Consumer complaint received 2021-11-30
Company: MONEYGRAM PAYMENT SYSTEMS WORLDWIDE INC
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: International money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
I am contacting you with regards to a transfer that was canceled by Moneygram, for which I have requested the respective refund to be sent to a new destination country, XXXX, where I currently reside ( request for which I was given the reference number included in the subject of this email ). 

I moved from the USA to XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX. As I wanted to close all financial accounts there, I transferred my remaining funds ( XXXX {$1900.00} ) from my XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX account to my XXXX XXXX account using Moneygram ( transfer reference # XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX ). The money was withdrawn only a couple of days after, but it was taking longer than expected to receive it in the destination account. As this situation remained for a couple of weeks, I called Moneygram Customer Service asking for an update. They explained the transfer was pending because needed to confirm some details about my XXXX account. After doing so over the phone, they told me that it was all OK and that the transfer would be received in the following days. As a consequence, and given that I wanted to prevent unintended charges from my XXXX XXXX XXXX ( considering that the account was in {$0.00} ), I proceeded to close such account. However, weeks went through and the transfer wasn't been processed. Only after a month, I received a notification that the transfer was canceled by Moneygram ( for reasons that were not informed to me ) and a refund was sent to an office in Massachusetts, which I was of course not able to collect because I had moved out months ago ( refund reference number XXXX ). 

I submitted an official request to Moneygram for the refund to be sent to XXXX, instead. They asked me to email additional documents ( copy my passport, entry stamp to XXXX and transfer receipt ), which I did on XX/XX/XXXX. The request was seemingly approved and I got a notification that the money was ready to be picked up here in XXXX, under the reference number XXXX. However, when I went to a Moneygram office to collect it, I was told that the money was not actually available here, but had been sent to the USA ( which I asked them to give me in writing ). I immediately called Moneygram Customer Service who said this latter transaction was reversed for an unknown reason, so I submitted a new request asking for the same solution, and their response was that it would take a couple of days so I should call for an update in the next week. I think the last complaint number I got was # XXXX. From then on, I kept calling them on weekly basis, and it was always the same : I would be referred many times to a more " specialized '' team ; I would have to repeat the story many many times, because seemingly they didn't have all the information under XXXX case number -or they didn't look ; I would be told that for an unknown reason my request was not solved ; and I would ask them to file a new request, to yet again be told to call on the next week ( sometimes they also asked me to send again the documents by email ). 

These XXXX hours weekly international calls continued for months, and I had to incur in all the associated costs, as well as the concern of not having enough funds at my disposal, which became more severe after the pandemic hit. At some point, I stopped calling because the process was so time and resource-consuming, and leading to too much stress, with no solution in sight. Throughout this period, I never got an explanation on why were these requests not being processed, especially considering that my request for the refund to be sent to an office in XXXX had already been approved once. 

I submitted a complaint through XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. The company 's response was on XX/XX/XXXX, saying that the refund was going to be done in XXXX as soon as possible, but it provided confusing information in how to do so, speaking about different places ( I quote : " we have created a MoneyGram money transfer transaction identifying you as the receiver. You will be able to pick up this transaction at any MoneyGram agent location in Illinois. To obtain your refund, you will need to complete a MoneyGram Money Transfer Receive Form at the agent location. When completing this Receive Form, please identify, MoneyGram as the Sender in both the first and last name sections of the Receive Form where it requests Sender information. The MoneyGram reference number we have created for this refund is XXXX and is ready for you to pick up in XXXX '' ). In addition, I moved out of XXXX and back to XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. Hence, I was not even able to try to fill such a Form in XXXX. 

In this situation, I emailed the company explaining the situation and asking if XXXX of the following options is possible ( in order of preference ) : a ) Can the amount of XXXX USD be sent to a MoneyGram office in XXXX or to my XXXX XXXX  account, in its equivalent in pesos? 
b ) If not possible, can the money be directly transferred to my XXXX bank account? 
c ) If neither is possible, can I give powers to another person, to do the process in a MoneyGram office in XXXX? 

They didn't reply, so I'm again back to moment XXXX, in which my money is being witheld without even obtaining an explanation of why is so, nor any response from the company whatsoever. I would thus want to insist, with this new complain, in XXXX of these XXXX options.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation