How safe & faster is e-MO?

The Indian department of Post has replaced the old Money Order form (M.O.) with a new easy to fill eMO form MO-8E (I). As the name suggests, this has been introduced for faster remittance of money keeping in tune with the technology. This new form has certain flaws.

1-     There is no writing space for any kind of personal message to the payee. Instead, there are 21 message codes (just like the one used in Greetings telegram) to be used which may not necessarily cover the purpose for which the eMO is being sent by the sender.

2-     There is no ‘Acknowledgement portion’ which used to be sent back to the sender as a proof of having delivered the money to the payee. Thus, the remitter will have no proof in hand in case of a dispute to prove at a later date that the payee has actually received the money.

3-     As per the existing system, the MO can be tracked only through the postal department website www.indiapost.gov.in

How can a layman or villager track the eMO on computer is a question, the department has to answer. Other wise he has to travel repeatedly all the way to the post office to know the status.

In this context I would like to share my experience. On 14^th May I sent an eMO from Bangalore to a publisher at Faridabad (Haryana) towards cost of a book. In between, the publisher informed me of the non receipt of MO several times whenever I sent reminder. However the website tracking system showed that the MO has travelled through various Post offices like Central Server to Escortnagar Faridabad, to Amarnagar Faridabad to Nhpc colony, Faridabad during the period 15/5 to 26/5. Finally, it showed the date of payment as 26/5. But the publisher kept on repeating the same reason for not sending the book to me.

After waiting for full 2 months, finally I decided to lodge a complaint with the Postal department asking them either to produce me the publisher’s acknowledgement of having received the money or else refund me the MO amount. The department promptly sent me a reply based on the same tracking record stating that ‘The MO was paid to the payee on 25/5’ and that my complaint is settled’. I simply forwarded the reply to the publisher with a note asking them to send the book now or else keep and treat the amount as my donation to them. Believe me; I received the book by courier in a record time of just two days thereafter. Incidentally, the book I ordered was all about ‘creating record’!

The larger question is, if this is a faster mode of remittance, how many days can be reckoned as fast. In the instant case, the eMO sent on 14/5 has reached its destination on 26/5 after full 13 days. More over how many people have time and patience to pursue such matters relentlessly and what if the intention of payee turns out to be doubtful?