Simply-the-best-for-you Volunteer Community Mentor
I ALWAYS change my handling time when doing Time Away, even before it was Time Away & was just for store owners. Snowstorm here too, so I changed to 5 day handling & then did Time Away.
Personally, I leave my items available to be purchased b/c I have always done that with no problem. If I'm on an actual real vacation (as opposed to a snowstorm event), I just message my buyers while I'm travelling to be sure they saw that there would be a delay. Never had an issue. That said, I don't sell 50 items a day, so it's ez for me to send a couple of messages.
ETA: It is my understanding that they never fixed it & you still need to change your handling time, but honestly I haven't tested it lately. I just pre-emptively do it cuz hey, it takes 2 minutes. Better safe than sorry. I don't want a bunch of late shipping dings.
velvet@ebay Please note that there is a difference between Estimated Delivery Dates (those were always changed) & handling time for the purpose of late shipping calculations. We know that Estimated Delivery Dates are changed, but at least in the past, handling time for the purpose of shipping time calculations was NOT changed.
It would be nice to know if this was fixed & we don't have to do it anymore. Always seemed like it should intuitively work that way, but it never did in the past.
ETA: I realize you may know that, just wanted to be clear, as this is an important distinction!
@simply-the-best-for-you wrote:
velvet@ebay Please note that there is a difference between Estimated Delivery Dates (those were always changed) & handling time for the purpose of late shipping calculations. We know that Estimated Delivery Dates are changed, but at least in the past, handling time for the purpose of shipping time calculations was NOT changed.
It would be nice to know if this was fixed & we don't have to do it anymore. Always seemed like it should intuitively work that way, but it never did in the past.
ETA: I realize you may know that, just wanted to be clear, as this is an important distinction!
Hi @simply-the-best-for-you and @coffeebean832! This is a great question and I'd be happy to clarify. We take the handling into account automatically. So as the Time Away help page says, no manual changes need to be made. As long as you're going to maintain your typical handling timeframe, then you simply enter the dates you will be gone and we'll update the estimated delivery dates for you accordingly.
We know there were issues with the past iteration of this feature, so we worked to streamline it and make it as easy as possible. I hope that helps!
velvet@ebay wrote:
@simply-the-best-for-you wrote:velvet@ebay Please note that there is a difference between Estimated Delivery Dates (those were always changed) & handling time for the purpose of late shipping calculations. We know that Estimated Delivery Dates are changed, but at least in the past, handling time for the purpose of shipping time calculations was NOT changed.
It would be nice to know if this was fixed & we don't have to do it anymore. Always seemed like it should intuitively work that way, but it never did in the past.
ETA: I realize you may know that, just wanted to be clear, as this is an important distinction!
Hi @simply-the-best-for-you and @coffeebean832! This is a great question and I'd be happy to clarify. We take the handling into account automatically. So as the Time Away help page says, no manual changes need to be made. As long as you're going to maintain your typical handling timeframe, then you simply enter the dates you will be gone and we'll update the estimated delivery dates for you accordingly.
We know there were issues with the past iteration of this feature, so we worked to streamline it and make it as easy as possible. I hope that helps!
Hi velvet@ebay
I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be a pain, but your answer is confusing. I've bolded the part in question.
First you say as the page says. I did it yesterday, the page doesn't say anything about handling time. I just checked again & I still don't see anything & I even clicked into the big long informational article & still no reference to handling time. So I'm not sure where you're seeing this?
More importantly, you say "no manual changes need to be made" ok, great. But then followed by " As long as you're going to maintain your typical handling time" & that's confusing b/c no, of course you're not, since you're on Time Away. Which brings us back to what we're asking. During the Time Away, obviously (for most us) our handling time will be substantially elongated. I normally have 2 day handling, but if I'm away for 7 days, then I'll have 8 day handling. So, do we need to change the Handling Time to 8 days? The way we always have?
I'm sorry, I don't mean to be a pest, but your wording makes it so that the question really isn't answered IMO. Hoping you can please clarify? Thank you!
Would it be so hard for eBay to adjust this page and add in a few words about handling times to settle this once and for all velvet@ebay? This question keeps coming up because the policy page is not clear. Suggested change in blue font was added by me:
The "exceptions noted above" part refers to higher up on the page where it says:
Well that's a good idea IF it is indeed the case, which velvet@ebay has not confirmed & quite frankly, I don't think is the case. I don't think she understood the difference & maybe she's checking on it, but we have yet to get clarification. At least I wasn't the only one wholly confused by the conflicting answer 😀
@wastingtime101 wrote:She confirmed it in the thread that's linked above in post 14 @simply-the-best-for-you.
No she didn't. Did you read my post 21 & all the other after that also indicating that they are just as confused as before? Go read my post 21. Her statement was contradictory, so we're still at square 1. Unless you know something the rest of us don't 🙂
Sorry, I missed that you said the "thread" in post 14 & thought you just said post 14. I'll have a look, but I am going by her answer in THIS thread, as I was not aware of any other thread & the answer is this thread is highly confusing to many people for the reasons I identified in post 21.
So, I am not going to assume anything. I'm waiting for clarification here in this thread b/c that's where the confusing statement is.
Hello all! I apologize for any confusion. The handling time will adjust to your expected return date. When I said as long as you're going to maintain your typical handling timeframe, I meant that upon your return you will still be shipping within whatever you have selected as your handling time. I will pass on @wastingtime101's suggestion if that will help to make things more clear in the help page.
At this point though, should you decide to use the option that leaves your items up for sale, you only need to provide the dates of your absence and the rest will be taken care of for you. I hope this helps to better clarify things once and for all and as I noted in the other thread that was included in post 14, if you see things working differently, please get it reported.
