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As those of you who I've bought or sold guitars from know, we live in a tiny town in southern Illinois of about 900 people. We have no mailboxes on our houses and all mail or packages have to be picked up or dropped off at our one room post office. I've shipped lots of guitars out of there and I always get there at about 4:30-4:45 to handle my business. So I go there yesterday at 4:34 pm to buy a money order and ship a guitar case (for the second time...long story). They close at 4:55 pm. The sole employee, who I commonly deal with, asks me if I'm going to pay for the MO and postage with a debit card. I told her that I was. She says, "Sorry, I already closed out my receipts for the day. I closed them out at 4:30; you'll have to come back another day." Now, realize that the earliest I can get there is about 4:30 or a little after and they are still open. I regularly buy money orders and ship guitars during the last half hour that they are open and it has never been a problem before. It was raining and I carried the King V case, which was boxed up of course, back out to my truck and left. I asked her when it became a policy that customers could not buy postage or pay for services after 4:30 pm but while the post office was still open for business. She said that she's been doing it that way for 10 years. This wasn't true because she's handled my transactions several times previously at similar times of the business day. I was shocked that she was ultimately saying that it doesn't matter that many customers can't get to their post office til late in the business day. If a customer wants to use a debit card to pay for services and it's during the last 20 minutes that the post office is open, guess we'll have to find another company to ship thru.
I came right home and called the USPS hotline and filed a report about it. The person who took the call was shocked as well and said that someone would be calling about it. I was completely blown away that she would refuse to sell postage or allow the purchase of a money order using a debit card. Anyone else have an experience like this? Anyone here work for the USPS and can give their impressions fo this scenario?
I came right home and called the USPS hotline and filed a report about it. The person who took the call was shocked as well and said that someone would be calling about it. I was completely blown away that she would refuse to sell postage or allow the purchase of a money order using a debit card. Anyone else have an experience like this? Anyone here work for the USPS and can give their impressions fo this scenario?
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