You can thank Ebay for a lot of this. Their system puts their time expectations on deals even outside Ebay. Sometimes those expectations are not realistic when life gets in the way. Not everybody sells or buys from Ebay. I remember a time long before Ebay and Craigslist when you picked up a magazine that had parts ads in the back. Or a National Dragster. Or a local Penny Pincher or Bulletin Board. We didn't have all this "instant gratification" we have now.
This was a private sale not governed by any type of rules or regulations. Sure, I agree communication should have been made. Now it looks like the buyer has not communicated that he got the parts. What about that? Two wrongs don't make a right. He should have done that. He didn't. He should have disclosed all of the information up front to us in this thread. He didn't.
To me, the buyer's credibility took a hit too. In the end, he paid for something and got it an didn't even have the decency to post up and tell about it. He sure wanted to let the site know what a "bad guy" he dealt with, but didn't want to bother about posting that is has been resolved. I wonder if life got in the way for him? Happens to the best of us.