Manufacturing defect refused

I ordered a garment on Truworths online on 04-08-2020 for my mother to attend her deceased partner's funeral and it was delivered the following week, right on time before we left to the Eastern Cape for the funeral. My mom fitted the dress and it fit her beautifully. What we did not notice was the thread on the dress unraveling. On the day before the funeral as my mom was fitting the dress one last time and getting everything ready, she fit the dress one more time only for us to notice that the thread coming off. I got back to Cape Town end of September and took the dress back on 04 October 2020 to the Promenade branch and showed them the issue. They told me that they would get back to me after 10 working days as the return was done over 30 days thus it has to go for an assessment.

On 26-10-20 (15 working days after) I receive a call that my return was declined and I have to pick up the dress as it was not a manufacturing defect. I asked the lady what they said it was as the thread was clearly unraveling and she could not give me a definite answer. The dress was for a funeral in the first place however I had to spend additional funds to buy another dress as this one had a defect on it. Now I must keep this dress with these treads hanging as your team will not take it back? Who's responsibility is it to ensure that quality garments are delivered to customers? It certainly can't be my responsibility as the consumer.

I have been a long standing customer of Truworths and wouldn't want a address that is not even 10% of my total spend over the last 2 years to have to be the cause of the end of our relationship. I refuse to accept the bill for poor workmanship on an expensive dress that has never been worn! What must I do with the dress now? Ask my mom to wear it on another funeral soon??? This is not good business practice at all! Please assist, I need my refund.

Some free advice: 1. Online orders should at the very least have an expected delivery date so that the return period can start on that date instead of customers having to lose out on the return period due to delivery times not being factored in, it's really not fair. 2. Train your supervisors and/or staff members to assess the garments themselves, then for exceptional circumstances (like the other big retailer that you are in direct competition with), send the garments to the "assessment" team as sending everything to the team only prolongs the process and makes returns a drag. 3. When you say 10 working days, please keep it at 10 working days as Truworths is too expensive to still have to be dealing with such incompetence!