I am in negotiations to buy a snake online. I was sent two bills by the seller (agreed to pay in 2 parts,) the first being on 4/13/13; the last being yesterday. The seller agreed to ship my snake out tomorrow for Tuesday arrival. I got a message from him this morning stating that there was a death in the family, and that he would either refund me the $ if I wanted, or ship out a week from tomorrow because he had to travel. I said okay, I would like the refund, since he offered it. That was this morning, and I have not gotten a reply or refund.

What would you do? If I hypothetically wait until next week and do nothing, that could bring out the date of a potential refund beyond the 20 days that the original transaction occurred, factoring in allowance for shipping delays (let's say the snake was a DOA, or something.) I am wondering if I should just seek to reverse the transactions, if possible. I am really scared of losing my money on this. The seller had pretty good feedback on the BOI, but not much of it.

I know that things happen, but I have seen so many tragedy scenarios in which people were scammed because the seller either has a legitimate tragedy and disappears for awhile (not something that I will tolerate either; tragedies happen, but I want either my money or the snake; more-so my money now, since I was offered a refund) or a scam from the get-go. The transactions were billed from him to me; he sent money requests that I responded to. Any info or help is appreciated, since I am getting none from the seller now.