Personal checks....I'll take them, but people NEVER listen to what I tell them when I do.
Locust Fork
Member Posts: 31,686 ✭✭✭✭
Its pretty frustrating. We have a system here that works around all kinds of little issues. Combined shipping....sending ammo....taking various forms of payments....handling just about anything that comes our way and its pretty cut and dry. A few times each week we get someone that wants to send a personal check.
I have told the lady that handles the payment portion of things to accept them IF the person has some history on Gun Broker or past business with us. So, I don't normally even know that this is how something is being paid....its just handled by her. The thing is that on rare occasions my bank will put a hold on out of state checks. I never know when they will do this, it just has a different "available" balance until they release the funds.
I'm not about to start checking my account daily to see what may or may not be put on hold. So, I just have a policy that we hold the items for 10 days before shipping them out if someone sends a personal check. Its up to them if they want the convenience of mailing that form of payment over getting the item quicker than if they had sent another form of payment.
It NEVER FAILS that someone sends a personal check....then starts emailing and calling the moment they see the check has cleared their account. I don't know why they cannot understand simple instructions or why they feel like things will be different than what they were told. Grrrrr
Comments
The drawbacks of being the CEO of the Redneck Rifle Company......🤣
Yes, I have experienced that as well. I explain that I have no way of seeing their checking account. Most folks are understanding, some not so much.
It’s hard to fix stupid.
Perhaps your bank is the problem meaning they are taking their time of waiting to process the checks. The reason I am saying that is because most banks I have done business with process all checks the same day they are received. Immediate is standard these days.
All checks are normally scanned instantly electronically via the barcode which has all the bank info and persons account number, out of town or state is irrelevant. If there is a problem reading the check, a human enters data the same day.
NSF checks result in no net transfer of funds and an E message sent to the members bank.
Having said that, the buyer should have read your terms and understood 10 day wait on personal checks means 10 days.
What little selling I do, I ask for USPS money orders. Now and then someone will ask about credit cards. I can't do that but will take a personal check if the buyer is willing to wait until the check clears (I say 10 days) before shipment. That works OK but realistically it shouldn't take 10 days to clear. Many decades ago banks used clearing houses which was like a middleman between the two banks. That took extra time. Now with electronics there is no reason for it to take that long.
I do not accept checks for rents. Too many insufficient funds.. Or after accepting one someone puts a stop payment .. because they over drafted. IF I am given a check for something.. the issue person and I will go directly to the bank and cash it.
Its rare that there is a delay in the funds....but I'm not checking on it, so I treat it like it can happen with any personal check we get. I've only had two checks to us bounce, which is great odds when you think about the number of payments that have come in over the years. One was a HUGE payment for several high end items. The guy buying was a regular that we knew very well. It turned out that he moved some money out of a 401K and it took longer than expected for the funds to actually be in his account....so it wasn't good when I deposited it. You should have heard the lady from the bank who called me....she was sooo nervous and I could tell she was dreading telling me that a $20K check had not cleared. One phone call fixed that. The other was an $1800 Winchester. The guy had bought one other item from us and we took his personal check for his second item. When it bounced I tried to call him and he never would reply....ignored emails and it was very tense for a little bit because the gun was on it's way directly to him (C&R.) We found then that we could redirect packages and got it coming back here. He never did contact us or acknowledge the problem. We just relisted it and moved on.
Checks are a pain. Took one from a Tenant yrs ago for back rent. It bounced and she moved out. Thought she was free and clear... however I signed a warrant for her arrest at the Magistrate office before she left. 4 yrs later I get a call from the Sheriffs dept. She has been arrested for a traffic violation and is in processing at the jail. The officer ask me what I wanted to do... I told him leave her in jail. She served 30 days for writing a 200 dollar bad check. I wasn't driving 90 mile that night so she could pay me cash and get out of jail.
I like personal checks. I like to send them, and I like to receive them. Easy peasy.
USPS money orders are great, but if one gets lost in the mail, it takes nearly an Act of Congress to get it replaced. The folks at the Postal Service believe nothing and trust no one.
Personal check gets lost, just cut another. If both show up, I shred one or send it back. If one was misdirected and forged, the payor goes to his bank, files one forgery affidavit, and now it's the bank's problem and not his.
Banks are MUCH faster at clearing checks than they were 20 years ago. 10 days is much too long to hold the merchandise; the check will be clear in 3-4 days at most. I very often ship the item before I have a chance to put the check in the bank, and I have received exactly two NSF checks since 1999. Just two, both from FFL dealers, and both were made good promptly.
I've also had a few people send cash, and that's OK too.
I might have a different attitude about it if I had to deal with the sort of people that select-fire does, but so far, I am happy with personal and business checks.
I've sent cash to this fine gentleman.
It's what I like the best.
Kasey will even deduct what you owe her from what she sold for you.
Sold you?
More like twisted your arm behind your back with awesome photos, and knowing what you can't live without.
This housewife with a hobby must be stopped!
Ha ha ha......you guys know I'd give it all to yall for free if I won the lottery, but since the chances of that happening are pretty much zero I have to tempt you and take your money. 😁
I deposited a Cashiers Check at my bank I have been with for 30 years, and they held it for 15 days.
Margaret Thatcher
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Mark Twain
Sounds like Regions Bank. My son has a bank account there and was buying a home. I was giving him some funds to assist with the closing costs, etc. I knew they would hold the funds if I deposited a personal check into his account so I got a cashier check from my bank to deposit instead. Yep, they said they would put a hold for 2 weeks on it also. I wound up taking the cashier check back to my bank and getting cash to deposit into his account.
My thing is that I don't know what type payments are coming in.....so the person here that handles that has been told how to handle things and I use the "worst case scenario" for how things are done.
Do all personal checks get held.....no.....but they "can" so I just treat them all the same.
They used to hold all of them, but over the years the tellers handling my deposits have stopped putting the holds on things. If a new teller at the bank or a person that has never dealt with our account gets involved that is when something almost always happens differently. The people that we see all of the time just roll with the punches....like there are NO RULES!