I was selling an item and someone bid on item and won the bid. I sent them a payment reminder and a few messages that they had to pay or I was going to cancel the order by a certain date and relist the item as I didn’t want to be left hanging with a item that needed to be sold.
Stop sending messages to your buyers, especially unprofessional ones with veiled threats about canceling orders and with explanations about how the buyer is inconveniencing you. To put it bluntly, if they are not paying for the item it is because they don't want to pay, and message from you will not change that.
They never paid so I ended up canceling the item. I didn’t realize that I can file an unpaid item and now I’m worried that I might get a defect on my account. Is there anything I can do at this point?
Whenever you are not sure about how to handle a situation, there is a "help & contact" link at the top of every eBay page. Just click on it and type something like "buyer did not pay" and it will generally tell you how to proceed.
As for the defect, the minute you chose the cancellation reason you determined whether you got a defect or not. In fact, if you are worried about whether you have a defect or whether you can get one removed, you can "help & contact" link and type "defects" and read about them.
