How long to get a MBG Refund?

[maomaomack]

I bought jewellery items which turned out to be fake. The whole experience so far has been pretty horrible: 

Purchased two items from supposedly different sellers based in the US with buy now. I paid for both items and then the seller's listings were removed from Ebay after I had paid but before the items were shipped. The seller's accounts were then cancelled.
The seller provided fake shipping numbers via Paypal. 
The items arrived but did not match the descriptions (they were fakes). I lodged a return request for both items. The seller then requested return to an address in South Korea (the retrun address given for both items was the same), not the US addresses provided in the listings. Ebay said not to send and wait for the seller to come back to me. They never did. 
I had to chase Ebay to get return sorted out. Ebay then requested i take the items to be verified by the supposed manufacturer. The manufacturer does not verify items (even though I drove and hour to the manufacturers store). Ebay demanded that i provide proof that the items were fake yet would not provide guidance on how to achieve this i.e. should I get a report from a jeweller which states that the item was not gold.
Under Ebay's instructions I ship the items back to the US addresses provided in the listings. Items were delivered on 9 September. Yet still no refund.
I contact Ebay on 10 September, they tell me the case is found in my favour but ask me to wait 24-48 hours for my refund. Still not refunded.
I contact Ebay again on 21 September, Ebay asks me to wait another 72 hours. Still no refund.
I contact Ebay by phone on the 25th, 26th and 27th and on each occasion was told that a supervisor would approve my refund that day. Still no refund. 
I contact Ebay by message on 28th of September and was assured that a supervisor would review my case ASAP. Still no refund. 

I contact Ebay on the 3rd of October and they tellme to wait another 7-10 days for a supervisior to approve my refund.

I guess my question is, is this normal procedure/timeframe or is there something else I should be doing to get my refund?

[padi*0409]

Are you contacting them by email of phoning them? If by email, all you'll get is answers from robots, better to phone them or preferably get them to call you back. If the first CS rep isn't helpful ask to speak to a supervisor. (note phoning and call backs are only available during business hours)

https://ocsnext.ebay.com.au/ocs/cusr?query=880&levelHierarchy=3a4a2

The last time I went through an MBG it took well over a month to resolve the problem, that was a year or so ago and reports on the boards suggest the process is even more time-consuming now.

[maomaomack]

I tried ringing them three times as well and each time I was told that a supervisor would approve ASAP. 

I didn't realise bots replied to the messages. Would explain the felling I get that they don't read any of the previous messages to get an understanding of how long I've already been waiting.

[tazzieterror]

As said by others, best to speak with them on the phone rather than emailing.

What I also do (with any customer service phone call, not just eBay), is ask for a reference number for the call,  as well as the name of the CS person you've talked to, and then record that information (along with the date and maybe a summary of what was promisedetc) somewhere (in your phone, on the computer).

First reason: if you have to chase it up again, it's great to be able to say 'Person X said on 10 Oct it would be refunded in Y days', rather than 'someone two weeks ago said...' .

Secondly, my theory is that CS follow through with what they tell you when you have their name and a way of tracing back to them in the future.  I always try to finish the call mentioning their name at the end, so it hopefully sticks in their mind that I know it, e.g.

"Well, I look forward to that wall being built soon - thanks for all your help today, Donald.'

In your case, if they keep saying it's awaiting a superviser's approval, tell them you're happy to wait while they locate one or transfer you through.  I did it once with PayPal...the superviser ended up being pretty useless, too, but it was satifying forcing them to find one to speak to me 😄

Anyway, YMMV - good luck!