Bad experiences with Ebay--HELP!

I got back to school this weekend and my sleeping schedule is so messed up. I've been completely nocturnal this entire winter break, and now I'm trying to pull an all-nighter to force myself to sleep early tomorrow night before my first classes. And I'm not really worried at all...oh, seniorititis. Haha.

Anyway, I'm blogging to get some feedback from any readers out there on my current dilemma. Around Christmas, I ordered something on Ebay from a Japanese seller who had100% positive feedback. When I hadn't received the item two weeks later, I messaged the seller to let them know. He/she immediately apologized and said they would send out the item again with a free gift. Two weeks later, I still hadn't received either the original parcel or the resent parcel. Now if you do the math, four weeks had elapsed, so it was the end of January, and I had to fly back to school. I messaged the seller again, and asked if he/she could resend the item to my school address with a tracking number. The seller then refused, citing that he/she was already out of cost for sending me the item twice, and if I really wanted the item, I could bid again and pay $10 extra for tracking. I then told the seller I would call my local post office to see if the package(s) were floating around somewhere, but if not, I would like a refund, since it didn't make any sense for me to pay twice plus $10 extra for something I never received. The seller responded by saying that since shipping was free for the item, they did not take responsibility for any losses, and could not refund me.

If you were in my situation, what would you do? I know Paypal will refund buyers who do not receive the items they pay for, but I do feel bad for the seller. Everyone else who purchased from them received their packages extremely quickly; why am I the only one who didn't, and not just once, but twice?! I am willing to wait another 2 weeks to see if either parcel turns up at my house, and ask my mom to mail it to me since she has to mail me my medication anyway, but what if it doesn't show up? If you were me and you really wanted this item, would you bid again? Or would you file a dispute and ask for a refund? Though I feel bad for the seller, money is still money...