Originally Posted by FBinNY

I think the issue here is that the item was returned to the seller (by the same standard of proof ebay or anyone uses). So, not counting th cost of shipping, there's a place for ebay to ensure that the buyer gets a refund at the seller's expense. This would put everybody back even except for the postage lost.

If the item had simply been mis-delivered to points unknown, then it would be a different story, but that's not the case here.