The CSR doesn't give a hoot if the above owner of the cash is the wife of Pablo Escobar. All the CSR knows is that when she hands a MO for $500 over to the cash bearing buyer, that cash goes into her drawer and at the end of the shift, if all the numbers add up, she is good to go home.
However, when you are swiping a piece of plastic and the computer tells her that the plastic had $500 on it and she has to believe it, that is a different story. No cash to handle, no putting green stuff in a register drawer. She has to have faith that the computer is telling her the truth and at the end of the day, everything is going to be all right.
So here is my story from yesterday. Went to WM to buy an $800 MO with 4 swipes of cards. All is going well but....at the end of the third swipe, the drawer opens and the CSR says, we are done. I say, no we are not, I still have to swipe my fourth card. She wants to argue, but I convince her to look at the printed out receipt (which was for an $800 MO.). She had accidentally inputted a cash deposit of $200 which left me one swipe short and WM $200 short in the till. Simple mistake, but if I hadn't caught it and made her change it, she would have been short $200 at the end of her shift.
I am certain stories like this with less happy endings percolate throughout the WM system (and non-WM as well). So I can see why someone not quite comfortable doing MOs would be much happier dealing with cash transactions than doing swipes from a DC. And to justify their choice, what is easier than claiming that their stance is due to money laundering concerns??
Addendum: Now I am going to have to avoid this WM for the next 1-2 months since I am certain that the event has been discussed and bandied about with probably unfortunate (for me) consequences
