I think some of the ebay tabs and information that customers can see is quite misleading.
It can leave buyers with the impression that if they buy something and realise they have made a mistake or wish to cancel, they can automatically do so as long as they do it immediately, within minutes.
This is not so. The buyer is asking the seller to cancel but the seller does not have to do so. Ebay does advise sellers that it is in their best interests to allow it though if it is requested within minutes or hours.
It looks as if you seller has had a change of heart and refunded but you are lucky.
I do believe customer service is important and I also know how easy it is to make mistakes when buying online. Ebay would be one of the few sites I know of though where you can even ask for a cancellation. Some other sites will allow changes within the hour but not an outright cancellation.
I don't know what you ordered but what I have found has worked for me on rare occasions when something was wrong, is I have been able to quickly contact a seller and change the order eg to a different size. Most sellers are cooperative.
But probably the most important thing to avoid hassles is to double check everything before you buy, so you don't need to cancel within 5 minutes.
