eBay

lisashouseoftreasures · ‎08-04-2017

I am planning to go on vacation for 7 days in September. I have a Premium Store and plan to use the vacation settings while I'm away. I have been advised to hide all my listings during my vacation so buyers cannot purchase while I'm away; however, I also understand that it can take several days for the listings to be hidden. Should I also change my handling time to 10 days? (there isn't a 7 day option).

I'm concerned about losing my TRS Plus status though. Although I know I will get it back in time, I don't know how that will affect my seller performance. I have great feedback score which may help.

I will have my computer with me and can always message any buyers who do come through to let them know that I am on vacation and will ship their item immediately upon return.

Looking for advice on what the best option is here.

I live on Central East Coast of Florida and am only going to Orlando on vacation which is about 45 minutes to 1 hour away from where I llve , but i would hate to have to drive back and forth to take care of shipping out items if they sell! Right! LOL

Thanks so much!

duchess-at-speakeasy · ‎08-04-2017

You can hide the listings and therefore not make any sales, which will not affect TRS status unless you need sales to maintain 100 sales within 12 months. Remember, the September 20 evaluation covers sales up to August 31. You'll probably make enough sales during 3 weeks in September to stay on track for the October evaluation so missing a few days is not a big deal.

If you wish, start vacation mode a couple of days before you leave town, then reactivate the listings a day or so before you get home. Listings will be visible almost immediately and certainly within 24 hours.

If you employ vacation mode but leave the listings available for purchase, be sure to extend your handling time. Any resulting sales will not count toward TRS+ status, which requires a 1-day handling time. You'll just avoid "late shipment" notices and unhappy customers. Potential customers will see your return date and the extended handling time -- no need for messages.

Personally, I would just hide the listings and enjoy your vacation. Leave the computer home.

~~C~~

My Glass Duchess
Quoting Mom: In polite society, "hey" is for horses.

partial*eclipse · ‎08-04-2017

@lisashouseoftreasures wrote:
... I also understand that it can take several days for the listings to be hidden. Should I also change my handling time ..

There's a Help page which says that, but it isn't true.. There's a delay of a couple hours at most, when starting or ending the vacation settings.

myboardid · ‎08-04-2017

Definitely hide the listings. Buyers don't even notice the handling times and will neg you in a heartbeat if you ship "late", even if you said so with your handling time. I hide mine if I'm even just going to be unavailable for one day.

----------------------------
Successful and experienced seller since 1997, over 70,000 feedback, boardie since the boards were begun.

collectors_world_inc · ‎08-04-2017

Hide your items?!?!, to me that is ludicrise, I would rather have a sale while I'm on vacation, nothing better than hearing that cash register ring while on vacation, just set your handeling time, remeber weekends and holidays don't count as business days so 7 days is more like 5. Just remember to reset your handeling time when you get back, enjoy your vacation and get ready to ship out those sales ASAP when you return.

richard1rst · ‎08-04-2017

My experiences conflicts with several of the above statements.

First, if you put your store on vacation it does not “hide” the listing. I have had times when I clicked on a listing in order to buy it and although the listing came up there was a bright colored announcement from eBay across the top of the page:

“This seller is on vacation until (date) and any purchases made will not ship until that date”

In other words, the listing is NOT hidden, but you are clearly made aware that there will be a delay.

That also removes the need to change the handling time since, in effect, eBay is automatically doing it for you. And it removes the problem of buyers not seeing the changed handling time.

I have never tried to purchase from a store that was on vacation, but presumably you can which addresses the opinion of collectors_world_inc.

"Laissez-faire capitalism (AKA The Great Material Continuum) is the only social system based on the recognition of individual rights and, therefore, the only system that bans force from social relationships." ~ Ayn Rand

southern*sweet*tea · ‎08-04-2017

@richard1rst wrote:
My experiences conflicts with several of the above statements.

First, if you put your store on vacation it does not “hide” the listing. I have had times when I clicked on a listing in order to buy it and although the listing came up there was a bright colored announcement from eBay across the top of the page:

“This seller is on vacation until (date) and any purchases made will not ship until that date”

In other words, the listing is NOT hidden, but you are clearly made aware that there will be a delay.

That also removes the need to change the handling time since, in effect, eBay is automatically doing it for you. And it removes the problem of buyers not seeing the changed handling time.

I have never tried to purchase from a store that was on vacation, but presumably you can which addresses the opinion of collectors_world_inc.

Putting a store on vacation does NOT hide listings. The listing is not hidden UNLESS the seller specifically checks the box that says to hide the listings. If a seller does this, you will see no items available for sale.

The easier you are to offend the easier you are to control.

We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did. - Thomas Sowell

richard1rst · ‎08-04-2017

@southern*sweet*tea wrote:
Putting a store on vacation does NOT hide listings. The listing is not hidden UNLESS the seller specifically checks the box that says to hide the listings. If a seller does this, you will see no items available for sale.

Well, then clearly the ones I saw did not check the box. Was not aware of that option, but that now gives the OP another option to consider.

"Laissez-faire capitalism (AKA The Great Material Continuum) is the only social system based on the recognition of individual rights and, therefore, the only system that bans force from social relationships." ~ Ayn Rand

partial*eclipse · ‎08-04-2017

@richard1rst wrote:
the listing is NOT hidden, but you are clearly made aware that there will be a delay.
That also removes the need to change the handling time since, in effect, eBay is automatically doing it for you....

@richard1rstThe option to Hide the listings while you're on vacation is a separate, optional checkbox at the bottom of the vacation settings page.

However, an even more important correction is this:

ebay does NOT extend the handling time automatically for you.

Many sellers misinterpret the basic vacation setting. It does NOT exempt you from the handling time that you set up in the listing. There is NO automatically extension of your handling time. Every day on these boards there are posts from sellers who found this out the hard way.

zzydny · ‎08-04-2017

Even if you put your store on vacation and hide your listings, you can still receive Best Price Offers Happened to me a few weeks ago because they guy had my item saved on his watch list. Have been wondering since then if someone could have bought a watch listed item but I don't know.

partial*eclipse · ‎08-04-2017

@zzydny wrote:
... wondering since then if someone could have bought a watch listed item but I don't know.

Nope. There used to be a loophole when a hidden listing was on a Watch list, but it got closed. Here's what I see at the top of one of the items on my own Watch list. I wish the listing had the "Best offer" optoin, so I could test it!

zzydny · ‎08-04-2017

@partial*eclipse wrote:
@zzydny wrote:
... wondering since then if someone could have bought a watch listed item but I don't know.

Nope. There used to be a loophole when a hidden listing was on a Watch list, but it got closed. Here's what I see at the top of one of the items on my own Watch list. I wish the listing had the "Best offer" optoin, so I could test it!

Glad to know that! Thanks. Wonder how long ago they closed that loophole.....

I got my Best Price Offer while store was on vacation three weeks ago. Asked the question in a thread: http://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Why-did-I-receive-a-Best-Price-offer-while-using-Vacation/qaq-p...