Non paying buyer, Ebay fee's and paypal refunds

I recently sold an item (highish value)on a buy it now to an Irish buyer, with low but good feedback, needless to say, they never paid, opened a dispute and managed to get my fees back.

Relisted the item and blocked the "buyer" of the original listing, they contacted me and said that there had been a death in the faimly and they had been away soorting things out but would like to purchase the item, so,probably rather stupidly I let them purchase from the new listing, then after 3 days of no contact I had an email from the buyers husband asking where the original item was as it had been brought over a month ago, giving a different address and telephone number to the purchasers contact details, so I contacted the purchaser asking what was going on to be told her husband isn't dealing with the death in the family but she will pay for the item, which she did by paypal.

After checking the addresses provided one isn't a proper address and the second address given by the husband appears to be an empty property thats for sale, similarly the telephone number supplied doesn't exist.

The paypal address was unconfirmed as well so I refunded the buyer explaining that I wasn't willing to ship to an unconfirmed address under the circumstances and that if they still required the item they could pay via Sterling money draft or a bacs payment in Sterling, which they said they would, needless to say they haven't...

Today I tried to open an unpaid item case to get my fees back and surprise surprise ebay wont allow me to do that as I refunded their paypal payment (all be it under their own seller safety guidelines)so it appears that I'll have to take the hit on the fee's while under the worthless feedback system I cant even tell other sellers what a waste of time these "buyers" are when it comes to buying anything bigger than a £3 set of stickers...

Yes, unfortunately once a buyer has paid you can't file an Unpaid Item case even after refund.

You can cancel the transaction - that either requires the buyer's agreement or for them to do nothing. If they do reply to it but do not agree to cancel you won't get your fee back.

Your best bet might be to issue a cancellation without telling them. If they don't reply to it you can close it after 7 days and your fee will be refunded.

Click on "More Actions" on the far right of the transaction on your sold list in My eBay > Resolve a Problem > I want to cancel a transaction.