Awaiting a refund for 21 days

American Swiss Ballito Junction - We bought 2 necklaces at the shop on Sunday, 11 December 2022. In the final stages of payment, the power went off (loadshedding). Unfortunately, the card machine went off. The assistant, Rhoda, assured us that no payment went through. On the Monday afternoon, I checked our bank statement, only to find out that the amount of R499-01 went through twice. First thing the next morning, we went back to American Swiss, explained the situation to Rhoda who was very helpful. She took all our details and said that she must send it to head office. I sent her an email the moment we got home with a description of what happened as well as a copy of the receipt and our bank statement showing the double payment. A week later Rhoda phoned to inform us that Head Office was still busy processing our request (16:50). We also went to the store a couple of times, only to get the same response, Head Office is working on it, and they are awaiting response. We received one more call from Michelle telling us, once again, that Head Office is working on it. My wife phoned on the 30th only to be told by Michelle that it is the festive season and some departments at American Swiss are closed over the festive season. As there was loadshedding was involved, my wife stated that this should have happened in the past with other clients as well. Michelle confirmed that it did and therefore a reversal process should be in place when a customer provides a Credit card statement. This could be verified by Head Office against the Bank statement. This morning we went back to the store, only to get the run around once again. Rhoda advised that she can’t as she is not allowed to refund us directly to our card. Today marks 3 weeks and we are still awaiting our refund. This is unacceptable! As far as we are concerned, American Swiss lost a client. We want our money back and we cannot see why we must wait 3 weeks to get it back, festive season or not. Apparently American Swiss Head Office do not have any staff to verify a bank statement and assist a customer with a refund. I am awaiting a call and the fund returned to my credit card today.