Consumer complaint received 2018-04-19
Company: MONEYGRAM PAYMENT SYSTEMS WORLDWIDE INC
State: NY
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
Moneygram has been holding {$84000.00} of my money for over 7 weeks now and is not refunding me. 

On XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, I paid 48 bills to XXXX XXXX via Moneygram at their agent XXXX using XXXX billpay app. They all went through at the stores without any issues. Moneygram charged and collected {$4.00} per transaction, and each transaction, including that {$4.00} fee, was for {$4000.00}. All transactions were accepted but Moneygram only paid 27 of the bills. 21 did not get paid for a total of {$84000.00}. I called Moneygram on XX/XX/XXXX and asked them to please process the payments. They said they could not, and that I would have to go to a moneygram store/agent and have those payments refunded to me. I spoke with 3 different customer service representatives and was told that I could go to any Moneygram agent  and have the agent call XXXX and ask for the escalation department at which time they would authorize the agent to refund me the money. This did not work after multiple attempts at multiple stores/agents, even going back to the original stores where the transactions were done after multiple phone calls to Moneygram in between all of this running around, getting rejected and accused of scamming. The customer service representatives were not helpful at all, even making me try and guess which stores I needed to go to after originally telling me I could go to any moneygram/store agent. The Moneygram agents in the store did try to help me by calling the XXXX # and asking for the escalation department, but after spending 30 to 60 minutes on the phone, they were still not authorized to refund the money. It was a nightmare. An embarrassing, humiliating, frustrating nightmare. I made numerous calls to Moneygram all of which got me nowhere. It should be noted that multiple review websites have numerous complaints about Moneygrams customer service department, including consumer affairs having over 600 complaints registered on their site alone regarding Moneygram. Frustrated after having spent an entire 2 days driving around trying to get my money, I pulled my car over and XXXX until I found the number to the corporate headquarters in XXXX, Texas, XXXX, and finally spoke to someone named XXXX XXXX in analytics who was able to pull up each of my transactions and could see which ones were processed and which were not. XXXX printed them all while I was on the phone with him, confirming that they were indeed done correctly on mine and the XXXX agents end, and that Moneygram owed me a refund. He then forwarded these to their compliance department. He said he would ask that they issue me a refund check and would do his best to get it escalated. He said it may take 7-10 business days. This was on XX/XX/XXXX. I have called XXXX repeatedly since then and get the same answer every timeit has not been approved yet. I called on XX/XX/XXXX and asked to speak to someone in Compliance department. I was transferred to XXXX in compliance. I explained to him my situation and he knew who I was. He gave me the case number that had been assigned to my refund, # XXXX. He was familiar with my case and said it was just waiting approval from the compliance department director. I explained to him that it had now been over 5 weeks that Moneygram had held my money and wanted to know what the delay was. He could not answer that question other than that it had to be approved by the director. He told me he would ask her, the director, about it and circle back with me that day. He did not. I waited a week and called him again XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, leaving voicemails. He finally returned my call late on XX/XX/XXXX giving me no answer other than he would try to get his director to call me that afternoon. She did not. Moneygram has now held my money hostage, and I assume in their bank account drawing interest, for over 7 weeks now. {$84000.00} for 7 weeks!! I have repeatedly told them that I would be fine if they would just process the payments, which is what I paid them to do, or else they needed to refund me the money. I am at my wits end and really need my money! I had to scramble and borrow money to pay the bills that Moneygram did not pay yet they have my money to do so! In my mind, it is theft! I do understand that it is a large amount of money which causes people to speculate and scrutinize my bills, but it is nobodys business what my credit card balances are. I paid Moneygram to perform a service that they offer to the public. Whether it was a glitch in their system that caused 21 payments to not be paid or unwarranted scrutiny on behalf of Moneygram, I do not know. I would like to believe it was just a glitch as 27 payments did in fact go though. However, the fact that Moneygram is NOT processing those 21 payments nor giving me a refund, I have to question their business practices and am exploring as to the legality of their keeping my money for over 7 weeks now. Just keeping it! I have been patient, compliant, and have given them more than ample time to refund my money. They have no valid reason AT ALL for keeping my money. Can you please help me? The phone numbers i have for Moneygram are 1. XXXX is XXXX   and 2. XXXX number is XXXX. I have kept meticulous records of my many, many phone calls to Moneygram with the dates, names and conversations Ive had. I also have receipts for each of the 48 transactions. I will attach a couple of them for you to see. Thank you in advance for any and all assistance provided.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation