Takelot dragging about giving me my refund.

hello peter my name is Juan-Ross. on the 1st of November 2022 i ordered a smartphone from takelot which was R1,299. the phone was a hisense infinity e9 dual sim 16gb gold color phone. The takealot driver delivered the phone on Friday 4th November and i gave him the money because i payed cash on delivery. i opened the box of the phone and noticed the the phone battery was swollen so i could not use it. I then immediately sent it back and i asked for a replacement. i then received an email on the same day saying that my replacement order is being processed and i will received the replacement phone on wednesday the 9th November. the credit that was used to pay the replacement was taken from the original order that i sent back to takelot. on Monday the 7th november 2022 i phoned takelot customer care and i told the lady that she must cancel the replacement Order for the hisense infinity e9 dual sim 16 gb phone , give me a refund because i needed the money for something urgent. the lady said then said that she cant cancel the order because its already been shipped, but i can refuse the order once it reaches me where upon it will then be canceled and taken back. the courier came with phone on thursday the 10th November(a day late). I then did like the lady from takelot said and refused the order. i wrote cancel on the invoice from the courier and they took the order back. Since then it has been a headache to just get my refund from takelot , I've called them and sent numerous emails asking about my refund and every time its the same apology with an escalation to the relevant department. its been more than a week now and still i have not received my R1.299. Takealot is making life very difficult for me at the moment because i need that money URGENTLY. The last update that they gave me was that the replacement phone that i canceled was received at their returns evaluation facility on 17th November 2022 at 12:36 p.m and nothing further about my refund. the return reference nr for the replacement i cancelled is MRRN-YROXP-9KVB. Today is the 20th November and still i have not yet received my refund.