, and the refund was not received.

I sent this feedback back to Takealot, including supporting proof from Capitec Business, bank confirmation, statements, screenshots, and all the information they requested. Despite this, the matter has gone nowhere.

Instead of resolving the issue, I received repeated generic responses telling me to wait 3–7 or 7–14 business days, or to contact my bank, which I already did. I also submitted the bank’s confirmation that no refund was received. Still no proper resolution, no clear answer, and now they have effectively stopped responding.

This has been dragging on since 21 February. Their system says the refund was done. Their payment gateway document says it was done. My bank says it was not received. I have done everything required on my side. Takealot has had more than enough time to investigate this properly and actually fix it.

This is completely unacceptable service from a company of this size. I am not asking for anything extra. I just want the R665 refund that Takealot says was paid, but which never reached my account.

At this point I want a proper investigation, not another template response My refund paid without any further delay.