On 8/21/08 I went to my local Walmart with $575 in cash. I was planning to send a MoneyGram wire transfer to a puppy breeder in Nashville to purchase one of her litter that I wanted. When I saw how high the fees were for National money transfers vs.international, I balked. I opted to purchase a MoneyGram money order & ship it to the breeder via USPS overnight instead.
That was my first mistake! I should have walked right out of Walmart's doors & simply went to the USPS, purchased a money order there, overnighted it & been a happy camper... Knowing my payment was secured & my puppy would soon be on her way to her new home.
Alas, things did not go quite so smoothly. Unfortunately, I made a grave error when I purchased the MoneyGram money order at Walmart instead. When doing so no one at Walmart told me the breeder was going to have a next-to-impossible time retrieving my money from that money order. I assumed she could walk into Walmart & cash the money order, or deposit it into her bank... No problem! NOT SO!
The breeder's bank here in the USA refused my USA purchased money order! This is a verifiable, legitimate money for which Walmart accepted $575.46! I have the reciept! It clearly states states "cash tend". I sent that along to the breeder so she could show the bank, Walmart, anyone...
Walmart Nashville will apparently not be able to cash it either. WTF?! They had no problem accepting the cash, why do they have a problem with cashing THEIR OWN, verifiable through MoneyGram, legitimate money order? Apparently they only issue mo's, they don't cash them. I should have been informed of this at the time of purchase! They are a MoneyGram agent, after all. One would assume they perform all aspects of the transfer of money for the instruments they issue.
Here's my conundrum. The breeder can't cash it, my puppy is growing by leaps & bounds (it's now 9/3) & the money order is made to the breeder, so I can't cash it any more either. Waiting out a "damaged or lost" claim will mean that the seller will likely sell the puppy to someone else while my money is tied up for absolutely NO reason!
This doesn't even begin to touch upon our hurt, frustration & discouragment related to this whole financial aspect of the transaction!
If Walmart has a problem with scammers making copies of their money orders & banks thus accepting them... They should make purchasers AWARE of this fact BEFORE they have a problem (ie: can't get anyone to cash a REAL money order).
Sadly, I never even knew this sort of thing was going on until it was too late & I was wrapped up in the middle of a bad situation. Seems the bank's should be able to tell real from fake, especially when accompanied by a serial numbered reciept, & an 800# which I used to verify it (just to see what the process was)... But I guess not. I certainly can't force them to pay on it, as much as I would absolutely love to throttle someone until they did so!
Worst mistake ever was trusting Walmart/MoneyGram with my CASH. I should have not only run... But sprinted... Over to the USPS for my money order. At least they have a method of cashing other than a super-high fee "Check Cashing" company! Hard way to learn a lesson... But you can bet it's one I will NEVER forget.
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