Postal Orders

[DEN53]

I recently sold an item on Ebay - the buyer could'nt pay by Paypal (which I use all the time) so I asked her to send me an uncrossed postal order (this enables me to cash at post office and send item straight away).

She sent me a crossed postal order and where it says Pay it had printed *** instead of my name. I took it to my bank, who were not sure it would be cleared - so they said wait until next week to make sure it goes through o.k.

My buyer cannot seem to accept this - she says the Post Office she purchased the postal order from says I could have wrote my name in the Pay bit - but I have tried to explain that postal orders now are printed at the Post Office like cheques and if I had wrote my name in ink, it would surely have looked fradulent.

Whats anybody's take on this - am I right or is she right. ?

[Rollo]

I would not accept a postal order that had something other than my name on it as the payee.

In fact I would only accept a crossed postal order with my name on it as the payee. If it was uncrossed and it went astray in the post I could foresee the buyer accusing me of saying I had not received it when somebody else cashed it.
That is just not worth the hassle.

[Rollo]

I would add that I would not wait for a crossed postal order to "clear" before sending the item to the buyer. A postal order is not going to bounce - unless it is a forgery.

[DEN53]

Thanks for your answer Rollo - that what I thought with regards to the clearing at the bank thing - but the cashier at the counter in the Halifax said she only pays this in - when it goes to the cheque clearing dept, they could reject it because my name is not printed on the postal order.

She did ask another cashier, who also looked puzzled by the postal order. They advised me to wait for it to clear before sending item off to Ebayer

I have been selling on Ebay for many years, and have never had a problem like this before.

[jack daniels]

I work at a post office and issue postal orders quite a lot.
where the stars are is where the name is to be filled in (the buyer left it blank) they could have had the name printed on it but possibly, because they might not have been sure who to make it payable to - they left it blank. This should not have caused any problems whatsoever and should have been put into your account after you wrote your name in

[paraffin]

DEN:

This is straight from the "horse's mouth" as my missus runs our local post office; This is what should have happened:

When buying a postal order, the clerk will ask you if it is payable to anyone in particular. If yes, clerk will type in the person's or firm's name.
If no, it will be left blank with the 3 stars as yours was so that the purchaser or payee can put the relevant name in.

The fact that she chose to send you a crossed postal order, unfortunately meant that you could not therefore cash it at your post office, but meant that it had to be transacted through a bank or building society and paid into your account there.

The staff at the Halifax should have been able to do the transaction but it's probable that their confusion was due to lack of knowledge that they are entitled to cash the postal order for you.

You would still have had to insert your name where the 3 stars are, however, the Halifax staff, had they been clued up, should have realised that and advised you accordingly.

A crossed postal order is a very safe method of receiving cash as it cannot be cancelled or stopped.

Did you insert your name? This is important because if you just left it with them without your name on it, technically anyone could then put their own name on it and send it to their own bank account. It is quite in order for you to either have inserted your name yourself or for the sender to have done it, or for the Halifax staff to do it for you.

Hope this makes sense. Come back if you have any more queries, but it seems as if the trouble could have been averted if either the sender had put your name on it first, or if you'd contacted a post office instead of a bank.

We all live and learn, don't we? Hope this helps.

[DEN53]

Thanks for your answer paraffin and jack daniels - I did tell my ebay buyer to make it payable to me and get an uncrossed one - I think she assumed the post office inserted my name, but obviously they did'nt and she just sent it off to me.

No the Halifax cashier did'nt fill my name in on the postal order she just paid the postal order in with cheque I was also banking at the same time.

It just that I have never received a postal order, crossed or uncrossed with no name on before, so when I saw the 3 *** in the inserted after the 'Pay' - I did'nt think it was a good idea to write my name in ink - I thought it would look a bit dodgy.

Thanks again paraffin and jack daniels for your helpful comments.