Seller printed label, usps awaiting item over two weeks now, status in limbo.

[the.kingfish]

Won an auction for an item March 1st and paid via Paypal.  Then got a notification a week later that it had been shipped by the seller.  Unfortunately, only a shipping label was created and it said "USPS Awaiting Item."  When I contacted the seller to see what was going on, he stated that my item was forgotten and he promised to actually ship it that day and immediately refunded my money for him being "unprofessional" which I did not request or ask for (I needed the item for someone else.)  Checked the tracking number again two days later and still no change.  Contacted the seller again and this time he claimed he had a family emergency and he would take the item to the post office that day after apologizing again.  Three days later with no change in the tracking status, I contacted him a third time.  He said he would check with the Post office to see what was going on (this was a Friday.)  Today (Tuesday) I contacted him again and he said the Post Office was no help and that he was refunding my money since I did not receive the item ( he already did this last week without me authorizing or asking for one.)  Has anyone ever had this situation before?  It sounds like the seller is giving me the runaround, having a change of heart and not wanting to sell me the item won in his auction (possibly because he didn't get the amount he wanted?)  Where I stand now:

1.   I have a refund which it appears the seller has issued to get off the hook.
2.  I have no item which I needed for my business.
3.  I have over two weeks wasted
4.  I cannot put in a claim.  Due to the refund, ebay and Paypal both think I have not yet paid for the item
5.  I cannot file an INR.  Despite the initial delivery estimate of March 9th, since the item is still showing as "USPS Awaiting Item" I get an error saying I have to wait.
6.  I cannot cancel or close the order since due to the refund it shows as "Item Not Paid."

Should I contact the seller and tell him to cancel the order or should I wait to see if the USPS tracking status changes and hope the item either is taken to the post office or is delivered?  And should I give the seller negative or neutral feedback on this?  His rating is at 100% but doesn't have many previous sales.

I'd like to give the seller the benefit of the doubt, but by his numerous admissions that he didn't ship it and excuses that he would and finally blaming the USPS, I'm having second thoughts here.

Any thoughts?

[pjcdn2005]

The seller is giving you the runaround,  I would order the item from someone else.

I don't that you can file an INR because you have already been refunded.

Ebay knows that you paid for the item but their system always shows it as unpaid if you have been refunded.  You won't be penalized for that and the seller can't open an unpaid item case.

The seller may have already cancelled the transaction when you were refunded but even if they didn't, it shouldn't affect you at all.

All you can really do at this point is to leave the appropriate feedback...be calm and factual.   If you aren't able to do so through your purchase history, go to your own feedback page and at the bottom of the page click on 'leave feedback' and that transaction should come up.   If there is an area where you can report the seller, I would probably do that as well.

[the.kingfish]

In your opinion, would you leave neutral feedback because a refund was given or negative feedback because I wasted two weeks, didn’t ask for the refund and was given the runaround by the seller who appears to not want to ship this item and perhaps relist it later to try and get a better price more in line with what other sellers are getting for the same item (my winning bid was half of the selling price of other auctions)?