The reason why the seller made up the story, is probably because they have been scammed before, and may have thought you were trying to do the same thing, when there was a Delivered scan. There are buyers who try to scam sellers after all. "USPS apologized days later saying it was misdelivered and that they would contact the seller to replace the item. I told them that I did not want to do business with this person because he is a liar. I opened a case with eBay. Several days later the phone was delivered".
You can't tell the USPS what to do when they have admitted responsibility for misdelivering a package. They have to follow their procedures. While the seller should have apologized, for their message, they did send a 2nd phone.
"I opened a case with eBay. I notified USPS, closed the case and requested a return label. He has had the phone back for two days, still sealed but has not returned my money".
When you opened the case (aka a dispute) with ebay, did the seller provide a 2nd tracking number? If they did and it had a delivered scan. eBay would have closed the dispute, in the seller's favor. When you sent the phone back, you should have provided the return tracking number to the dispute with ebay, so there was proof that you returned the phone. If that dispute is still open you can add the return tracking number to it, to show you did return the phone. You stepped outside of ebay's procedures by trying to unilaterally trying to cancel the transaction. You sell on ebay and should know how the Money Back Guarantee (MBG) works, and it seems that you stepped outside of the MBG policies.
Sellers have 3 days to initiate a refund, and refunds can take from 3-5 days to be deposited into a bank account if you paid with a Debit card. If you paid using a Credit card, it can take up to 30 days for a refund to appear on your card statement. You can call the number on the back of the card to ask if a refund is being processed.
