+1 on buyer's remorse. As long as the bass was fine when you gave it to him, this isn't your problem. You don't need a no-hassle returns policy.
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I'm inclined not to give him a refund because he tried it out, handed me the money, and then took the bass home with him.
I told him I'm busy until the weekend and can't meet now. He said he would call me again on Saturday. If he calls, I'll politely say no refund. This is my first experience selling something on Craigslist. I'll be clearer about a no refund policy in the future.
For the record, anything I sell here on TB is eligible for a full refund for any reason, within a reasonable amount of time.
I told him I'm busy until the weekend and can't meet now.
In that particular case, definitely not. And for 100$....ugh.
But recently I bought a POD HD unit from a guy that sold it to me as "100% fully functional, almost never used" - I came back home 15 minutes later and the usb interface was defective... (I don't have a laptop anymore) the guy was nice at first but he quickly became confrontational and a total douche (implied I "dropped it" and that I "misused it"). He postponed a few 'meets' to try and solve the problem, then started talking about how he was burnt many times buying used cars and mixing desks with defective channel strips and that he has absolutely no remorse and that's it's 100% on me... since then I definitely limit my buying to places with a feedback system.
Buyers and sellers do have responsibilities though - as a seller, I thoroughly test anything that I sell beforehand so as to avoid situations like these.

When you buy on craigslist, everything is sold on an as-is basis with no guarantees. It's in the terms of use, and buying or selling on CL is just understood to be that. For a $100 bass, it's asinine to ask for your money back. And even if you buy a $6,000 Jimi Hendrix relic V or whatever and get burned buying a fake, it's still on you. Again, it's all in the CL terms of use. I'll only take a refund if something isn't as I described it, like the electronics don't work, or something. If you're returning it cuz you don't like it, then you should have bought something new from a big box store.
I may give a refund, but not for this. I've sold on Ebay for years, on TB for a few months, and on CL for years as well. This hasn't ever happened to me in a transaction in those hundreds of transactions, but this is a dumb request.
Oh, and to the OP, I always meet people from Craigslist in public. Most CL users are normal folks, but 'most' isn't good enough for me not to take precautions. I like meeting at guitar center because they really don't care if you buy or sell stuff in their parking lot. Then if they want to try it, the amps are there. Then they don't know where you live. Just a precaution.