Woolworths Woodlands Boulevard and poor customer service

Hi ,I had purchased a pair of sneakers from the Mall of Africa on the 8/10/2022. I had wore the sneakers briefly the next day and when I got home I noticed the stitches were coming off on the left sneaker and the flap stitches had unraveled. I took the sneakers to my closet branch Woodlands Boulevard on Monday the 10/10/2022 and was told by one of the store managers they cannot refund back to my account and the shoe had to go to the woolworths technologist? The other assistant also noticed the stitching was weak on the left sneaker as well. I was asked to complete a form and someone will be in contact it has been 5 days and I am being billed for this item! It is clearly a factory default and I do not take kindly to this sort of scrutiny when other customers return items going into thousands!