It sounds like everything is moving in the right direction, which I'm glad to hear. The biggest problem with eBay's return request system is that there are no fail-safes (that us plebs are aware of, at any rate) to deal with these kinds of situations - by which I mean neither the buyer nor eBay can manually change the reason for a request if the wrong one was chosen, in error or by (provable) intention, which leaves a very strict and narrow path for the request to follow. This means that the "best" eBay (or the buyer) can do is close an erroneous case (happens, but rarely, especially for eBay to do it), or attempt to fix / compensate for errors retroactively.
At least in this case, by eBay formally advising the buyer that return postage costs will be their responsibility, they have removed a good part of the incentive for the buyer to return the goods, since they seem to be wanting to take advantage of a lower price (at the seller's expense). I suspect (hope) that this will mean the cost will outweigh the potential savings, and they will do what they should have done in the first place - keep the item and feel the mild sting of regret that they didn't do their homework properly when they were shopping (ideally they would learn that A) finding an item cheaper doesn't mean a seller overcharged and it doesn't mean they're entitled to some form of recompense, and B) it's unacceptable to try and force someone else to pay for the decisions they regret).
