Shoddy customer service

I received a gift on my birthday. Didn’t like the item. Gift receipt given to me. I was then away overseas. Soon as I returned, I went to Zara Sandton to exchange for a voucher on the gift and was told the 30 day period had ended the evening before. II was not aware of the 30 day period as I didn’t purchase the item and it doesn’t say anything on the front of the receipt (no body reads the back of a receipt, especially not a grey watermark print). Manager robotically told me that they are unable to override system. It’s a considerable amount of R 559. I’m really unhappy about this experience. I don’t shop at Zara because of a previous bad experience at Zara also related to snobby, shoddy customer service and unrealistic policies. Zara is not customer-centric.