I can see both sides of the argument but unfortunately Karl, in the eyes of ebay, your in the wrong, even though morally your right. However those 'tems and conditions' when signing up that no one ever reads will mention how ebay works which you agreed to.

If you went to a car auction and bid on a car and won then asked to hear it running afterwards, should you then say you dont want it its tough - you should have looked at the car beforehand as you were able to. Even if yo had and won, then took it out on the road and all the gears were knackared, you couldnt refuse payment then as again they would say "thats the risk you take in buying at auction". In an ebay auction for a car the same thing applies hence why sellers state "you are bidding to buy NOT to view" ie if you want to view do so before bidding. In this instance, the seller did not state you could view before bidding, therefore you shouldnt have bid Its tough I know, I got stung similar, however they are the rules we signed up to when using ebay. I bought an in-car power converter for £19 from a guy who lived a few streets away and so rather than pay the £8 special delivery I said I would pick it up, however he refused. Through loads of arguing we eventually mutually agreed not to move forward with the sale, but something as simple to us as picking something up can mean something totally different to someone else. This bloke you bought from for instance may have another 20,000 laptops stacked up in a room and doesnt want you to see them. His house may be a mansion in the middle of nowhere that he doesnt want people to assess how to break in etc. He may have some shit hot cars outside that he doesnt want people to see. He may have allowed collectors in the past and had a bad experience with one and thus blankly now refuses any more collectors etc. There is also the other side which could be someone who has hacked into a genuine ebay account and wants your money for something they are never going to deliver (a mate had this recently with some Madonna tickets he wanted for his family costing £300, ebay eventually confirmed the account had been hacked!) and so for these reasons I would definitely advise that you DONT move forward with the deal, but in the eyes of ebay you have still done wrong by "assuming" you can do certain things such as view -after- the auction and visit the seller at his home when the rules state that winning an auction is a legally binding contract as agreed in the terms and conditions and the sellers requirements on the page you bid on. Anything you are unsure of such as whether you can see the laptop working or pay on collection ebay would say would either be mentioned in the ad or should be found out via "ask seller a question" -before- the auction end, once ended though all they will say is that you are bound to pay the seller and should the items not be described, action to be taken afterwards. As said, I've been in the same position only for something of far less value, and its taught me that should I be interested in doing the same thing I'll either find these out before bidding, or will pay extra from a local shop with the security that comes with it. Hope this helps.