The downside is you won't have a legitimate reason as an option to cancel the transaction.    If you choose the wrong one you could get a defect on your account.    Also the buyer gets away without have a non-payment defect on their account.

As advised --- see Unpaid Policy >

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/getting-paid/resolving-unpaid-items-buyers?id=4137

I have not been paid yet 

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@lacatus1062 wrote:

I know you have to wait 4 days but what I want to relist it now?  What's the downside of not waiting 4 days?

 

One item has been 3 days and one item 2 days. No payment, neither have the decency to tell me they'll be paying soon. I don't mind waiting but at least don't ignore my messages

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Adding to the correct advice given, as some buyers are tardy in paying,  or there may be a genuine reason, emergency at home so eBay takes a back seat in importance,    whatever the reason, eBay do allow 4 days for the buyer to pay.

  If you relist without ending the transaction correctly,  you could just have a late payer, who then pays, and if the item was relisted,   the item has been bought by another person.  You then have two buyers,  one item,  and one big headache.

You need to wait the full 4 days,  not to fall foul of the above,  or defects for cancelling orders for the wrong reason.

@lacatus1062 

I urge you to be patient.

Yes it's annoying when you send a message and receive no reply in the time-scale you'd hope. Generally buyers aren't deliberately rude: they might be busy or have something going on that's more priority than eBay (which is only a shopping platform), or they may have difficulty with the eBay messaging system and not seen your messages. Or are still sorting out payment so a good idea to wait until they sort it. Indeed, as they know they have 4 days they may feel not obliged at all to be in touch with you. I still struggle with the messaging system since its makeover, and I'm a fairly experienced eBayer (1K+ purchases). I saw a post in the last couple of days from an even more experienced (and much wiser than me) eBayer who'd just discovered loads of Inbox messages and realised (just as I have come to realise) that you need to specifically check the Inbox because it seems eBay notifications don't always warn you or messages don't always come through via eBay on your off-site email. Too often I've done that check and been surprised to find messages waiting for me e.g. discount offers or "just posted" messages from sellers.

When I shopped here much more often (basically before BPF) I'd visit the site at least once a day and also look at my Inbox, and that's pretty often for anyone! That still leaves a lot of time in the day when a buyer's not on eBay. Sellers are naturally more invested so sometimes it's hard to remember that buyers don't live in eBay-world as much (either for as long nor as intensely).

Maybe consider avoiding waits of up to 4 days by using Buy It Now? When creating or editing a listing, there is an option such as “Require immediate payment with Buy It Now” in the payment section; ticking this means the item is not considered sold until the buyer both clicks Buy It Now and completes checkout. This can be set as part of a payment/business policy or bulk‑edit of listings so all Buy It Now items require immediate payment by default, which avoids the 4‑day wait for payment.

As a buyer, I like the Buy It Now option in an auction and have used it several times.