Invalid reference cost me more

Long story short, I called your call centre and successfuly booked two sets of tickets under ref TVF007 (***) and TVE949 (***) which totalled to R1230.00 for the 12th of Dec. I got the sms as confirmation to that. I could not make payments with the references above at both Pick n Pay and Shoprite. None of the systems could pick up on these references and in the end I had to make a new booking. This is after trying to call the call centre unsuccessfully, trying to resolve the matter. Feeling defeated, I purchased the tickets at Shoprite and was now charged R1660, as opposed to the initial R1230. I paid for the new tickets cos tickets will get sold out. Your agent had said that's the price for Translux and I booked city to city and my ticket confirms so. Is it fair that I booked, got a reference, only for the refence not to work? What would be the purpose of your booking line then?That is even though my booking was still secured. I need someone to please explain the customer service in that.