I need a lesson in GSP please.

[needsmorerobots]

Quick timeline:

2021

Early November - Purchase DVD as a Christmas gift

Nov 8 - DVD is shipped by seller by Media Mail to GSP in Kentucky. 

Nov 15 - DVD shipped from GSP. Estimated delivery, end of November.

Nov 17 - DVD clears customs in Toronto

That is the last update I receive of the package. About 2 weeks go by before I contact the seller for a refund. Seller asks to give a few more days. I do so and then file a refund request through eBay. Seller does not see the notification from eBay. eBay refunds me, not the seller.

Seller contacts me after and informs me he was notified the package containing the DVD was damaged in transit. I give the DVD no more thought. By that time it was too late to find a replacement for Christmas.

DVD shows in the mail on December 20th. bubble mailer containing the DVD appeared as though something dirty was stacked on top. Open the mailer and the DVD case wrapping is unopened but case is pressed but passable. I decide to wrap it for Christmas and wait to see what the condition of the disk is in.

Notification that DVD was delivered came in last 2 days to both I and the seller. Seller contacts me and asks to arrange for repayment of the DVD. Person who received the gift has not opened the DVD and now I have to ask him to do so and make sure DVD inside is intact and plays.

The confusion I have is, doesn't GSP refund sellers via insurance when something goes wrong? 

I have no issue of sending back payment if disk works but I want to make sure I am not being asked to pay someone who already was paid for the item. 

Thanks.

[needsmorerobots]

Additional information:

Refund was completed by eBay on December 9th.

The official reason it stated was non delivery and that the DVD was damaged enroute but was now being returned to seller (which it never was).

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

The seller only has to get the item to the GSP in Kentucky & then it is out of their hands. It sounds like eBay refunded you so you don't owe the seller anything & you don't need to send the dvd back.  I had a damaged package a few months ago that was sent by GSP.  I opened up a return.  Ebay refunded me & let me keep the items. My seller did not have to refund me.

[reallynicestamps]

The GSP is  Seller Protection.

Your refund should have come from the GSP, who received a shipment promptly and in good shape, but after taking responsibility for it delivered it late and in crushed packaging.

The seller should appeal if he was charged for the late delivery, because he was not at fault.

The GSP just pays out. They have good insurance and no emotional attachment to the transaction.

You owe nothing. The refund was for a late delivery. Which was in fact, late.

[marnotom!]

As far as I know, if an INR or SNAD case is opened for a GSP-forwarded item and the responsibility is determined to be with the GSP, the seller doesn't even have to provide a refund.  Strikes me that the seller may have panicked and issued the refund themselves, unaware that this was unnecessary.

Maybe things have changed with Managed Payments.

I agree with @reallynicestamps' point that the seller should be launching an appeal if they've ended up being out of pocket for something done on the GSP's watch.

Just to make sure we're all clear about this, you filed a case through the MBG and indicated that the DVD was forwarded through the GSP?

[marnotom!]

This dot-com thread from the seller's perspective is a bit over a year old, but it has interesting insight on how an INR for a GSP-handled item should be treated:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/buyer-opened-a-INR-case-but-shipped-through-GSP-so-why-a-case/...