Ginger or Maryann?
Genie or Samantha?
Seriously though - wow! What a thread eh?
While ChicagoRJ does make some really great points in his posts - I'm still going to fall in favor of the seller here. Primarily because the seller offered /FULL/ refund including shipping costs, which means the buyer was offered a complete "do over" - which doesn't happen often in life.
Secondly - with as much positive feedback as the seller has earned, it tells me that he's worked very hard to always do the right thing - and I think it's a pretty crappy deal to try to smear a good name. Words like "cheat", and "lie" carry negative connotations, and even after being made aware of all so much in 20 some pages - we're still seeing those kind of words being tossed around.
With that said - I'd think the value of this cue has increased in value now. I mean so many folks and so many electrons passing through the internet HAS to be worth something.
One other point though. As the end consumer (the son) has accepted the cue "as is", it's really the middle man (father) that's unhappy at this point. I do understand that you'd want to provide a loved one with something "perfect" - but then again - you were buying something USED - not a NEW cue. You could have ordered a new cue from the maker - but you wouldn't have "saved those pennies". So again - I'm going to side with the seller.
<-- *passes the 'talking stick' to the right*