@lm-entertainmentwrote:you must be one of the lucky ones digi - because i had an ebay rep contact me via phone about opting in and they said the "guaranteed delivery" search option is only available to a small amount of buyers at this point in time and is being rolled out gradually.
They might still be testing where buyers look for refinements (I have them on this account, but I looked for it on my selling account which is older, and it's not there).
If anyone is interested, there's two places the refinement can be used, this one shows at the top of search results (just to note - it's switched off, and turns blue if you click it to switch on) :
And this at the side, which is under the item specific refinements, but before other refinements (like new or used, show only items with special deals, free post, free returns etc) :
As I was looking for long sleeve t shirts today, I checked what the stats were like on those - over 8 million results for just a general keyword search on 't shirt', down to a bit over 421 thousand when refined to 3 day guaranteed delivery. Those numbers don't really paint the best picture, though, especially for clothing, as every variation and possible combo in a single listing counts (eg one seller with only 10 listings but with 5 sizes and 5 colours in each listing will contribute 250 towards that listing / item count), so it's not the greatest representation of total number of sellers participating, nor truly how many individual listings are included.
Just out of curisoity, I refined the 't shirt' keyword search to 1 day guaranteed delivery, and got a total count of 761, but there were only 2 different sellers offering this, one located in Vic, and one located in NSW (I'm in SA), and both using express post. (Edited to add, they are charging less than the average cost for express, too, so if they have to compensate a buyer, the buyer will be refunded $4-$7, but they could be compensated up to $11 by Aus Post.... o.o )
Express post itself (at least via Aus Post) is only within a specifically designated network, though I presume hope the postage rate tables allow for this to be accounted for when opting in to guaranteed delivery, and at least you can get compensation from Aus Post if they fail to deliver next day, which is basically the only time I also compensate for a later delivery (i.e. if an express package doesn't arrive when it's supposed to, I refund the buyer's postage cost voluntarily, because it effectively cost me nothing and I don't see why it should cost the buyer, but none of my items are suitable for express by default and I won't guarantee delivery by specific dates when the buyer's postcode is within the network, regardless, as there will always be anomalies).
I prefer guidelines over guarantees when it comes to things I can't control, and have got into the habit of never saying "yes" to questions even if it sounds reasonable (eg buyer messages and asks if the package will arrive by some date that's 1-2 weeks away, I always respond by saying it's more than likely, but can't be guaranteed. On the handmade site, buyers can open INAD cases if the seller guarantees a delivery date and it doesn't arrive by then, so I'm mindful to never do it, I know it's lost me some sales at times, but I would rather miss the sale than risk problems with a highly time-sensitive purchase).
