If you doubt the seller's excuse then you could check to see if they have been active on ebay in the 2 week period.

I'm afraid that I don't believe buyers who claim to have a death in the family or other excuse for not paying but with sellers I rarely see such an excuse so tend to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Everybody handles death in a different way. Some become consumed with grief immediately, others may be able to function a fair bit of the time like they always do iykwim.

Just maybe, this death has really rocked the seller - maybe they were the executor and had to do a lot of formal official stuff too...

and just maybe, after seeing your message (it did sound a bit stern up there, if that was similar to the wording you used) they just got overwhelmed and withoiut really thinking it through properly just decided they didn't want to deal with eBay and complaints etc atm because of everything else they were going through, so refunded you, because it was the "right" thing to do iykwim.

Sometimes, stuff happens. Sometimes, when it does, you somehow manage to "hold it together" but sometimes, it might just take something pretty small to then make the whole situation become overwhelming.

Just something to think about - they will be reminded for an entire year about why they got that red dot - might make it hard for them to get back into the swing of things iykwim.

Well, i think you are being really hard on this seller. Your entire comments here seem harsh and without feeling, only concerned about your side of a two sided story.

Im enclined to believe the sellers story, whether you do or not, but i sincerely hope you dont leave negative feedback.

If I were you, i would send off another email and GENTLY  say: Thank you for the immediate refund. I am sorry for your loss and I give you my best regards.

Just my thoughts on this matter, but at the end of the day, its your transaction!

If it was a BIN then the seller was obviously happy with the sale price so could have no reason to not complete the sale other than as stated however after they contacted you and informed you of their problems and said they would post on the 4th you replied sounding like a petulant, insensitive child as you obviously believed their reason for the delay.

Most sellers would have just refunded after receiving your response, you can leave a neg if you wish but I think you will find yourself on even more BBLs than you have been added to already.