Bought & paid for item. Seller says lost. who should cancel?

Pollycat

As title says:
I won an auction and paid immediately.
Received message today to say one of the 2 part item has been lost.
Seller asked me to request a refund.
I'm OK with that but I want to make sure any negative mark goes against the seller rather than me.
Is it best to request a refund or ask the seller to issue a refund?
Thanks
(I may be making this more complicated than it really is).

ElefantEd

Clearly the Seller should cancel - it's them who has lost the item. And they should refund you instantly.

soolin

The seller needs to cancel. However The seller will almost certainly cancel due to ‘buyer request’ which saves them a strike, but with the message they have already sent you can complain to eBay if they do that.

I would respond saying something like, ‘I’m disappointed to hear that one of my items has been lost and will be cancelled by you, I assume the second item will be dispatched as normal’. Then ignore any further requests. 

If seller then cancels you will get your refund , if not just open an NPB as soon as the system allows and you will be refunded that way, but that will take a week or more. 

Pollycat

Thanks guys.
I'll ask the seller to cancel.

soolin said:

I would respond saying something like, ‘I’m disappointed to hear that one of my items has been lost and will be cancelled by you, I assume the second item will be dispatched as normal’. Then ignore any further requests. 

I hope not! 
It's a pair of boots...

soolin

Pollycat said:

Thanks guys.
I'll ask the seller to cancel.

soolin said:

I would respond saying something like, ‘I’m disappointed to hear that one of my items has been lost and will be cancelled by you, I assume the second item will be dispatched as normal’. Then ignore any further requests. 

I hope not! 
It's a pair of boots...

Apologies, I read that as 2 different items. In that case just respond saying you will await the seller cancelling the sale and the refund being actioned. 

Pollycat

soolin said:

Pollycat said:

Thanks guys.
I'll ask the seller to cancel.

soolin said:

I would respond saying something like, ‘I’m disappointed to hear that one of my items has been lost and will be cancelled by you, I assume the second item will be dispatched as normal’. Then ignore any further requests. 

I hope not! 
It's a pair of boots...

Apologies, I read that as 2 different items. In that case just respond saying you will await the seller cancelling the sale and the refund being actioned. 

Apology not necessary.
It was how I worded it. 

tightauldgit

Yeah the seller should cancel but they won't want to because they'll still be charged the FVF probably. So they'll be wanting you to cancel first. 

Just tell them that they can cancel the sale and refund you in full. If they try to stick the blame on you then you can complain to Ebay if you want. 

km1500

one way is for both to do nothing, buyer eventually does an INR, seller refunds, noone gets any strikes, seller gets fvf back.

Pollycat

Seller has initiated refund.

Thanks all.