What do you do when you get an 'item not as described' on eBay

This was my first time. As a seller I know it can happen, I send the wrong item to the wrong person and well when it was brought to my attention I would fix it. No big deal right?

Well the spouse found these golf clubs on eBay thought they were a fantastic deal, tells me the ID number and I purchased them.  Sent the money quickly and it was a done deal.  He did a search by the UPC code of the item, which is how he found it.  Since he searched by the UPC the description and title was based on that particular UPC code.  How could it be wrong?  Guess the price was too good to be true.

Well the item finally arrived and he was excited like anyone would be when they get an item.  Within seconds of opening the box he tells me the item listed is not what he got.  Of course I was upset and shocked. So here it goes: This listing says they are TaylorMade Golf Clubs RocketBladez set of 8 clubs - What he got were TaylorMade Golf Clubs RocketBallz set of 8 clubs. Did you read that right?  They are in fact two very different items.  Yes they are both clubs and they are both from the same manufacture but what the listing says is not what was received.  This killed any faith he had in eBay.

So I first contacted the seller mentioning this little issue. I believe they were a fairly new seller with a feedback score under 50.  I thought about it not being a big issue but it was advertised as a particular item, its like getting a blue one when you wanted black. They are close but its not what you wanted. The price was decent for either item but this buyer was a jerk from the start.

First he accused me of making this deal with them before purchase, then he tells me to get off my high horse and tries to blame eBay for modifying the listing after the fact! OK sellers, if you list an item as black and sell it as black and send the buyer a blue one, you will get in trouble!  I don't want to think you should just open a case when things happen, sometimes its just an honest mistake.  

SELLERS:

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT THE DESCRIPTION SAYS!

I emailed the seller twice, the first time letting know about the error and the second time was to let him know he's got me confused with someone else. He agreed he made an error but still blames eBay. I don't know what I was expecting but had it been me as a seller I would have offered a discount if they wanted to keep them or provide a return label.  Well this guy offered nothing, I had to put in a request thru eBay to authorize a return. I printed the label yesterday, expecting to have to pay return shipping but I didn't have to. Guess when an item is 'not as described' the seller is responsible for return shipping.  This is the package was shipped to me as 'parcel post' and the return label was 'Priority Mail' thru the USPS.  Im positive the return rate is double the parcel rate since this was an 'odd' sized package.   

EBay emailed me with tracking info, letting me know where the package is and according to their emails I should get a refund in 6 days! Thats pretty quick. This was a very high dollar item so I am hoping this goes thru without a hitch and Ill get a full refund. 

eBay buyers refusing a cancelation request?

How does one deal with this?

Well it does not happen often but sometimes I have a miscount, or something will sell in my physical store or in another market place and I forget to remove the listing from the other market place. Or it was swiped in our store. Its happen to all of us I am sure. For us this is usually the main reason for requesting a cancellation.

When it happens I email the buyer explaining that there was an error and we no longer have the item. I issue a refund and submit a cancellation request. Now the buyer got my message about the mistake and their money back! Im not one of those sellers that 'hold' their money until the accept the cancelation request. I have the most to lose since the buyer can say no to the request just to be mean and they can leave a negative mark for me.

If I did everything correct why would a buyer refuser my request?

Now the message says I have to complete the transaction with the buyer. How can I? Im a seller that buys wholesale and sells retail so I can obtain more. What sucks is that the item is on back order until the end of February! So does this order just sit in my 'awaiting' pile? I already refunded this person so I dont have their money so its actually 'awaiting payment' - should I send an invoice? Remove it from my list? Just leave it there until the end of next month?

What to do?