Time Away and Loss of All Shop Access

[doingthistopaythebills]

I'm away and have set up my time away for a month. Whilst away, I'm looking to spend sometime reviewing my listings and making changes. 

Sadly, once you invoke the time away function your account is effectively invisible, even to you. I am unable to see the items in my shop there are no organic impressions that could result in a buyer placing my item in their watchlist. All that it left is eBay still charging me for my shop and charging for any listing over the 1500 included in the shop package. I have around 2400 items so this equates to a considerable charge to receive absolutely no service what so ever. 

According to CS the only way to regain access is to remove the time away and leave yourself open to sales that you cannot fulfil.  That is the sum total of eBay's interest in the topic. 

Anyone else experienced this, anyone from eBay willing to comment?

[tressygirl]

If you end all your items they go into your unsold listing for 60 days if you're still on My eBay Selling, and for 90 days if you are on the Seller Hub.

They're not visible to buyers only to yourself in that unsold listing you can  see them and make any changes, then relist within that time period when you wish.

@doingthistopaythebills 

[xyz307xyz]

(I'm a private seller, so maybe it's different.)

The limit appears to be 15 days.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/selling-tools/time-away?id=5137

https://www.ebay.co.uk/vac/timeaway

"Allow sales for up to 15 days while you’re away - Buyers can see that you are on time away but they can still purchase your items."

I'm surprised you can't see/edit them from eg. https://www.ebay.co.uk/sh/lst/active though.

[xyz307xyz]

As a private seller, I generally only have one of each item, so if I want a break, I just set the quantity available to zero and then back to one when I'm ready to sell. I can still revise items with quantity zero. If you have multiples of the same item, you would need to record how many to put the quantity back to.

Also I guess you could put Pause sales for the first 16 days and then Allow sales after that - i.e. for the maximum 15 days.

[willrose-elec]

So you are complaining because eBay is doing exactly as described? Time away=you not there 🤣

[angela-sells-stuff]

Business account here, I noticed similar. I put my shop on Time-Away. Used a different account to go check that the listings had the correct date that "seller is back" & to check that the delivery date had added extra days to the estimate. But I couldn't find any of my listings. When I searched on my account, nor when using another account.

[5216elisabeth]

I think they are visible to buyers only when you have the setting on allowing purchases whilst you are away.  The maximum time you are allowed to have that on for is 15 days and I do sometimes get sales whilst I have that setting switched on.  I think if you are on time away with no sales allowed your listings are made invisible as they can't actually be purchased. I have sometimes looked for items from sellers I have bought from and their listings have been missing but a week or so later they're back again so I'm guessing that's why. You can still go in and edit your listings etc as long as you are signed into your account though.

[doingthistopaythebills]

Clearly not, if you take time to read the post.

I am complaining that I have no  access to my own shop and items during the time away being active. 

Whilst not ideal, one accepts that others cannot see the items. However, I am paying for a shop that I cannot see or edit. Being away does not mean I don't want to have access to my own account, it means I am unable to fulfil orders. I would still like others to see my items and have ability to ask questions or to place them into their watch list. 

Not sure why I am explaining this to you but there you go. 

[vintagechinashop]

I put my shop on holiday for 7 days in early July. It took at least 2 weeks after that before I saw a sale. Like you it looked like the account was invisible because the impressions and views were all at zero  as a result last month I made a loss and didn’t even cover my shop fees 

its the first time and last time I will ever use that function. In future I will just extend my handling times and postage times to cover any holiday 

my view is that if you put the holiday setting on eBay  and you have no access to the shops function eBay should be crediting those days from shop fees but of course they wouldn’t be doing that   

[fatbobfan]

I did accidentally tick the wrong box in the past that hides your listings

Check to make sure youve go the right box ticked to enable sales, its easily done from experience

[style_wise]

eBay T&Cs say: 'To drive a positive buyer experience, a listing may not appear in some search and browse results regardless of the sort order chosen by the buyer.' From you and other sellers' experience, perhaps the algorithm gives preference to sellers who aren't away. Only eBay knows for sure! And as you mentioned, they don't comment on how their algorithm works (for obvious reasons).

[nutrafituk]

It is as simple as that you kust accept that eBay can do anything they want with your listing placement. It is in T&Cs.

[theplaceforlace]

When you pause sales on time away your listings are not visible to buyers.  If you allow sales on time away your listings will be visible and there will be a banner across the top explaining you are taking a break and there will be delay in delivery.

When you pause sales you will have access to your account but when you click on  'active listings' you will not see any because your listings are NOT active.  

The advantage of time away and pausing sales is you can take a complete break.  The only messages I get about listings are from buyers who have the listing in their Watchlist.  They can still view the listing.  It will have a banner across the top explaining that you are taking time off.  The disadvantage is that you cannot view your active listings and make changes to them.  Another disadvantage is that it takes time for your listings to become viewable to buyers again once you take off the time away setting.  A way of speeding this up is to bulk edit all of your listings and change something minor like location of the item - e.g. change from town name to county name.  Relisting with revisions bumps the visibility.

Allowing sales whilst on time away has an advantage in that you can carry on selling whilst having a break and keep your shop and listings visible.   You can also revise your listings as they are still active.  A disadvantage is that many buyers do not notice the time away banner and expect their item to be delivered within a few days as usual.  Another disadvantage is the the estimated delivery date algorithm still takes into account seller performance when setting estimated delivery dates and you may find that delivery dates shown to the buyer are BEFORE your actual time away end date.  

From Ebay 'help':

When you pause item sales, remember the following:

• Fixed price listings will be hidden from search results and buyers won't be able to purchase your items
• If a buyer previously added one of your items to their Watchlist or basket and tries to buy it while you're away, they won't be able to complete the purchase. They'll see a note stating that you're not processing orders until the time away end date
• It can take a few hours for your fixed price listings to become hidden, so we recommend setting your time away in advance whenever possible
• After time away ends it can take a couple of hours for your listings to re-appear in search results. Listings will re-appear automatically, you do not need to edit your listings