I will never use Western Union again. Up until today, I would send support payments to my mother in Canada through them, not any more.
This was the fourth time that I have had an issue with Western Union. Today I tried sending "Money in Minutes", a service they offer online. As has happened in the past, after entering in credit card information and clicking on "Continue" the page hung.
I was worried about hitting the "Continue" button again for fear of being double charged, so once again, I picked up the phone to call their customer service.
For those of you trying to reach their customer service, here's a tip, they don't give you the option to speak to anyone "live" on their automated customer service line, but if you push zero, you do get transferred.
After getting through to customer service, and explaining my issue, the woman on the phone said she could do the wire over the phone for me, I said great, that would be helpful.
The CS person took all my information again, apparently not being able to find my account even after giving her all my details, then told me what the total would be.
It was higher than the amount for doing it online, not a lot, but it was higher. I asked her why and she said the phone service is higher than doing it online. I said "You're kidding right? Your system isn't working right and you offer to do it over the phone because of that, but you are going to charge me the higher rate? Her response "I do apologize for that, but I can not adjust the fees for service". Again I said "You're kidding right?", she again apologized and said no.
I then conceded and said go ahead with the transaction but I need the reciever to be telephoned as soon as the funds are available. This was another $2.95, but I didn't care, I needed to get the funds to my mother as quickly as possible, after all, it's "Money in Minutes".
We concluded our call with the CS person telling me that the she had confirmed that the funds were now available for the receiverk, and I asked "They will call her then?" and the response was "Yes they will call her". The CS person gave me the confirmation code and I hung up.
I went to lodge a complaint with WU's corporate office, but of course the complaint form kept rejecting my complaint saying I had some bad punctution in the complaint. I removed ALL punctuation from the complaint and it still gave the error. I took a screen shot of it and thought that maybe later I would send off a letter explaining all the ugly details of my last four experiences with WU.
I went about my day as normal, went out for dinner and when I got home I called my mom to make sure everything went okay. When I called she asked me why I would be calling on Friday? (I ALWAYS call on Sunday, not just being a good son, but for fear of reprisals... Kidding). I assumed then that she hadn't been called by Western Union and she confirmed it.
I told her I would have to call her back and I then called Western Union and asked the CS person that answered to put me through to a manager. They asked me why, I explained and told them that I would like at least the fees reversed. They transferred me to another department, whom I had to explain everything to again. They put me on hold.
When the supervisor came back on to the phone she explained that their telephone service could be behind and depending on the time of day it could be a day or so before they call. Here we go again, I said "Your kidding right? It's called Money in Minutes, not Money in Days"... And I don't think I will forget her response, ever. She stated that "the money WAS transferred in minutes, but the phone call can take longer".
She then indicated that her manager said that they would not reverse the fees. She did not say why. I didn't ask. I told them I would be writing to Better Business and billing them for my time. They hung up on me.
At no time was there any swearing, elevated volume, or any indication of hositility from me. Another example maybe of a company looking at the bottom line, but not the customers.
I did a search for alternative wire transfer services and will try them. I will never use WU again, and I will let people know why, when asked. I will also write of my experience on my personal business blog where I share my experiences that I've had with dealing with different companies.
Buyer beware.
Idahojan
Priest River, Idaho
U.S.A.
0 comments