The system does not work. As has been stated many sellers do not open unpaid item disputes for a myriad of reasons. Relatively inexperienced sellers may not be aware that if they pursue payment the buyer cannot effectively leave negative feedback if they do not pay. Other buyers may provide a sob story requesting a cancellation. For whatever reasons sellers do not open UID's the fact is that some of them don't, so the process of putting blocks in place etc fails.

In addition to non payers are those that habitually request cancellations because their pets bought the item by mistake etc. It would be interesting to note the value and % of ebay sales that are not completed.

EBay recommend opening unpaid item disputes in every situation where a buyer doesn't pay, including when a buyer requests a cancellation. This hardly seems like good customer service to me. What about the situation where a buyer selects the wrong item by mistake and requests it be substituted with another etc. Do we say to the buyer. "Thank you for your custom. I will open an unpaid item dispute for the item you don't want. You can either proceed with the purchase, or receive a strike which may restrict your ability to purchase from the ebay site. Please go through the buy it now process to purchase the one you would like." I don't think that would be appreciated.

Why not extend feedback so that it flags unpaid and cancelled transactions.