Well good news,

I refunded the customer in full via paypal so still lose the ebay n shipping fees.

The customer then purchase a dearer item and paid extra $25 on top to half cover losses

from previous purchase...good enough.

I messaged ebay about the previous sale n it being refunded but seems I probably need

to ring up.

Anyway now I have a new bad situation from left field so to speak to sort out.

Neg feedback on something thats been shipped and delivered and I never

received any messages about problems with the item......never ends.

No paypal actions about it either. I did report buyer to ebay regarding this.

Sort of ruined my ebay rating but thats life.

Cheers all.

Happy selling.

One (or even two) negatives aren't going to ruin you, especially with your response.

It might knock you down in searches. I dunno if it would, but that's about all it would do.

Anecdotally, buyers don't even look at feedback ratings, much less feedback, unless and until there is an issue.

That neg is removable.

I got a neutral removed because the buyer made a vague reference to me not responding to messages. I called eBay, they saw the buyer made no attempt at all to message me, and removed the feedback on the spot - it didn't matter at all whether or not their primary complaint (supposedly missing items) was true or not - I believe they got everything but either way the feedback comment contained a verifiable lie, so off it went.

If you also have tracking that shows delivery, then that feedback contains 2 verifiable lies, and eBay should remove it without question. 

You can use eBay chat, or the call me back feature to get in touch with them. 

Has the buyer left the same or similar feedback for other sellers? (Sometimes when leaving FB on mobile devices, it auto-fills their last comment and some buyers have been known to leave several negs for different sellers, when it was only meant for one). I had a buyer accidentally do that with me, so it's now my one and only revised feedback comment.