Quoted from Dooskie:

I am a small business owner that has developed several revenue streams to support my business. I started by selling golf clubs on eBay, back before they got greedy with their fees, took that money and bought a golf course. In addition to my on-line business and the physical golf course, I have a cart rental/sale business and a mower sharpening business.
In the eBay world, it can be a challenge working with a buyer that does not have any common sense. While it's rare for me to make a mistake (I have 100% feedback rating with more than 40,000 transactions), it does happen occasionally. All I would ever want the buyer to do is to contact me if he has a problem. If it's a legitimate problem, and the buyer isn't being unreasonable or trying to pull something on me, I will bend over backwards to make things right for him. And in the end, I think that's all a buyer really wants.
In reading through this, in my opinion the buyer could have handled this differently. Nothing should have been posted on this site until he had talked to the seller first. There is no reason to trash a seller until he has demonstrated that he's not going to try and find out what the problem is. But posting before even trying to contact the seller, that's bad form.
Rob did exactly what I would have done. If someone is that unhappy, and it is obvious that a mistake was made, offer a full refund, including the shipping both ways. Or, I'd ask the buyer what he thinks is a fair way to resolve the situation. Either way, outside of a little inconvenience and some frustration, the buyer isn't out anything in the end, as long as he's a reasonable person.
If Rob were a new retailer and didn't have the good reputation that he does, the buyer could have (unfairly) done irreparable damage to his business, which would not have been fair UNLESS Rob didn't offer to make things right. Fortunately, Rob has been in the business, has a reputation as a stand-up guy, and he is doing the right thing. Now it's time for the buyer to make a decision and move on. He's LUCKY to be dealing with a good seller. A lot of places would have told him to go pound sand.