They’ve not refused a return but they are stating there is nothing wrong with it so I’m liable for return costs.
You’re never going to get a 100% perfect bass and if you look hard enough at any instrument you’ll likely find an imperfection and it’s more difficult to assess on a figured top like this, but there should be some basic standards.
The reason I made this post with a picture was to sanity check I wasn’t being unreasonable in thinking this is unsuitable for sale. 9 out of 10 people who expressed an opinion wouldn’t be happy with it, so that tells me it’s not fit for purpose and they should take it back and cover the shipment cost.
If it had been the other way round and 90% of people would have been happy with it, I’d have sucked it up and happily paid the return costs.