STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

I sent her one more polite email today and she refunded me -- yay! She said she had forgotten, and I have my $ back now. Thanks minkiki

OK, so I bought a dress on ebay Dec. 12 from a powerseller with nearly perfect feedback, and I paid immediately. After about a week, it hadn't arrived and I hadn't heard from the seller, so I e-mailed her. She said she was so sorry, she hadn't shipped it yet, but she would tomorrow.

Two days later, I got a shipping email from USPS stating that she shipped my package. I noticed immediately that the address she used was incorrect -- I have a confirmed address, and she must have switched around some of the numbers, so it would end up about a mile from my house. I e-mailed her immediately in case she hadn't put it in the mailbox yet. She replied two days later that she must have mistyped it and suggested I find the person at that address and see if they would give me my package. I thought this was silly, but I checked, and the address didn't even exist. She said "the post office should find you and deliver it anyway."

By Christmas Eve (nearly a week after the shipping date), I checked the status, and it said "undeliverable: package is being returned to sender if appropriate info is available." I let her know this, and she said she could either re-send it when she got it, or give me a refund. I asked for the refund. She said she would refund me when she received the package back. I wasn't thrilled with this, because it was her error in the first place, and how do I know she even did the return address correctly? But I agreed, thinking it would be a few days.

It's Jan. 11 and I still don't have a refund. I e-mailed her last on Dec. 30, and she said it takes 2-3 weeks for the PO to return a package. It's now been about three.  How do I politely say, "please give me a refund so that I don't have to file a paypal claim?" She's acting sort of sketchily, but I don't want her to leave me negative feedback, since she has WAY more feedback than I do, so it would hurt my rating.

At this point I don't know or care if she has received the dress back, but I don't know why I should have to keep waiting. If she hasn't received it, it's her fault. I checked with the PO and they can't tell me anything. By the way, the shipping cost included insurance, so I am sure she could probably track it down if she really wanted to.

Advice? Should I be patient? Her feedback score is 99.7%.