NEVER send CASH

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northeastmopar

northeastmopar

FABO Gold Member
FABO Gold Member
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Sent a payment to Gold member BBRROOWWNN a few weeks ago. He was not set up for Paypal and asked me to send a money order. I got behind in my chores and did not want him to think I was not sending the payment. So I figured I would save both of us a trip to the Post Office to buy and then cash a money order. So I wrapped the $65.00 in a piece of white paper and then stuffed it into a white security type envelope which you would not be able to see through. Off it went, never to be seen again? Right address and I also put a return address label on the envelope. In 63 years I have never had a piece of mail disappear like that. WOW. It has been a month now and me and BBRROOWWNN figure that if it got routed wrong, by mistake, it would show up somewhere. BUT this thing just evaporated. BBRROOWWNN told me he would not ship the 90 degree adapter until he got paid. I agreed with him and told him I would not ship it either if I had not been paid. So now I sit and wait for my envelope to re-appear in either his or my mailbox? I guess that will be the last time I stuff a few twenties in an envelope. How the heck could somebody see through the envelope if it was a security one? Any postal workers here. Live and Learn. from a 63 year old Marine Corps Vietnam Veteran who trusts our society.
 
I have had mail come back to me 6-8 weeks after mailing. So there's hope you at least get your $$$ back.
 
I learned last Chirstmas not to send cash.Someone stole it right out of my mailbox.I got lazy and it cost me $150.00.At my age you woulda thought I would know better.
 
Retired Postal Employee.......theft is somewhat common. Witnessed 14 or so people get cuffed and escorted over the years. The Inspection service NEVER acts when they first see a thief. The 2 that got caught in my section were caught on film 15 times each before being escorted.

Just wondering, did you seal the flap with tape? In particular both ends and the point? This is the area that any number of gates on some of the machinery will rip open. There is a good chance that your money was not stolen, the envelope may have gotten ripped open dumping the money on the floor. If that is the case it is sitting in a claims area some where.

What a lot of folks do not understand is that everytime you mail something you should not, keys, change, big paper clips, a wad of photos etc. it is not only your mail piece that stands the chance of getting destroyed but at least the next dozen or so that are behind it as it travels thru the postal equipment. Machines are tuned to run 30k or so pieces of mail an hour, when a letter jams the machine does not stop right then. The next letter is about an inch behind it. In the area that I worked we had 4 full time people fixing the destruction that 11 afcs's (stamp cancelling machine) did. Don't be surprised if the envelope turns up in a "body bag"
 
Back in Time said:
I learned last Chirstmas not to send cash.Someone stole it right out of my mailbox.I got lazy and it cost me $150.00.At my age you woulda thought I would know better.
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This is the very reason I do not have mail delivery at home. Our mail box would be up on the main road, about a mile and a half from our house, right where the school bus stop is. There is also this elderly woman that walks around snooping thru the mail boxes.
 
should have put a tracking # on it
with prof delivery
u mailed $65.00 dollars with a .35 cent stamp
 
This is the older AFCS, the one I ran.

View attachment afcs.jpg

It has several pinch points and at least a half dozen hard plastic gates that are like letter openers, that is why I asked about taping the flaps. If the flap is the least bit loose it stands a good chance of getting ripped open. The newer machine is pretty much the same, it just has 2 levels of stackers, the area on the left side of the machine near the silver bars. The first pinch point is notorious for grabbing a hold of one side of the envelope while the other one rips it open, depositing the contents on the floor. Never mail keys, coins etc. If you mail pictures see to it that the envelope is at least 3/8" thick, preferably over 1/2" so it does not make it under the rollers and into the machinery.
 
send money all the time to members its just easy.....been sent money many times before no problems tough to hear what happend its true it may come back and take a couple weeks ,sure hope it does.
 
from a retired letter carrier: If you do send cash, send it registered mail. Not certified, registered!
Registered letters are accountable at every step. Any one who touches one has to sign for it. Inkjunkie can verify, but I don't think "Reds" even get machined.
I it gets lost, the post office will know who lost it.
 
I've also been told to not use a large envelope with "extra" stamps on it as it may be flagged.Seems that's what the terrorist's do when they send their crap in the mail.
 
I will see if i have one and if i do its yours free and i will pay shipping. give me a day or two
 
I had a check that I mailed to Tulsa (65 miles) and it took two months to show up. The truck goes from here to Tulsa so it should have gone straight there. It was for my Yellow Page ad and the lady didn't believe me until she called when it showed up.
 
Motopsycho said:
should have put a tracking # on it
with prof delivery
u mailed $65.00 dollars with a .35 cent stamp
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The famed tracking system. Just wondering what are you going to do if something with a tracking number comes up missing somewhere? Call the last known spot? Keep in mind that MOST first class letters that have tracking on them are NOT scanned everywhere they go. Only number you can get it is the 1800 number. They will read off the preprinted card asking about insurance etc. The tracking systems real purpose is to monitor the employees, not the mail. That is why the carrier routes have various scan points along the way, at least they did in Phoenix. Anything beyond delivery confirmation is just a waste of $$ in my opinion.

I wish I had a dollar for everyone of those green cards that the machine I was running ripped off over the years. You know, the ones that you use for a signature on the receiving end. I would have enough $$ to build an all aluminum big cube HEMI.

gunbunny said:
from a retired letter carrier: If you do send cash, send it registered mail. Not certified, registered!
Registered letters are accountable at every step. Any one who touches one has to sign for it. Inkjunkie can verify, but I don't think "Reds" even get machined.
I it gets lost, the post office will know who lost it.
Click to expand...

"Reds" are the safest way to ship anything, also the slowest. You mail will get tossed in it's own sack with a lock. Every person that touches it has to sign for it. It stays in the sack until it is delivered.

Folks can do as you please, but sending cash is just not a smart thing to do. My wife's first day on the job she observed some one stealing money off of the culling belt. Several years later they finally had enough on Steve to fire him. They provided 25 or so taped incidents of him stealing money. Wonder how many times they did not observe him? As I said earlier taping the flaps goes along ways towards security. The problem is someone very well may have dropped a letter in the mail with a set of car keys in it. If they did and you letter is behind it going into the shingulaor/singulator there is a very good chance it will get torn open, even if it is taped shut. Now you are not only hoping that whoever handles your letter from there on is honest but are also battling gravity. If the ripped part of the letter is on the bottom the contents will probably fall out. And if there is a dozen letters torn to shreds how will anyone know where the money came from? I used to laugh my *** off when someone would stuff 20 pictures in a first class envelope. That envelope would hit the shingulator/singulator area (the first pinch point) and get torn open. Next thing you would see would be pictures coming into the feeder area of the machine, all bent and crumpled. Better yet was when a piece of the envelope would get lodged in the mail path and the pictures all would be flying thru the air. Keep in mind that the machine operators have to deal with this all day long. Most of us would just chuckle, call the person mailing them a dumba** and leave them laying wherever they landed. Depending on the pictures they would often get taped up in the repair area, or when it was around the 030 (manual letters) section for everyone to laugh at.
 
Back in Time said:
I've also been told to not use a large envelope with "extra" stamps on it as it may be flagged.Seems that's what the terrorist's do when they send their crap in the mail.
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The reason they don't want you doing this is because oversized envelopes need to be handled by hand. And if you take a business size envelope and place the a stamp in the upper right corner and then one below it the afcs will only cancel the stamp in the normal spot. In theory the other stamp can then be reused, causing a revenue loss. The afcs only looks for stamps in the upper right hand corner, put a stamp any where else and it will go into the reject bin. Now your letter will be ran thru the machine until it finds the stamp, which it will not, it gets shredded, which it might or depending on what software is in the machine it will just sort it and send it out. Actually the machine is not looking for a stamp it is looking for........better not say as it is the way around paying postage................
 
inkjunkie said:
The reason they don't want you doing this is because oversized envelopes need to be handled by hand. And if you take a business size envelope and place the a stamp in the upper right corner and then one below it the afcs will only cancel the stamp in the normal spot. In theory the other stamp can then be reused, causing a revenue loss. The afcs only looks for stamps in the upper right hand corner, put a stamp any where else and it will go into the reject bin. Now your letter will be ran thru the machine until it finds the stamp, which it will not, it gets shredded, which it might or depending on what software is in the machine it will just sort it and send it out. Actually the machine is not looking for a stamp it is looking for........better not say as it is the way around paying postage................
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I did not use an oversized envelope. I used a plain white business envelope which has the security printing inside so you cannot see through it. I triple folded a piece of white 8.5 x 11 typing paper and inserted three 20's and a 5 inside the folded paper. Sealed it and installed (1) FOREVER stamp on it. I assumed that the 4 bills and one sheet of paper would fly first class no problem. Plus if it was over weight, it would have gotten returned to me because I had a clear return address sticker on the envelope.
 
northeastmopar said:
I did not use an oversized envelope. I used a plain white business envelope which has the security printing inside so you cannot see through it. I triple folded a piece of white 8.5 x 11 typing paper and inserted three 20's and a 5 inside the folded paper. Sealed it and installed (1) FOREVER stamp on it. I assumed that the 4 bills and one sheet of paper would fly first class no problem. Plus if it was over weight, it would have gotten returned to me because I had a clear return address sticker on the envelope.
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that's the way I always do it. I have sent at the very least 30 envelopes of cash , sometimes with 100 or 150 bucks in them. they have always arrived in less than 5 days everywhere across America. ive never had one not make it.
 
gunbunny said:
from a retired letter carrier: If you do send cash, send it registered mail. Not certified, registered!
Registered letters are accountable at every step. Any one who touches one has to sign for it. Inkjunkie can verify, but I don't think "Reds" even get machined.
I it gets lost, the post office will know who lost it.
Click to expand...

I am a retired letter carrier also and you are right registered never goes thru a machine but goes separated in a bright red bag. As this post said only send cash or any other valuable as registered mail.
 
For what it's worth, I sent something out with a tracking number to San Jose and it wound up being delivered in Cheyenne, Wyoming from here in Denver about six months ago.

This was with USPS tracking.

If I ever send anything of $50+ value through the mail or anything difficult to replace of any value, I insure it and hand it to the Postal worker at the Post Office.

The only thing I set a flag up on my mailbox for are checks that I can cancel with a phone call.

I think it's BS that the end user has to insure their own packages because of risk taking when a service is being provided. I mean, yeah, I'm going to look out for myself and all, but how is it orthodox of the Post Office, which is a private institute that is contracted by the U.S. Government, get away with not having mandatory insurance? I mean, how would you feel if you dropped your car off at a shop and have it returned to you, missing one of the seats or the hubcaps? Would you just accept it with a shrug? Even worse if it was a Government contracted and regulated shop.

I know they have laws in place, but I think USPS as well as any other parcel service should be held monetarily accountable for missing mail that was recieved with a date stamp.

I will say, though, that I avoid UPS like the plague. I will use USPS ten times over, before making the choice to use UPS after the boxes I've recieved from them. FedEx is the worst at lying about deliveries sent and recieved in tracking.
 
Just found out a former co-worker was cuffed and escorted off the premises.....he was lifting mail out of the trays, running into the bathroom looking for cash. Anything with no cash in was getting flushed, anything with cash he was pocketing. Inspectors caught Henry on the way to the restroom with envelopes stuffed down his pants.....
 
Most famous USPS thief of all times......search for Louis Holley......
 
Just checked mailbox and still nothing Charlie....I keep thinking well it has to show up somewhere , either my house or his, but after hearing all of these postal worker stories...who knows??? maybe not........I will let you know ASAP if it shows up here Charlie...
 
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