Inefficiency caused the USPS to have a deficit of $42.3 million dollars in 2012...PER DAY! That's a total of $16,000,000,000 JUST FOR 2012. What other business could survive that (besides the TARP banks). Let alone the humor that you pay for it.

So, fast forward to a recent purchase where I sent a Postal money order. Recipient never got it. Believing him and thinking it was lost in the mail, I went to the post office to put a stop payment on it so I could send another one, only to find out YOU CAN'T. If the post office loses that mail, or if the recipient cashes the check, the post office vendor for Postal Money Orders will not check on the status of the money order for 6 months. That's right, they cannot confirm or deny if a money order has been cashed. If it is lost in the mail (I mailed it 13 days ago), you have to wait 6 months, then you can file for a lost MO, and that takes weeks to process.
Now God Bless the postal worker I spoke with, but when she said, "It's just like a personal bank check" I almost started laughing. With a bank, you can go online to your account, you can stop payment, and also learn in an instant if the check has been cashed. So why does the USPS take in excess of 6 months to do the same thing it takes minutes to do at my local bank? What a joke.

DON"T even think of using postal money orders. It is as untraceable as sending cash.

OK, I'm done now.

I am at the point where I will not accept money orders. Too many sketchy people claim, "we'll I sent it. I'm not paying you twice." Paypal, Checks or cashiers checks for me. I tell people I want a method which can be tracked and canceled.

Ned,

Thanks for sharing. That's another educational moment on PP. Obviously postal money orders are not suitable for 21st century business transactions.

Hope you're not out too much.

Sg

If I needed to send payment for something, a postal money order would be about the last thing I would even think of, if I thought of it at all.