Maybe it would be fairer to let 'nannypetal' a few days to reply and maybe put up some defence before digging his/her grave.
There are a lot of gripes about ebay sellers (of which I am one of although not with anything aquatic at the moment) and it can be a very 2 sided story most of the time.
One example:
I sell snooker and pool cues. I often get
'the case arrived damaged' and I reply
'can you send me a photo' and they say
'I have no digital camera' and I say
'can you return it to me then' and they say
'I'm not paying anymore out, I've already paid a shed load once'
More often than not (with my customers) they have already given positive feedback, because the case or item arrived intact and they have broken it themselves.
I am quite lucky in that the items I seel are of reasonably high value and I pack the really well
i.e. £150 snooker cue and Ext + £50 Case
I have had people come back to me trying to get money back for their cue saying it broke when I was playing, which knowing the pool / snooker circuits roughly translates as I got drunk and broke it, or I got into a fight and used it, or I lost my temper and snapped it over me.
I am not in any way trying to lay the blame on customer or seller, just let the seller have their say before a blanket boycott happens on what might be an isolated case.
I would like to point out that I have a 100% positive rating over the whole period I have traded on ebay (which I don't do now due to the flood of cheap chinese imports especially in things like snooker cues.
Andy (CorkinCues)