How should I handle this?

[Bogertophis]

I agree with everyone else that you've been wronged, and you have every right to be angry and seek redress. All that I'll add is that you need to also keep perspective. It's only three hundred dollars. It won't be hard between internet researching, phone calls, filling out forms, court visits, etc. to spend another three hundred dollars trying to get your money back. Then, he's screwed you over twice. Take what you can get with a reasonable amount of effort, give him a bad Yelp review, and let karma take care of the rest. Don't drive yourself crazy trying to get justice.

Sometimes the threat of a bad review does the job- after all, he presumably wants to remain in business. He may have pulled this on the OP because he's otherwise in debt & thought he could get away with it. Rather than buying the materials needed to fill the order, maybe he gambled away the money, or it went up his nose? There's just no excuse for this- delays can happen for sure, but not this many times, & any honest business would have refunded the money when they couldn't supply the product ordered. $300 is a great deal of money to many people & obviously to the OP. I would do everything in my power to be "made whole".

I haven't rented or leased any place for many years-the last time I did was "memorable" to say the least. It was a nice townhouse in a very nice neighborhood. The landlord was 2 guys- business partners- & I only met one when I signed the lease. He seemed very nice. Fast forward to when I was ready to move on: The landlord didn't want to refund my large security deposit- & this was the "other guy" (the one I hadn't met yet). He had no legal reason to keep my $800- he just felt like he could get away with it. I was moving a long ways away- so messing with small claims court would only have punished me. I met with him in his office & with a straight face, I told him that if he didn't refund my money I'd find the lowest dirt-bags to sublet to- they'd mess the place up & it would take a long time to get them evicted. Guess who got paid promptly? He actually apologized & admitted that's exactly what another tenant had just done to them, & he was trying to recoup their lost money from ME! I've been a homeowner ever since. I may have looked like someone he could pull this on, but he found out otherwise.