is every seller I've tried to buy from this evening really 'on holiday'? Or is this a glitch?

[bebet.uk.a6rbzaio]

I'm confused. Browsing on eBay this evening, I've tried to put a number of items in my basket (from multiple sellers and in several different departments), but every one has shown me the 'seller currently away on holiday' error message.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Some kind of technical glitch, perhaps? Or is there an eBay seller's convention taking place somewhere that I haven't been invited to?!

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

Various sellers have shut shop,more than you would normally see.

Maybe they see the tsunami ?.

[m25jet]

You must have just been unlucky - I can't say that I've experienced the same problem, and so far I haven't heard of any other reports of the problem that you describe.

If the problem still hasn't resolved itself by the time you read this response then there are a few other things I can think of that you could try in order to see if you can get around the problem.

First of all, instead of putting each item in your basket and then trying to pay for them, try paying for each item individually and see whether you get the same response.  If you don't get the message that the seller is on holiday then see if you can get all of the way through the checkout without it glitching at some point.  If all goes well then you should be able to make payment for the items.  However, if you are trying to purchase more than one item from the same seller then it would be worth sending him/her a message to enquire as to whether he/she offers combined postage discounts if the listings are not offered with free postage, as if the seller would be willing to do this for you then if you hold off of making payment the seller can then send you an invoice for all of the items that you have committed to buying but have not yet paid for and you can then pay the seller via the invoice sent to you with the combined postage discount applied.

In the event that the above option doesn't work then there is another workaround option that I know of that I have found to be particularly effective at bypassing site glitches that have been preventing me from making payment for an item that I want to buy.  What I've done in such instances has been to log off of eBay UK and log onto www.ebay.com, which is the American version of the site.  Apart from the fact that the prices are all in US Dollars and certain words are either described or spelled differently - eg:  "Shipping" instead of "Postage" with regards to definitions, and "Color" instead of "Colour" with regards to spelling, everything else on the site is pretty much as you would see it on eBay UK.  Try to pay for the items you want to buy using the American website and if the payment goes through then you'll have the peace of mind of knowing that you've successfully paid for the items and that there is no risk that the seller is going to mistake you for a non-paying timewaster and open an Unpaid Item Dispute against you.