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USPS Money Order Verification System Not Working


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Just a heads up for those of you who either pay with or get paid by USPS Money Orders - The phone verification system is not working going on 3 days now, so you can't verify one or find out if the one you sent out has been cashed without filling out a form and paying a $5.95 per money order fee at the post office.  The phone verification at some point during the process will kick you out and say something along the lines of "We are currently experiencing problems with the money order verification system. Please try again alter.".  I have tried about 10 times now since Monday with no luck using 5 different money orders. I have read on the web that there is supposedly an email verification process that  still requires the $5.95 fee, but I have not tried it.

The website USPS Money Order verification page hasn't worked for me for over a decade, but maybe it will for you.
https://mois.usps.com/pls/pmoisnp/mois_external_pkg.main

So, you are left with using visual inspection only to verify your money orders. Fortunately the physical security features are quite good on the USPS MOs.  With high dollar sales, I would suggest that you use a 10x loupe to closely inspect the micro-printing and the holographic line and compare them to a known good money order if you are at all suspicious before accepting it as valid. I believe that the two most difficult things to forge are the watermark of Ben Franklin and the holographic stripe. The stripe should clearly show what looks like the USPS Logo in colors that change as you change the angle to the light. The watermark should not be visible at all when laying on a solid surface under strong light.  I have seen some pretty real looking forged USPS money orders that appear genuine, but they should fail inspection of the hologram at 10x as long as you know what a real one looks like under magnification. If you are wanting to find out if your money order was cashed, your only option that I am aware of is to fill out the form, pay the $5.95 wait for an answer. I hope this gets resolved soon.

Edited by Don - LongRangeSupply.com
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my post office has a computer right there at the counter ....... as should EVERY post office ....... yes ...... somewhere in a postoffice ....... IS A COMPUTER ...... with DIRECT access to the USPS websites.

Anyway ...... at my postoffice ...... I can actually Watch the clerk verify my incoming USPMO's

takes about a minute ......... THAT Said ...... sometimes they don't have enough money to cash large amounts.

BUT ....... the Money Orders have been Verified as GOOD ....... so I mail package any try again to cash next day.

yeah I know ........ some of you guys  live " WAY OFF THE GRID "  and it's a long trip to you postoffice ....... well ...... that's the price you pay !

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Thanks for the tip Buddy. With the phone system I have never needed any other type of verification. I will definitely check to see if their internal system is also down or if it is working, my next trip to the post office. Hopefully they can get the phone verification working soon. What a waste of time and resources to have to drive to the post office to verify a a money order.

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Don ....... you do know that the postoffice WILL CASH ...... USPMO's ........ it Their Money Order ......

I take my package to my postoffice ...... hand the clerk my USPMO ...... and say " I want to pay the postage with this."

at my postoffice ...... they don't even verify any USPMO under $100 ....... they just cash it ..... right there .

they take the postage amount from the MO ...... and hand me the change ..... as in CASH 

they WILL NOT be able to Cash a $700 Money order ....... 10 minutes after they open .......

wait until 30 minutes before closing ....... then they have Cash .

on a side note ....... my postoffice does  passports ...... how far is TEXAS from Mexico ?

at the end of the day ....... THEY HAVE PLENTY OF CASH !

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An update: Just for grins ( I was going to deposit them anyway based on my visual inspection)  I took these MOs to the post office the day I posted this thread. They said there was no way they could verify them on their computers or by phone since the system was down.  They also refused to cash even the one for under $400. All they could offer was to look up the serial numbers on their printed list of stolen and lost USPS MOs or I could fill out a form and pay $5.95 per MO to have them checked which would take a week or so.

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My post office just cashed FOUR Money orders ...... three for $900 and one for $960 ...... that's $3600

ALL Four were verified as good on their computer ...... within 3 minutes ....... they had $2700 cash to give me ........ I went back the next day and cashed the last $960 Money order.

In fact they WELCOME Money orders ........ less cash they have to turn in and count at the end of the day .

my post office appears better operated than rural ones.

LUCKY ME !!! .

 

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all 4 were verified Wednesday at 3:30pm ........ watch all four come back as valid  ....... cashed 3 Wednesday...... went back today to cash the last one .

I would think that at Your post office ........ the " system not working " are the clerks .

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16 hours ago, Buddy H said:

 

I would think that at Your post office ........ the " system not working " are the clerks .

At my hole in the wall rural post office , the clerks  have a hard time figuring out anything that is out of the regular routine. Once had a clerk tell me I couldn't ship a rifle. She had to get the Postmaster on the phone to verify that it could be done. 

At the end of the business day they would be lucky to have $500 in their till.

Try to get them to use the computer in front of them...

Ha-Ha good luck with that!

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On 6/8/2018 at 5:29 PM, Buddy H said:
7 hours ago, Buddy H said:

BLM ......... is this your post office ?

 

 

Yes, now everything  makes  sense.. 

" Justa about everybody working in the Post Office is an Alien "...

Edited by Born loser...in Montana
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  • 5 months later...

Almost 6 months later - The toll free number to verify USPS Money Orders STILL does not work. The website verification page that hasn't worked for several years, also is still non functional. I used to be able to get the phone verification to work maybe 1 out of 10 tries, but this month I have yet to get a single phone verification done. My local post office is still unable to verify them in person. All they do is refer me to the non functioning phone verification system. I have called several other post offices in the area and they all say they have no idea how to verify them on their terminals. A call to the national USPS help line got me nothing. 

Edited by Don - LongRangeSupply.com
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I use two local Houston post offices ....... one post office has a computer right behind the clerks ..... the other post office has their computer way in the back ....... soooooo ...... when I need to cash a USPMO ..... I go to the PO with their computer right there behind them [ see photo below ]

The clerks cannot check USPMO 's thru their terminals ...... they have to use their Postal Computer.

Pretty sure Every Post office has a computer with which to communicate thru the US postal System....... some probably kept in the managers office.

That said ....... the clerks have to be Willing to walk to their computer...... bring it online ...... verify the Money order.

It is Very Easy to simply say " sorry we cannot verify our OWN Money orders " ......... " Next Customer "

sorry you are having trouble ........ I guess I am lucky to have a post office that will willing to Completely HELP their customers .

In fact ....... my post office MUST verify ANY USPMO over $100 before cashing ........ any USPMO under $100 they will cash without verifying.

just last week I was able to cash 4 Money orders ...... walked out with $3800 Cash.

Sometime living in the " Big City " has its advantages.

See the US Postal Service computer ....... right there behind the clerks .....

the clerks said ...... management placed their computer behind them so the customer always sees his Money order ....

IMG_9124.PNG

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...
On ‎11‎/‎29‎/‎2018 at 4:29 AM, Khrut27Gg said:

I have had the same problem, but only when trying to verify a $1k money order, any lesser amount, and it works for me.  Same error msg.

I am having the same exact issues, so this glitch is still going on. I plan to request future Buyers no longer send $1k denominations, make them all less than $1k if they want same day shipping. Good luck to us all.

Thanks to Don for raising the issue...gives some comfort I am not the only one experiencing this weird error.

Tall

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The problem with the verification system, as noted previously by Khrut27Gg, is definitely with $1,000.00 even money orders. I just tested it. Thanks to Tall Pine for catching that post in my thread, and figuring out a quick fix for it, and to Khrut27Gg for bringing it to our attention. I read Khrut27Gg's comment it when they posted it but it didn't sink in.

I often pick up my mail well after the post office is closed. The phone verification error made it impossible to verify $1K money orders without having to go back to the post office another day. I gave up trying to cash them at the post office as they rarely have enough money on hand, so no need for smaller amounts for that reason, but if it is truly just the $1K even amount that is the problem child, this will be a fix that will make things a lot easier for me. Thanks everyone!

Edited by Don - LongRangeSupply.com
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  • 4 years later...
  • Buddy H featured this topic

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