Gosh, I though the real time wasters were the ones who never pay and never make contact.

It takes 8 days to get that over with - while a mutal cancellation is immediate.  And you might get positive feedback.

If you get a defect for a buyer initiated cancellation, you are doing something wrong.

Another thing - if you open a UPI, the buyer has FOUR DAYS to give you a neg.  If I was the buyer who had requested a cancellation and a UPI was opened, I would not be happy with that, for sure.

That is also to say I have requested cancellations before, for different reasons.  In over 1000 transactions over many years, a small handful is par for the course.  But I am a great buyer so to restrict my buying only hurts other sellers.  Would I be "taught a lesson" by having a UPI opened against me?  Not a chance, but I would be able to direct my discontent somewhere very convenient.

Finally if the buyer does get a strike and they have evidence that they attempted to contact the seller to cancel the transaction, I am sure it would be easy to have it removed.

I have three main rules for ebay selling:

1. Keep buyers happy

2. Don't hassle buyers

3. Do not make buyers unhappy

I actually think of myself more as a buyer than a seller, some of the things stated on the selling boards are a bit shocking to my buyer's ears.

Have you tried putting your buyer hat on?