abysmal service

Frday evening (27Aug21) I ordered a pair of running shoes from Totalsports online. Paid for it and the order was confirmed. Sunday evening a “REFUND REQUEST PROCESSING” email gets send to me (as if I requested a refund), no explanation as to what is going on.

On Monday 30 Aug I phone TFG and get told that I’m being refunded as there is no stock. I told the lady that it is unacceptable and that they must source me a pair from their branches. She said that there is a pair on the system and she will see what she can do. Meanwhile I corresponded via email with TFG and suggested the way forward and voiced my disgust at the whole process. The 1 existing pair at a branch was again confirmed. Further I just received emails stating “Your request has been resolved” which indeed it was not. Tuesday (31Aug) afternoon I missed a call (confirmed via email by Clinton). I tried phoning back; number does not exist (1 of those cant call-back jobs). “We currently do not have stock of the item you placed the order for, and neither do we have store stock” stated in the mail from Clinton. This process was going nowhere so I ordered from a different company at an extra cost of R3330 to me. Wednesday (1 Sep) I receive a call from TFG telling me that they are transferring the shoes to my local branch. I told the lady about the Clinton email and that I ordered from a different company. It seems that TFG’s stock and customer service system is in a mess (different answers and versions from different people). Then staff like Clinton lie to me about the stock situation; the lazy option to get rid of me. It is probably Clinton that is going to handle this complaint. If I had not been **** to by Clinton I could have had the shoes I initially ordered without paying the extra R330 to another company. BY RIGHTS TFG SHOULD ISSUE ME WITH A R330 VOUCHER considering the loss I incurred plus all the aggravation and time wasted on this matter