survey regarding new "Guaranteed Arrival" time program

[lm-entertainment]

hi everyone. i'm not sure how many sellers received an offer to participate in a seller survey regarding shipping recently - but i thought i'd take a look at it.

was shocked initially to see that ebay are looking at trialling a "guaranteed arrival" program - where sellers state the timeframe that items will be delivered in to the buyer.

if these conditions are not met, the buyer is entitled to return the item for free with a full refund or the seller has to give them some financial compensation.

i soon realised i shouldn't have been surprised that ebay is again making the marketplace one that suits buyers and not sellers.

i thought "well, there won't be any harm in not participating in the program" - but it also says that sellers who do participate will get enhanced visual treatment in search, item detail and all other buying pages - meaning those who don't participate will be penalised. 

i've attached screenshots of the two pages of text in the survey regarding this program if anyone wants to have a look. have no doubt it'll be implemented soon.

[go-tazz]

They've even made a new BS line to to add to their free shipping BS line,

Guaranteed Delivery is the second most important criterion for online shoppers (right after free

shipping).

There was never any guaranteed delivery,(except for certain options) but now it's the second most important

criteria,

The BS keeps coming to justify their "spiel".

[lemony_gem_toys]

Oh we Guarantee Delivery.  Just not when!  And there is no such thing as Free Shipping.  Its factored in the price.

[gec2002]

And of coarse those of us using letter post both options (A + B) mean that we would have to use Registered post for tracking, otherwise how do they tell when its posted.  Another cost to letter post sellers and another nice little bit of extra fees for eBay.

[padi*0409]

Add to that gec that Registered post is slower than both normal and priority post and you have yet another headache.

I recently had a letter posted from Perth to Bridgetown (around 260k's) and it took nearly 2 weeks to arrive...................

Previously I had a letter go in the opposite direction, registered + priority and that took nearly 10 days, so those times are not unusual at all.

[jfmgray]

Good grief - another idea that will severly impact sellers of low cost items whose business model is premised on shipping without tracking.  I would have to double my shipping price to pay for a tracked servise (triple for overseas).  But then again so will my competitors.  How anyone can guarantee Australia Post's delivery times has me tossed.

[springyzone]

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@rocket2retro wrote:

The majority of sellers will have extended their handling time.

From the buyer's perspective, when deciding to buy something on eBay, the delivery times now appear a lot slower than they were in the past for this very reason.

Personally I would prefer that eBay require sellers to post an item within a certain timeframe (rather than asking sellers to guarantee something that is totally out off their hands).

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I think you are exactly right. It would make a lot more sense to ask sellers to opt into a system where all they had to do was guarantee an item was sent by registered post within a certain time frame. That would be in the seller's control.

And I think it would be a winner with buyers too. The ads would only need to say something along the lines of guaranteed postage and on its way to you within 48 hours.

I buy occasionally from ebay and have found postage times aren't generally an issue, most Australian purchases arrive fairly quickly so most sellers are already sending things off promptly.

[davewil1964]

If I'm buying online, delivery time (within a couple of weeks) is the least of my concerns.

If I want something time-sensitive, I go to a real shop.

I would like to know who eBay surveyed to get their figures about importance. I regularly respond to surveys (although I haven't been sent this one - I suspect they already know my feelings) and I don't recall one about this from a buying perspective.

[porcelain_dolls_by_me]

Why should the onus be on the seller to guarantee a delivery time performance of the external carrier, typically Australia Post?

One only has to read the AusPost Facedbook page to see they cannot even meet their own "guaranteed next day delivery" on Express Post items.

[phorum_junkie*]

The biggest problem I think is that ebay just do not understand Australia. In the UK (and quite possibly the US) delivery times are indeed very quick (by comparison) and there are alternatives to using Royal mail which are even quicker. Aus Post themselves quote estimated delivery times which are very hit and miss and ebay base their delivery expectations on those times as if they were guaranteed. They don't seem to realise the different logistics of having a population that is concentrated in relatively few coastal areas with the rest of the population being spread out over vast distances.

[sparrow2207]

And ebay don't understand what a business day is they think every day including public holidays and weekends is a business day for AP. 7 business days is really 9-10 days in the real world.