How to manage Time Away

You will need Time Away* during holidays or breaks, if you don’t have any hired help, or if you can't handle orders for some reason. The Time Away settings are available to all sellers.

What is Time Away

With Time Away, you can hide and resume your listings almost in real time, reducing to a minimum any delays that may negatively impact your business.

While you're on time away, you still need to uphold commitments to your buyers, such as fulfilling orders sold before your time away start date and responding to any open buyer requests related to items sold before your time away start date. eBay fees (such as listing-related fees or any subscription fees you have) will continue to apply.

Schedule Time Away

You can set up Time Away in advance. In this case it will be activated at the date you specify.

1. Go to My eBay > Account settings > Time Away settings.

2. Select Schedule Time Away.

3. Select Allow item sales or Pause item sales while on Time Away.

4. Set a Start date and an End date for your Time Away.

5. Select Apply.

When scheduling your time away, keep the following in mind:

• Your Time Away will begin at 12:01am on your scheduled start date and finish at 11:59pm on your scheduled end date
• If you allow item sales, your time away can last up to 15 days
• If you pause item sales, your time away can last up to 30 days
• You should schedule your Time Away to start a day or two before your time off to accommodate any last day orders and end it a day later than your return date to process any pending orders

Allow item sales

When you allow item sales to continue while you're away, keep the following in mind:

• Your listings will still be visible, and buyers can still purchase your items
• However, buyers will see a message at the top of your listings letting them know that you are on Time Away
• The estimated delivery date will also be automatically updated in the Shipping and Delivery section of your listings, so you don't need to make any manual changes

Pause item sales

When you pause item sales, keep the following in mind:

• Fixed price listings will be hidden from search results, and buyers won't be able to purchase your items
• If a buyer previously added one of your items to their Watchlist or cart and tries to buy it while you're away, they won't be able to complete the purchase. They'll see a message stating that you're not processing orders until the Time Away end date
• It can take 1–2 hours for your listings to become hidden or reappear
• After Time Away ends, listings will reappear automatically; you do not need to edit them

Auction listings: When you pause item sales, buyers will still be able to see and buy your auction-style listings but they'll see a message at the top of the listing informing them that you're on time away.

How to end Time Away early

1. Go to My eBay > Account settings > Time Away settings.

2. Select Cancel Time Away or set the End date to an earlier date.

3. Select Apply.

Set an automatic response

You can set up an automatic response for buyers who contact you through eBay Messages during your Time Away.

Here's how:

1. Go to My eBay > Account settings > Time Away settings.

2. Select Automatic response.

3. Select Message when on Time Away.

4. Set a Start date and an End date for your message. Type your message in the Automatic response box.

5. Select Apply.