Takealot ****** me of my sale savings through a credit return of item to be sent to manufacturer.

terrible returns. bought a gimbal phone stabilizer on a special price which I was quite happy with saving over R1000 as the device normal price I would not have gone for, there were other choices at the time but that special was on now. Few months later it malfunctioned due to internal issue after a firmware update and the manufacturer said it would be easier to enquire the seller to send it to them. returned item to takealot.com and an email asking me either to send to manufacturer or credit my account with the amount the item went for at the point of sale.

"1 x ZHIYUN Smooth Q4 Gimbal Stabilizer

We see that the preferred outcome you requested was for a replacement unit to be shipped to you. Regrettably, we will not be able to accommodate you at this time as we no longer have stock of your item. For that reason we have the following options available to you: We can send your item to the supplier to be repaired (please note this could take between 10 - 21 days to be facilitated) We can credit your takealot account with the value of your item at the time of purchase''

and of course I would have chosen the first option as stated on the return but a few hours of first email they already credited my account without me confirming this for this and this is not my fault. after a back and forth with a Gillian.L who "looked" for my item and now they cannot find it. Saying this was unacceptable and I would send my property to the manufacturer myself and they had to look for my property they so referred me to Nwabisa.N who exclaimed how sincerely apologetic he is but nothing they can do which I feel is just sending me up a chain. Credit is still on my Takealot account as I write this as I have no need for a 1300 when I had a 2500 gimbal. So my item can't be replaced as it can't be found? Takealot is not willing to replace my item or find my item so I could send it to the manufacturer's factory service center as was the plan. I feel ****** of my savings and feel ****** by Takealot not making this right.