Hahaha! Don't think I wasn't tempted! I finally opened a formal case with ebay and they made him partially refund me, so I ended up giving him positive feedback
Just wanted to point out that ebay can't "make" a seller
PARTIALLY refund a transaction. They can make him refund it in full after you return it at your expense. They can even instantly subtract to hold the full transaction amount from his account but it's all or nothing.
If your problem seller sent a partial refund it was compromise of his own choice - and, as such, worthy of either positive or no feedback IMO since you could keep the item while he still paid fees/shipping/ect for the transaction in addition to the cost of the item initially. The dispute might have been the motivator but the partial refund was a courtesy extended you by the seller.
Partial refunds used to be a fair way to handle so many little issues and leave everyone happy but ebay's removal of the sellers' ability to leave honest FB for problem bidders has opened the door of temptation to many an extortion threat. Sadly, it makes every complaint suspect b/c, without honest FB to use for reference, there's no way to know who the dishonest PITAs might be these days. A request from a buyer who wants a refund without returning the item has become a huge red flag for ebay sellers.
No offense, but you wouldn't expect a store to refund your money sight unseen when you leave the item home and plan to keep it. Other online merchants require returns before refunding. Even for spoiled meat, my grocery store wants to at least get the packaging back, if not the product, before refunding.
I just don't get why people think ebay sellers - most of whom are real people with families to support like you & I - should be entitled to any less but, sure enough, it happens every day and - instead of saying thank you - the seller who's now lost his item and his money trying to make ebay and the bidder happy is still the rude bad guy...
How dare I!
OP - There's an edit feature here so that you can edit your post to delete just the identifying facts - his name and the item number - while leaving most of the other info intact. If it were me, I'd edit out your name & ebay id too while you're at it. Did you know that with a simple search by bidder folks can look at what you're buying/selling too whenever they want?
