New Feature: Time Away

[community_team]

We're excited to announce a new feature available to all sellers that replaces the Vacation Settings currently available to store subscribers.

You can read more about this change here, and leave any questions below so our experts can review.

[mam98031]

---

@otow_18 wrote:

Wondering why even "keep your listings visible to sellers when you’re away" at all? What do they need to see?

---

Some seller what to continue to sell if buyers what to buy while the seller is away.  Then the seller ships when they return.  For those that are only going to be away for a couple of days this is a really nice option.

[danbu-8063]

Maybe it was meant to be to buyers, not to sellers?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

brian_burke@ebay 

Hello....With Time Away will it be like an on/off switch when the meter ends or will there be a bit of lag time before everything turns back on? Guess same question for the the off setting?

-Lotz

[brian_burke@ebay]

---

@otow_18 wrote:

Wondering why even "keep your listings visible to sellers when you’re away" at all? What do they need to see?

---

@otow_18 Thank you for highlighting this! It was meant to be "buyers" and we are in the process of updating it. 

Brian

[tsme35]

Just so I read that right, "time away" adjusts the shipping time so I won't be hit with late shipment and not have to hide my listings if like "MAM" said, take a vacation

[dsdeals8]

This is an awesome feature. It will really make things less stressful if I ever get to go on a vacation again.

[hardrockpinstore]

brain_burke@ebay

Hi Brian,

You had responded that if a Seller needs to have a longer than 30 day Time Away setting, the Seller could just update there Away setting before the 30 days runs out.

Brian - "If you have access to the internet while you are away you can update the Time Away during your vacation. I understand this doesn't allow you to completely "set it and forget it" but hopefully you can extend the time away before it times out at 30 day"

1.)  How would this work for Visible listings with only a 15 day maximum setting ?

If an item sells within the 1st 15 days with Time Away turned on to the maximum of 15 days - then there will be a delivery date of that item based on the 1st 15 day setting. And corresponding Negative feedback will not be removed if delivery is outside of this time frame.

2.)  Then a Seller adds, for example, another 15 days before they return.  The item which sold in the 1st 15 days still has to be delivered based on the 1st 15 days setting, yes ?

Plus, from the Questions section:

"With Time Away you have two settings: you can hide fixed price listings from search for 1 to 30 days or keep listings visible, but with a notice that you're away for 1 to 15 days."

3.)  A seller can only set a Maximum time on Time Away for 15 days on visible listings (with Vacation settings you could have Visible listings for 30 days, or more, I believe) ?

4.) "will be notified that you are temporarily away" - will Buyers actually receive an email and also a eBay Message with the Time Away delivery estimate ?

Thank you

[Anonymous]

@lotzofuniquegoodies  It might take a maximum of 1-2 hours for the changes to reflect both at the start and the end of your time away. 

Thanks,

Vikram

[Anonymous]

@tsme35 Time away will update your handling due/dispatch time for any transactions during your time away. It will also update the estimated delivery date for buyers to set the right delivery expectations. If you ship by your updated dispatch time, you will not be hit with late shipment.

Thanks,

Vikram

[Anonymous]

@hardrockpinstore Thank you for your questions. 

1.)  How would this work for Visible listings with only a 15 day maximum setting ?

2.)  Then a Seller adds, for example, another 15 days before they return.  The item which sold in the 1st 15 days still has to be delivered based on the 1st 15 days setting, yes ?

3.)  A seller can only set a Maximum time on Time Away for 15 days on visible listings (with Vacation settings you could have Visible listings for 30 days, or more, I believe) ?

Yes, You are correct. If you need to take time away from selling for a longer duration, the option to hide your listings may work better. 

4.) "will be notified that you are temporarily away" - will Buyers actually receive an email and also a eBay Message with the Time Away delivery estimate ?

Buyers will be notified by displaying a Time Away message and updated delivery estimate on your listings and will not be receiving any email or eBay message.

Thanks,

Vikram

[b86fiero]

When returning from vacation and turning your store / listings back on, how long before all of your listings are visible to buyers again?

Will it still take up to 48 hours for all listings to be integrated and visible in search?

[brian_burke@ebay]

---

@b86fiero wrote:

When returning from vacation and turning your store / listings back on, how long before all of your listings are visible to buyers again?

Will it still take up to 48 hours for all listings to be integrated and visible in search?

---

@b86fiero  Vikram stated "It might take a maximum of 1-2 hours for the changes to reflect both at the start and the end of your time away. "

Thanks

Brian

[hardrockpinstore]

brain_burke@ebay

Thank you Brian for your quick response. 

I would make the suggestion, to whomever decided 15 days was the magic number, to allow Sellers to have a longer duration than 15 days for visible listings.

I believe the old Vacation store settings allowed a longer duration than 15 days.

To me, this new Time Away is taking away this option from Sellers.  Why not let Sellers make this choice.

[go-bad-chicken]

For sellers who are enrolled in eBay's new Managed Payments and who then use this new time away feature; will sellers still receive their payouts normally for the items that they sold while this new feature is activated, or will eBay be delaying the payouts to sellers in Managed Payments for the items sold when this new feature is utilized and turned on by the seller?

I ask because there is not mention within the Fall Seller Update as to how and when sellers will be paid within Managed Payments while they are away.

[mam98031]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

@lotzofuniquegoodies  It might take a maximum of 1-2 hours for the changes to reflect both at the start and the end of your time away. 

Thanks,

Vikram

---

Wow, that is actually really fast.  Considering in the current Vaca program if we decide to hide our listings it can take 24 hours or more for that to happen, depending on how many listings are involved.  And then when we unhide them because we are back it takes about the same amount of time for them to all get reindexed.

So this is certainly welcomed news.  Does this hold true for when we hide listings too?