The hard part for us all, is not to forget the other 99.5% of successful transactions.
Generally we remember the very most frustrating and costly losses (even though for most of us they are very rare) and we also like to take them personally even though we shouldn't.
Even in my "safe" stamp world, I've had buyers claim no receipt then I later see them selling the stamps they never received. It is very frustrating and VERY hard to forget, but the rare problem buyers have always been out there, they were probably even worse in the B&M world.
Depending on one's category one has to also factor in the "loss rate" in their margins, losses are simply another part of the cost of selling (online or otherwise).
How one reacts with the buyer before, during and after the case has been opened can help a lot to reduce the losses as in the % that do repay, however that also depends a lot on the selling category.
These boards, as very helpful that they are, also help taint our view of ebay, the shipping companies and buyers because it is only the problems that ever show up here. Every day we see lost packages, broken shipments, buyer frauds, ebay glitches and it tends to make our brains think that ALL buyers are criminals, the PO can't deliver anything or if they do it is broken, ebay never works right etc. This is of course not the case, but we never see or hear much about the overwhelming majority of successful transactions.
(Just to be absolutely clear I think these boards are awesome.)
As others mentioned above, don't give up on this just yet, once it actually does arrive there is the chance that the buyer will repay and/or talking with eBay may also provide a resolution.
