Why did I open a "Cancel transaction case"?

[jvdv]

This is completely stupid - a buyer decides after winning an item that he really doesn't want it and asks me to cancel the transaction - which I reluctantly do.

Then the buyer refuses to respond to eBay's message confirming that he wants the transaction cancelled nor does he respond to my reminder messages.

So after 6 days I contact eBay to ask then to close the case as I want to open an "Unpaid item case" but no, eBay tell me they can't do that as only one case per transaction can be opened.

So I have been charged commission whilst the buyer goes on his / her merry way with no strike againt them.

eBay have now advised "What I can recommend to you for this concern is that if ever your buyer will not confirm the Cancel Transaction request that you sent to them after 10 days, contact us back so that we can further assist you with this and might be able to provide another resolution for you to get your money back."

Well, despite the eBay staffer's poor grammar it seems the upshot is that it's not a good idea for a seller to open a "cancel transaction case". 

[pennyforum14]

If the buyer doesn't respond, the cancellation will automatically finalise after 10 days and fees will be refunded. 

[springyzone]

From what I have read, quite a lot of bidders tend to do this. They seem to think that by asking you to cancel it, that's their bit done and don't bother with replies.

Personally, unless the circumstances are exceptional, I think going with an unpaid item dispute works just as well. Fees back, they get a strike for being time wasters.

A couple of strikes and they may find they are on several seller blocked lists.

I suppose there is always a danger they may reluctantly pay & give bad feedback if you open an unpaid item dispute but point is, they would have paid, would know there are consequences, they can't always just walk away without a seller taking action.

[clarry100]

Unless the circumstances are exceptional or most unusual we don't cancel we use the unpaid item dispute process.

That way we retain the control not the buyer.

We have never had anyone pay then leave bad feedback so far.

[saarzi]

What Penny said.

Dont worry, after 10 days it closes automatically and your fees will be refunded to you.

However, next time open a not paid case, because then the buyer will get a strike, and they wont be able to buy off other sellers and do the same again if they have too many of those strikes.

[justajunk]

Only echoing what others have said. I tend to rely on the Unpaid Item process too. The only time that I went through the cancellation measures was when a bidder contacted me to tell me that they only wanted one out of two items that they had won. Didn't seem worth upsetting them in that case, but yes, the cancellation process was a headache because my buyer likewise didn't respond to eBay's confirmation request.