Refund Horror (story time).....

Alright so I'm curious about everyone's thoughts on this.. (STORY TIME)

So someone on here is doing a refund for me with apple. When I originally reached out, I was told a couple weeks for it to be done. Cool!! I was good with that. So everything gets started, thought all was well. Then he asks me to pay for a apple method which I thought was strange considering the point of reaching out to him was to do a refund. So i said screw it, I think it was like $30-40 or something. He "does" the method or has someone else do it.
Not sure. A week passes so I reach out to get an update. No update everything is in motion is what I was told. COOL! Another week passes which put me at the 14 days with apple. So I reached out to make sure all was well or should I just return the item to apple to avoid having an issue. He said yes as is well. Boom now out of return time. A couple more weeks pass of me reaching out asking for an update and he says he is sorry that it looks like a failed refund and that it may be like a 5% chance it goes through. Now im like damn, im screwed but I knew the risk. He just kept saying to check email over time and maybe things will happen. Well fast forward another 2-3 weeks and still nothing he reaches out and says anything? NOPE still nothing smh.

He's like maybe give them a call. I think to myself then this would be me doing the refund lol. So I called and was told they have nothing yet. So I hang up and was like well this is over. I thought about something else I could say so I call back and make up some bs about me calling the shipping company and all kinds of crap and they tell me they will put in a ticket to see what they can do. I want to say a week passes and they reach out telling me they can possibly offer me a replacement. Thats cool and all but I wanted a refund. So I asked if it was possible to just do a refund instead of a replacement. Was told the ticket has to be escalated to another team. Which is understandable for such a high dollar item. Throughout this time he is hounding me that I need to pay him and that he was going to open a report on me here. It has now been 2 months and 18 days since I first reached out to him and i still have no refund. I get somethings can take time and im fine with waiting on their decision, but he today has reached out and told me to pay him his cut. Like the fact he has the audacity after all this to ask for money is insane to me. The only reason this refund had any movement is because of me. Now to date I am still waiting on this issue. No idea why its taking so long. The only thing I was told is there was an investigation going on with the shipping carrier. Now let me ask this, if everything gets cleared and I get my refund does he deserve to even get anything? Im a fair person have done may refunds on here with people and have paid them all, even since dealing with him I have already paid someone else for a refund and working with this person on another. I just want to know what you guys think.