So I have never been a huge MSer. But over the past few months, I have done a fair bit of it, and as a consequence, I have been spending more time at my local neighborhood post office, buying money orders.
Buying money orders at the post office
I’ve been to a few different post offices depending on where my travels have taken me, and have had different experiences depending on where I’ve been. Before today, I had never been refused money orders, though I certainly had been met with a healthy serving of skepticism at certain locations.
Today, they lied to my face
So today I went back to a post office that I had previously bought money orders at last week. I wait in a longish line and get up to the same cashier i bought MOs from last week. I tell her i want 6 MOs. i had brought the form with me to try to be helpful. This was a mistake as she was like “what is this?” (Mental response in my head: “This is YOUR form from YOUR website”)
She asks if i’m paying with “those gift cards” again and wants to see my cards. She goes into the back for like 10 minutes, and then she drops the whammy on me and says (no joke, and without looking for them) “I don’t have any money orders”.
I can tell she’s lying but i don’t know what good it does to call her out on it – at that point, I was still hoping to not burn the place as a potential spot.
Then, pure comedy gold ensues
But then, in an outburst of comedic gold, the cashier next to her says “You don’t have any money orders? did you tell the manager? you’re supposed to tell her in advance”. Then she says “oh I have some money orders – I can take care of you”. The whole time the 1st cashier is shooting her death looks like “ix-nay on the oney orders-may!”
So i have to wait for the 2nd cashier to finish which takes awhile, then I tell her i want 6 money orders for $988.50. Then she starts asking me questions about it, and I answer truthfully and in normal conversation, but eventually she says she doesn’t want to do it. We talk for a bit and eventually she says the manager will talk to me. I wait again, and then talk to the manager, and she said that they sold it to me last time but they got in trouble and says that “they” told her that i should go down to the main branch blah blah blah fraud.
Was it really a lie?
Obviously I can’t say 100% that she was lying, but a) it certainly seems suspicious that she would suddenly realize that she has no money orders after returning from the back room (without looking back at her station, which is where the MOs are kept). My suspicion is that the manager told her to say that to get me to go away, not realizing that the other cashier would (helpfully!) pipe up.
I’m sure it would have been cathartic to call them out on their lie, but I just went home.
Ever had a post office (or other) worker straight up lie to your face?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
My local PO used to process money orders with Simon but since they changed something in their system. This was about 3 months ago. What type of cards have had luck with?
Thanks!
I’ve had them lie about rates. I showed the correct rate in their official mail manual and they said they didn’t care.
Well the Post Office is VERY well known for giving a crap about the customer 🙂
You’ve been going to the wrong Post Office.
I carried mail for thirty one years. We worked our hearts out for our customers. Thirteen hour days during the Christmas holiday period and working after dark. We work hard for you – I hope you appreciate the job we do. We are not subsidized one dime and deliver your mail for free. Love and than your Postal Workers – you will miss us when we are gone!!
No ability to answer your question at the end there, but having done numerous such things in the distant past, I would put this option down in the “not worth the FWF*” anymore.
*f&%$ with factor
Basically, the whole money order is getting various merchants (and the USPS) with warnings of scams and the like, so I say your choice to go home was the best plan. I am guessing you will see fewer times going forward when this will work. That was my experience toward the end of my tenure with a similar thing involving travelers cheques.
I missed a few words in there – sorry, I meant:
Basically, the whole money order thing is getting various merchants (and the USPS) anxious and nervous with warnings of scams and the like, so I say your choice to go home was the best plan.
Right – that was my thinking too
Why did u request 988.50? And 6 of them sounds like a scam to me
Why are you surprised about this? at USPS a stock of checks is issued to an employee and it’s “theirs” that they mentally consider themselves guardians of. This is unlike WM where it’s just printed on the spot.
One USPS employee I just know to avoid, another is fantastic. I always do the USPS surveys by the way and laud the good ones.
I have had similar surprises at multiple retail outlets. Once at WM, an eagle-eyed CSR reached over to my PINpad and hit cancel mid-swipe. At a certain drugstore, and office supply stores, managers have similarly been peeved and made up new rules on the spot. I happened to hit the manager as my cashier during a recent OM promotion, and surprise variable VGC are cash-only according to him.
You are right those money orders belong to that clerk. They are 100% responsible for every single one of them, and have to account for each one of them often during an audit of their cash/stamp drawer. It also looks very much like a scam, and the sale might very well not happen if there is reason to believe it is a possible scam. Plus the clerk very well could have been out of money orders. That happens too, and you have to have the Mgr issue more. It’s not instantaneous, and you certainly can’t just borrow some from the clerk next to you. The customer at the head of this thread has absolutely no way to know if the clerk was lying, in fact, it sounds very much like the clerk was telling the truth.
This is why I try to avoid doing too much $$$ at once. I know it’s a hassle but I have gotten shot down for even doing $2k.
People have been doing the money order thing for years and I what you are doing is legal but I can see why the Post Office would not like it. In my professional life I see people doing weird things with money orders regularly (hiding assets, laundering etc…).
The gift cards are the real weak link, The fact that stores still $100 or $200 gift cards via credit card shows how much of an absolute cash cow they are. I am still trying to get more info out of my source but my estimate is that about 3% of these sales end up being charge backs due to people using stolen cards. Irony in going after MSers is that the $100+ gift cards are only possible since people like us buy a huge numbers of gift cards legitimately. If not for us, fraudsters would make up an unacceptably high % of high denomination gift card purchaser. Who would pay a 3% fee for a gift card besides criminals and MSers. Stupid people and the unbanked but they are relatively small percentage of the people buying these high value gift cards.
If you would have asked for one instead of 6 with 12 swipes you probably would have been fine.
Dan, the first rule of MS is not to push. The second you get the slightest resistance, you politely say thank you and walk away. By pushing and getting the manager involved all you did was make it more difficult for all of us. Next time, just stop.
Yup. This is called “salting the earth” of your MS neighborhood. And then the click-bait headline to draw attention to it. So much cringe.
For the record, I didn’t go in there “guns blazing” yelling at everyone. I didn’t demand to talk to the manager, the 2nd cashier was just saying that the manager told her not to do it. I just wanted to talk to the manager to understand what she was saying. I’ll say that our conversation was pleasant – I didn’t call anyone out on their lying – that’s why I vent over here on the blog :-). Still, you’re probably right that I should have just smiled and walked away.
“I just wanted to talk to the manager”….that. There’s almost never a situation where you’d want to talk to the manager.
Thanks – you’re probably right. I guess I was thinking that we could have a reasonable conversation but that was probably a pipe dream…. 🙂
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, ask to talk to a manager. Just say thank you, walk away and try somewhere else another day.
After a certain amount you are supposed to fill out a form. She was trying to protect herself. She was doing her job. There are things that a month or two they could do but because of scams and other issues those policies have changed
Lisa, as I mentioned in my post I HAD the form and gave it to her.
That is correct. …They are a government institution. And I do mean INSTITUTION
One more try. What types of gift cards are working for others? My local post office credit card machine doesn’t accept Simon gift cards anymore.
Thanks.
There’s an entire FlyerTalk thread about this. Recommended reading.
Thanks for the help. Will look there for the answers.
Echoing what Aaron K said, I smile and gracefully exit. I have even played “dumb blond” and apologized when I think it will help defuse them. I never complain to management, or other employees. With surveys, I only complete them for employees I like, and just don’t do it for troublesome ones. There’s nothing to be gained by complaints, this will only end up with them being incited. They will complain to management and other staffers, their attitude may spread.
Good luck.
not sure buying 6 MO at a time is wise… or it is the better way to kill all this faster.
I had bought 3 and 5 at previous trips, and there is a post office locally that multiple people (myself included) have regularly bought 10 at a time. Still, you are probably right that I should have eased into it more
There are rules when it comes to selling multiple money orders with a total value over $500/day. Every person who is a retailer goes through training. I’m sure that post office did get into trouble, but they should have explained the rules. It may be easier to go to a bank or financial institution. They are a wee bit more lenient. But in order to be most informed, research rules on purchasing money orders or prepaid credit cards and money laundering. Hope this helps!
The Post Office has rules – if a customer buys $3000 or more in money orders, they have to fill out “the form”, and you’re not allowed to buy more than $10,000 of money orders. I had the form with me, which I think confused things even more because the teller had no idea what I was talking about 🙂
You are not telling everything the hassle of going to so many post office to get 6 are more when bank check would be ok stop slimming and do the right thing.
You are absolutely right, as long as you had the form and your ID should not have been a problem. I was trained to get the paperwork and never turn the customer away. I think those Clerks and their management need to be retrained.
What I don’t get is why the fraud concern is so high? I mean, you have my form. I have my SSN, Driver’s License number and contact number (address / phone) on it. If there was fraud, you know where to get me!
There is new training coming into place that anything over $500 through gift cards is to be denied. Wal-Mart has it posted at registers now and I have seen it at other places that can handle money orders and payments. The post offices are just slower due to bureaucracy and inefficiency…so their reaction is very piecemeal.
Okay well if that’s the case then tell me that instead of telling me you “don’t have any money orders”
i looked for a link within the article, but, finding none, could you please inform the uninformed on how this MS method works? i.e. the nuts and bolts?
There’s a reason – typically with MS methods, the more publicized the method is, the more likely it is to die. If you think, everyone is mad at me in the comments NOW, you should see what people would say if I gave the nuts and bolts of how this works on the blog : -) This particular method I already feel is on its last legs…
So to answer your question, everything you need to know is probably available on the Internet somewhere – make connections with other people, read forums, do research on FB groups or other places
Good luck!
Dude you got told a lie to your face well I was a mail handler for 35 years worked all over the bay area, I must have been lied to about 1,500 times by supervisors so consider yourself lucky.
They didn’t want to compete a form. Even if the transaction is suspicious, they should still continue and then complete the form online, at the end of the visit. She was being lazy.
Oh of course! Once my package listed as ‘out for delivery’ was not delivered so I called to inquire. I was told that it was undeliverable because the label was damaged. I showed up the same day to pick up the package myself. When i gave the tracking number, a supervisor was adamant to state that it was undeliverable. Sure enough my package was in plain sight and i pointed it out. The pacage was good as new. No visible damage to the box or the label- which is most important. Someone just failed to fo their job. But being human as i assume, i accept that they’re susceptible to error. Lies are done by choice.
Take responsibility for your mistakes USPS!
Hello Dan,
What’s interesting is that everyone hasn’t caught up to “the sky is falling!” My landlord won’t accept cash for payment either. He will only accept money order or cashier’s check! Can you imagine the lines at the Post office and bank? What I haven’t figured out why would they place one government piece of paper over another! Then how do we pay with gold?
Of course they lie. We recently sent 5 Christmas Cards via registered mail to Lithuania. After a month and nobody receiving there card we went to the post office to inquire about the cards. We were told they were held in US Customs and we would have to call them to see why they were held. After making 5 phone calls, the last to customs at JFK. I was told that US Customs doesn’t handle letters or first class mail unless there would be a exteam amount of cash involved. She further told me that when the US Postal Service is told to say this to customers anytime something is lost in the mail. We went to the bank and cancelled the checks we had put in the Christmas cards and sent a new batch via UPS. The next day we received an email from one of the recipients saying they got the card. Had they told the truth and said give it more time we are backlogged that would have at least been something.
Question… what type of gift cards were you using? Are the cards in the form of debit or unsecured credit cards? If they’re credit cards (secured or unsecured), we do not accept credit cards for payment on a money order. That’s like buying a money order on credit — what sense does that make. However, using a debit card is different because money is automatically transferred. Maybe she made a mistake the first time, but she should have given you information on why we do not accept gift cards or credit cards as payment.
They are prepaid debit cards. I have done it before at the post office so I know that it works.
Next time Fed Ex it.