eBay stole $1328 from me. What should I do?
You might think this is a clickbait headline to grab attention, but in reality, that's exactly what happened - Ebay truly stole $1328 from me. I never received the package, and I never got a refund for it, even though it's been a year and a half!

I'm a photographer, and I had long dreamt of owning the legendary Contax T2 film camera. It's not cheap, especially considering that I live in Uzbekistan, where the average salary is $200. However, by February 2022, I had saved up the necessary sum and decided to make the purchase. At that time, I was temporarily in Russia due to health issues, for medical examinations and treatment. While I was there, I placed an order on Ebay, paid for it with my Russian card, and provided a Russian address where I was temporarily residing.

What happened next - you're probably aware. On February 24th, Russia initiated a war against Ukraine, just one day after I made the payment on Ebay. Following this, FedEx, the delivery service, notified that they would no longer deliver packages to Russia. I realized that I wouldn't receive my order.

The first thing I did was contact the seller and asked him to change the delivery address to my address in Uzbekistan, offering to cover any additional shipping costs. However, it turned out that according to Ebay's rules, this was impossible. The only option was to initiate a return so that the package would go back to the seller, and the money for the purchase would be refunded to my card. Only then, if needed, I could repurchase the item. That's exactly what I did. The package was returned to the seller.

But the money didn't return to my card! And you probably guess why - it's because Russian banks were disconnected from the SWIFT international payment system. In the settings of my Ebay account, I removed my Russian card and added my Uzbek bank card to receive the refund on it. But it didn't work. I started reaching out to everyone to resolve this situation. Here are the responses I received:

Seller: He wrote that he can't influence this situation. After the return was processed, the money was no longer with him.

Russian bank support: They wrote that they couldn't do anything in this situation.

Mastercard support: They wrote that they couldn't help with this.

Ebay customer support - this is what annoys me the most. I explained the situation to them in detail a hundred times, and a hundred times they replied that according to their rules, the refund is only possible to the card I used for payment. And they suggested that I should contact my bank. Even though Ebay, in this situation, has the most leverage. The money is with Ebay now. Based on my communication with Ebay customer support, it feels like I'm talking to a bot or a child. Essentially, they just stole $1328 from me, and it seems like they have no intention of returning my money.

I googled it - Ebay's net profit for 2021 was $13.6 billion dollars. And this unicorn company robbed me, an ordinary worker from the impoverished country of Uzbekistan. Where is the justice in that?

It's been a year and a half since the purchase. Ebay customer support has blocked me. I still haven't received my money. These are very significant funds for me, hard-earned, and I can't just let this situation go. I'm currently ill, and I need funds for treatment again. I would have sold this item and used the money for treatment, but I can't because I have neither the item nor the money! So, I see no other way but to damage Ebay's reputation with this post. Maybe this way they'll pay attention to the negligence of their employees, and the situation will be resolved. Please, if you don't want to stand aside, support this post with activity. Also, any advices regarding my further actions is acceptable.