Consumer complaint received 2021-04-24
Company: WorldRemit Corp.
State: VA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: International money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2021, I sent {$490.00} to a friend in XXXX on his mobile phone. During the process of re-entering the phone number, the last digit was wrongly entered as 9 instead of 6 and so the funds went to a wrong person we didnot know. Since my recipient did not get the money, I immediately filed a complaint online and asked WorldRemit to help retrieve the funds. Meantime, my friend contacted the wrongful recipient and after calling to speak with me, he was kind enough to willingly give the funds to the intended recipient. 

I again immediately contacted World Remit via their website and advised that the matter had been resolved and to immediately discontinue any efforts related to my earlier complaint. Despite this request however, they still went ahead and took the money back from the XXXX XXXX XXXX account. All attempts to release the money have failed. I have called and also had online chat conversations with WorldRemit but the matter hasstill not been resolved. In one instance, their customer service representative hung up on me after waiting and being on hold for several minutes to talk to them. They don't seem to care about customer service and their disregard for customers knows no bounds. 

Here aremy concerns with the company:1 ) Why on earth would you ask for a phone number, ask for it to be re-entered and still let the transaction go through when the two numbers are different and not entered correctly? What is the purpose of verifying with a re-entry of the digits if thereis no mechanism for detecting different numbers that are inadvertently entered? If thedifferent numbers were entered on purpose, thereshould be a procedure in place for WorldRemit to confirm with the customer before remitting the funds. 
2 ) Why does WorldRemit entice you with high exchange rates display and at the end of the transaction lower the exchange rate on the back end? That is such shady business practice and an illegalbait and switch on the customer. They should display the applicable exchange rate upfront without the deception. 
3 ) WorldRemit must train its representatives to be more responsive and customer friendly. Hangingup on a customer after a long hold time is irresponsible, unacceptable and totally wrong. 

4 ) I have since done a lot of research on the matter and have discovered that the correspondent agent they have in XXXX is a man known for fraud. They should immediately cease using him as an agent. Although WorldRemit, to their credit, immediately notified the agent, he has simply refused to respond or act on it. One of the office employees has confirmed that at least two emails have been received on the matter which they, as employees, have brought to the attention of the agent but he has ignored them and refused to act. His name is XXXX XXXX. I demand that WorldRemit cease using him as their agent in XXXX. There are several reputable agents and I have now been using other more reputable remittance companies and have stopped using WorldRemit. 

5 ) WorldRemitmust either compel their agent to immediately release the funds or if they prefer, they can refund the remittance back to me here in the US with immediate effect.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation