Aklamio referral - still not received £50 after 13 weeks

Hi. I referred a friend to virgin media last november, and I still haven't received my reward. I have contacted Aklamio and they've told me VM are responsible for getting this sorted. Here's their email response:

We understand your concern regarding the delay in receiving your reward from 10.11.2024. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this situation.

Typically, Virgin Media requires up to 3 months to confirm pending rewards from the activation date. However, if there is a high volume of rewards to process, it may extend the processing time.

Please be aware that, as an external company, we do not have direct control over Virgin Media's verification process or access to their database due to data privacy regulations. Therefore, we rely on Virgin Media's internal procedures and processing timelines to confirm rewards.

Rest assured that we regularly remind our partner about pending conversions to expedite the process. 

We assure you that Virgin Media will verify and confirm your reward once all necessary conditions have been met. We will promptly notify you via email once your reward has been confirmed.

Could someone at Virgin Media respond about the status of this referral? It really isn't clear from My Virgin Media how to contact about referrals, so I thought I'd ask here instead.

My VM account is coming up for renewal soon so if I end up getting screwed around with this and ping-ponged between the two companies, I'll probably just end up cancelling my account and going elsewhere. Thanks in advance!