Question About Time Away and Handling Time Combination

[virginia-internet-sales]

Hi,

I need to go away soon to help take care of an ailing parent. I had some questions about eBay's Time Away mode for when people will be away from their business location. 

I know it's maximum 30 days if your listings are hidden and you can't make sales or maximum of 15 days if you set it up to keep your listings visible and allow sales to continue happening.  

Was wondering, if I wanted maybe a little more time than the 15 days but wanted to keep listings up and allow sales, can I just increase the handling time (now 1-day) on my listings right before starting Away Time? If I increased it to 3-day handling time, then would that essentially give me 18 days without penalty? Can anyone who's actually done this speak to whether it was a problem in any way?

Not trying to "game the system" but it's a family emergency and I'm struggling as it is. I can only imagine how all my listings just DISAPPEARING for 2+ weeks would negatively affect my income.

It's not like I'd be expecting many sales with the long wait potential customers would have to endure, but at least I'd collect a fair number of watchers that I could shoot offers out to when getting back to help QUICKLY pick things back up again.

Thanks in advance.

[mam98031]

I am sincerely sorry to hear about your Parent.  I have deep hopes that it will all turn out well for them.

I don't think you want to play this game.  While I understand the need for sales / money to pay bills, etc.  But you will put yourself at great risk for negative feedback from buyers that don't notice the extended handling time and maybe even defects if you don't ship on time which will hurt the health of your selling account.

I would not recommend doing this.  When you know you are heading home in a couple days, just life the Vaca hold.  But make sure your handling time is set to the days you will need upon your return to get things shipped out.

Keep in mind that listings with 5+ days handling get dropped down in the search returns.  The longer your handling the lower your listings go.