I didn't bother replying to your question before for exactly the same reason as I won't bother now ..... I have been talking about the well known term of COD and its meanings, not the OPs transaction itself.

And this is where the problem is. You are giving incorrect info to posters who come here asking for eBay related help. As a few others have pointed out to you moorna, this is an eBay discussion board and site - so terms and meanings that can be used in the RL world in here can only be interpreted as eBay has intended. Get it ? Your argument is not relevant as any time COD is mentioned in eBay it is a Postal Service you can choose when listing an item - you can not decide for yourself what the term means, A.Post have given this term to a service they provide, end of story.