Confused

[catsbeensickagain]

I am not a big eBay user so not particularly aware of what is common practice. I have just had my first problem as a buyer and feel a bit confused!
I bought a bag on 25 July and paid immediately by PayPal. Next day bag was marked as dispatched and a delivery time of 3-5 days was stated, although the estimated delivery still said 1-5 August. Nothing arrived so 6th August I contacted seller and asked which courier they had used (it said “other” in listing) and could they look into it. Got a message back same day saying she would chase it up. Heard nothing more so messaged again on 10th asking how she got on. Got no reply to this so on 12th clicked the “I did not receive it” button on eBay selecting the “I would like the item” option. The message I attached said that ideally I would like the item but perhaps something had gone wrong with the courier. This morning I have woken up to a full refund and a case closed message. Her response says “sorry family emergency could not fulfil order”. The bit I don’t get is that it is clearly a lie or at least there is a lie somewhere. Either she clicked dispatched when she had not done so, and suggested chasing up an item she knew she had not posted or she did send it and the courier cocked up - so why say this?
Confused that blatant lying is ok so long as you get your money back! What did she have to gain? Surely no one would sit back and shrug that their item didn’t arrive so taking my money can’t have been the plan. Equally though I think waiting 18 days to open a case suggests I am quite patient and she could have begged a few more days (resolution date was 19th) or bunged it in the post. Am I overly truthful when I sell on eBay??

I wouldn’t worry about it too much if you’ve had a full refund.
You will never know what happened but maybe something like:
Wife gives husband a package to post on his way to work, she selects dispatched, husband gets a call to say family member has been rushed to hospital, forgets to send package because of this. Week long of visits/support to family member, wife receives email from you, check for postage certificate. Can’t find it, asks husband who says he never got round to posting it.
Instead of explaining all of this and risk buyer wanting a refund/partial refund and the item they’ve decided to cancel the order.

I know something similar happened to me when I was selling an item.
I store all my stuff to sell in a cupboard, someone bought an item then on the day of dispatch I couldn’t find it anywhere.
Later found out that child’s friend has gone in the cupboard and taken it home (lives 120 miles away)
I had to cancel the order and only had a few select pre-written sentence to choose from. Buyer was not happy when we corresponded and wanted compensation