Wow.
This is an intereting topic indeed. To be clear, I don't know either party involved and have only read the same stuff everyone else has above. My comments are more in general about sales on eBay.
What makes it interesting to me, is there seems to be a standard that is being applied to (what I think is) a private party selling something- that one usually holds for a retailer (retail business)- not one to one sales.
I always figured eBay was by implication, and by practice, a "one off" marketplace; where folks did not expect the same kind of customer service as a retailer would provide.
Not that it would ever be okay for someone to mislead or withhold information about the item or condition they are selling- just that the bar would be lower in my view. Fraud is fraud and not acceptable anywhere- AND listers should be absolutely forthcoming about the quality and condition of things they are selling (pictures).
If something is flawed, a good thing would be to accept it back if the seller decides it's not what he wanted- and the terms of "who pays freight" should be disclosed in the listing (as buyers have no ability to negotiate it).
I suppose if a seller was a "power seller" or had an eBay store (a retail operation in a "reasonable man's" view) then I would expect more "retail like" rules of conduct. But it's about getting that out of the way and understood BEFORE the sale is concluded.
What if a listing said; "as is, no returns or exchanges"- would you consider buying? Does a listing need to say that- or is implied? What do eBay's rules say about it?
The reason we turn to eBay is so we can buy stuff cheaper or used- and the reason stuff gets priced that way is because those customer service things we love about retailers (returns, exchanges, warranty) don't usually happen.
Is a market force raising the bar at eBay?