Honestly I find the entire thing utterly bizarre. All around. Nobody looks good, and it all seems so unnecessary.
Others can disagree, but to me if you arrange a restoration buy with someone, and they say it's going to take 3 months, and you still send the money anyways knowing that fact, that money is gone. You understood the timeline, you paid up front, it's not your money anymore unless they fail to deliver the cab at the end of at least the 3 months. You can't just ask for it back a month in, that ship sailed.
If you want your money back you need to wait until the cab is done, and then sell it. It's only $1800 bucks, you aren't owed like daily updates or anything. It's just not that much money, send it and wait. If you're an impatient buyer or you get cold feet or you just have restless leg syndrome cool, don't pay up front for restorations. That's always your choice.
Secondly, it's weird as hell that Tony filed a chargeback with his credit card company or a PayPal dispute or whatever he did, and then, knowing he did that, took his friend's money anyway. Why would you do that?
Bob got put in this awkward ass position by his own friend, assuming the timeline we've been given is accurate. Like, all other details aside, whatever 'Omar' should have done, that seems like a pretty clear fact and I don't get how you even do that. Resolve the money issue before you take your friend's. That means cancel the chargeback and make sure it's done first, or get the money back free and clear, whatever, don't create drama for someone else.
And again, a chargeback should be reserved for someone ripping you off. You were a third or so into the wait, you weren't ripped off. You were just impatient. That's not someone else's problem. Disputing a charge when the other party didn't break their side of the agreement is bad juju.
On top of all that weirdness—and again you might not agree with how I think the money is spent, and you're not owed a refund mid-process—it's $1800. FFS Horacio, just send the money back, even if it's stupid, and sell the cab to someone else. We all know if you offered up a restored Aero in SoCal for that much that you'd have a buyer within a day. Why invite all this BS on your rep over it? Tony shouldn't have asked for the money back, but you could have given it to him anyways to not have the headache and never dealt with him again.
Who has the money or what the balance is or what PayPal did or did not reveal over the phone or who's telling the truth I have no idea. You all look silly now, and it never needed to be like this.