Takealot sells customer defective phone then plays dead instead of refunding buyer or replacing with a new one

I wish to give Takealot a zero star rating for the ******** treatment they gave me as someone who is supporting their business. Long story short, I purchased a phone on the 13th of March, it arrived on the 15th, I was so excited since it's right on time for my birthday. The phone only worked for 2 days and stopped responding to any touch, it literally went stone dead, I contacted Takealot and filed a return. Sent item to Wonderboom pick up point, I chose the option for them to replace the phone with the same model just one that works. It got to their warehouse for assessment, they requested passwords to inspect the phone which I gave, after seeing for themselves that the phone Is defective, I am told my return has been declined and that they will be returning the phone to me to log the return "correctly". I was told to wait on the courier to deliver the defective phone back to me. Even to date (24/04/2024) I haven't heard anything from the courier or Takealot themselves. I feel my rights as a customer have been severely abused as of now I don't have a phone nor the money I paid for it refunded to me. I would like to know is this how Takealot SA runs their business? How could I ever trust them after pulling a stunt like this one? All I needed was to have the defective phone (Redmi 13c) replaced with a new working one, then I would be a happy Chappy, I'm tired of all these ups and downs in emails and now ghosting and silent treatment while I suffer without a phone like I never paid for one. Please Takealot, do the right thing, give me my money back.