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.

[zanadoo_56]

Hmmm.

If eBay REALLY wants to improve the delivery system I'd suggest the survey to sellers is ditched and eBay puts the squeeze on Aust Post instead.  That's where the real problem lies.

My version:

ebay are looking at trialling a "guaranteed arrival" program - where Aust Post 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 Aust Post has to give them some financial compensation.

And good luck to eBay with that.....

I'm a buyer, never a seller, but I don't think it is right for eBay to make sellers responsible for Aust Post's failings.  Sorry eBay bt if you shoot the sellers in the foot you drive away the buyers as well.  Wake up and take a reality check!

[heihachi_73]

The real problem lies squarely with Australia Post. In a way, eBay's estimates actually are good estimates, if we actually had a world class postal service. Sell off the loss-making, government-owned Australian Postal Corporation and allow competition in the mail industry just like what is done with parcels. Without competition, we may as well be a communist country building Trabants and Ladas.

[character_parties_aus]

The idea of guaranteed delivery is great.  People will shop with sellers as they have a guarantee of when they will get their goods and people will buy more and people will sell more and ebay will make more. The rather huge problem is that at a realistic price there are no delivery companies in Australia that offer a guaranteed delivery service with the exception of Express Post which is not available for large items and generally pretty expensive when it comes to facotring into say free post for example. The domestic carriers in the USA like Fexex UPS and DHL all offer next day services at decent prices to everywhere buy Hawaii and Alaska.  I get a better rate than most on Express Post here as I am on dead weight shipping contract with AP and not volumetric and its still pricey.  Essentiually the whole idea is something of an oxymoron.  So a better option would be for listings to have free guaranteed delivery using a service like Express Post and they buyer pays a premium for piece of mind or they can slum it and pay less. Personally I think there is more than one way to skin this cat.  Bear in mind Amazon is coming and they basically use every company everywhere for their freight and will have Prime etc. EBay has to do something.  Personally I will be exploring Amazon in depth.  

[rocket2retro]

I live 100km from a major city. There is no Australia Post Express Post guarantee for me (or anyone living outside of a capital city). It is often no more expedient than regular post.

[springyzone]

What I am wondering is how much the ebay executives are worried by Amazon.

I am on a couple of other messageboards and Americans rave about Amazon, then I was reading in the newspaper today that in some parts of USA, Amazon guarantees delivery within one hour.

I can't see that translating so well here even in our capital cities. Apparently they are looking for warehouse areas the size of about 5 MCG's so I doubt that could be feasible except in a suburban area. All the same, they would not be able to courier a small parcel across Melb metro area in that time. In peak hours I sometimes can't even get from here to 8 km away in under an hour and I am 35 km out of town.

So I predict amazon won't start up here with such unrealistic delivery times but I expect they will still aim for 'quick'. It's going to put the pressure on a lot of online sales sites to have reasonably quick delivery. Maybe that is what ebay is aiming at. At present, they have a lot of sellers with well over a week's postage/handling time.

Now I suspect ebay has brought that about themselves, by their pressure in estimating due delivery dates & sellers try to protect themselves by extending the time.

If I were in ebay, I'd be saying that has to stop and what i would be changing it to would be a system where sellers can guarantee tracked postage within 24/48 hours. business hours. Not sure how they would promote it. On its way to you fast? The actual delivery date should not be the guarantee, the quick postage should.

[porcelain_dolls_by_me]

Just another reason why we have decided to develop our own web site with full e-commerce shopping basket facilities.

No doubt our sales will take a hit (initially at least), but it will eventually mean that we are no longer tied to EBay and their increasingly dictatorial policies which are heavilly weighted against the seller.

[go-tazz]

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@springyzone wrote:

All the same, they would not be able to courier a small parcel across Melb metro area in that time. In peak hours I sometimes can't even get from here to 8 km away in under an hour and I am 35 km out of town.

It could maybe work in cities if they could use the local pushbike and motorbike couriers but once a seller is

outside the city limits it becomes cost prohibitive and a gamble on which sorting centre it has to go through.

If I were in ebay, I'd be saying that has to stop and what i would be changing it to would be a system where sellers can guarantee tracked postage within 24/48 hours. business hours. Not sure how they would promote it. On its way to you fast? The actual delivery date should not be the guarantee, the quick postage should.

That wont work as Australia Post is involved and the cost for tracking all items would be too high for a

high percentage of sellers and buyers wouldn't pay for it.

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Personally if this happened I would maybe try one of the other online sites to sell,(but none so far have

allowed me to sell items at a price equal to eBay).

Most sites I have had items at lower prices than eBay but the ones on here sold and most of the ones on

the other sites have sat there till I ended them,(I had some success on one site but it just came to a halt

when I worked out that eBay was a far better option).

If none of that works I'll just give them to the Op shops,(although our community based one is now getting so

fussy that if it's not worth more than $5 they don't wan't it).

Which seems to be back firing on them as people are now donating all their items to to the other OP shops.

[springyzone]

I wouldn't think all sellers would opt into the new ebay system. My understanding is it is optional-at least for now.

As you say, those who sell smaller, cheaper items won't want to be paying for tracking.

But for those who sell bigger or more expensive items with tracking, it would work better if all they had to do was guarantee postage & uploaded tracking details within a time frame & not delivery.