Consumer complaint received 2021-03-12
Company: WESTERN UNION COMPANY, THE
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: International money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
I include here a copy of my last message to the institution concerned. This explains the entire story. I believe that there is a fault in their computer system but they do not seem to be able to understand/accept this. 

" From : XXXX XXXX XXXX Sent : Thursday, XXXX XX/XX/2021 XXXX To : XXXX ' XXXX Cc : 'Customer Care - XXXX ' XXXX Subject : COMPLAINT Importance : High Dear XXXX You XXXX wish to read the penultimate paragraph of this message before reading the rest, since it XXXX help you to appreciate the seriousness of this complaint. 

I have been your customer for about XXXX years and make an average of XXXX international transfers a month, from my bank account in Washington DC to myself in XXXX, XXXX, or sometimes to a friend in XXXX, XXXX, for collection in XXXX cash from XXXX of your agents in both cases. My membership number is XXXX. 

Until recently I have been very satisfied with your service. However, your system now appears to be malfunctioning and I do not think your management is aware of this. You should nevertheless be aware that I have made a number of requests over the past few weeks to transfer funds from my bank account in Washington DC. Each XXXX of these requests in turn was cancelled by you because, you claimed, there was a problem with my bank. 

The first request was made on XX/XX/XXXX and was allocated an MTCN of XXXX. As this did not elicit the usual rapid response by return ( which usually says that the money has been sent and that it is immediately available for collection from any of your agents in XXXX ) I thought I must have made a mistake in the request and so repeated it. I made this second request on the same day, i.e. on XX/XX/XXXX ; it was allocated the MTCN of XXXX. However, instead of the usual advice that the funds would be available for collection that day, you advised that they would not be available until after XXXX business days had elapsed. 

You then followed this advice up on XXXX XXXX with XXXX emails, timed at XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX respectively, saying that the above requests had been cancelled. 

At this point in the story allow me to remind you that XXXX partners with my bank the Bank XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX for all of the latters external transfers. Allow me to also remind you that XXXX has an arrangement with BFSFCU under which XXXX, to access the funds for transfer, is authorised to directly debit my checking account. This arrangement enables XXXX to obtain the funds electronically within seconds by simply pressing a button on your computer. As a result, although XXXX says that payment by bank transfer can take up to XXXX days, in all previous cases you have completed the transfer from DC to XXXX on the same day as the request. As I said above, I was very satisfied with this service. 

Having had this satisfactory experience I wondered what could have caused you to now cancel my requests of XXXX XXXX. I therefore I contacted my bank to find out what the problem was. The bank however emphatically insisted that, so far as it was concerned, there had been no problem. It advised that the last direct debit request made by XXXX was on XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. prior to the above cancelled requests XXXX, in favour of my friend XXXX XXXX in XXXX. No other attempts to debit my account had been made by XXXX since then : hence none had been refused. 

I took this anomaly up with you by various emails and phone calls, only to receive silly, unhelpful replies telling me what I already knew ( e.g. that bank transfers can take up to XXXX days XXXX and advising me to contact my bank to find out why it had cancelled my requests XXXX which, as mentioned above, I had already done ). 
I made a third attempt to request a bank transfer on XXXX XXXX and called you to confirm that this would be processed without delay. The XXXX was XXXX. 

On XXXX XXXX you finally admitted, in your message timed at XXXX, copied below, that that after a thorough review of the of the situation you had narrowed the cause to a recent internal ( i.e. within WU ) system update that had affected the availability of funds for transfer. In other words, the problems that I had faced with these transfer requests had been entirely of WUs making. You assured me that you had taken steps to ensure that the problem would never happen again. 

However, XXXX days later, on XXXX XXXX, I received another email, timed at XXXX, advising me that my money transfer XXXX had been cancelled owing to a problem with my bank account. 

On that day I again phoned your XXXX XXXX Department and insisted on speaking to a supervisor. I eventually spoke to someone called XXXX, who gave his XXXX identity number as XXXX. He turned out to be an intelligent person. I explained my problem to him and read him your email of XXXX XXXX. He agreed with me that it was incorrect to blame my bank for the repeated cancellations. He thought the problem lay with your XXXX Department, which he said had been in the process of implementing new policies and procedures. He promised to try to get that department to resolve my issue and suggested that I gave it at least XXXX hours before attempting to send a new transfer request. 

Accordingly, I waited until the following day, XXXX XXXX, before submitting my fourth request, which was allocated an MTCN of XXXX. I followed it up on XXXX XXXX with a further call to your XXXX XXXX Department and spoke to XXXX, with an ID No of XXXX. She checked the request and said that all was in order, that the funds were available for transfer and that there was no reason for the transfer to be delayed or cancelled. 

On XXXX XXXX I received a further email from you, timed at XXXX, saying that my transfer request had been cancelled because of a problem with my bank account. 

It therefore seems to me that, for reasons best known to yourselves, you have no intention of providing a service to me and that I shall now have to find another institution that is willing and able to deal with my bank transfers. I doubt that this will present any difficulties. 

What concerns me, however, is that you have consistently lied to me : you lied about problems with my bank and your staff have lied to me about the time it takes to effect bank transfers ( it does not take XXXX business days for a bank transfer : it takes up to XXXX business days ; until now it has always taken 0 days to XXXX ) ; and XXXX lied to me about my fourth transfer request. You are a financial institution and I am quite sure that the banking code in the XXXX discourages lying to customers. Indeed, it XXXX well be a XXXX XXXX for a financial institution to provide false information to its customers. Please therefore be on notice that, unless you resolve this issue to my satisfaction within the next XXXX hours, I intend to refer the matter to the XXXX Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 

I look forward to receiving a sensible reply from you within XXXX hours. 

Regards A J XXXX From : XXXX XXXX Sent : Monday, XXXX XX/XX/2021 XXXX To : XXXX Subject : XXXX : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX : XXXX : ref XXXX Dear XXXX, Thank you for XXXX XXXX! 

Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience you XXXX have experienced with our services. 

At XXXX XXXX, we take pride in ensuring our customers satisfaction. However, we did not meet your expectations. Upon thorough review of the situation, we narrowed the cause to recent internal system update that affects the availability of your money transfer and some transactions. 

As a testament to strive for perfection, we have taken steps to ensure that this will never happen again by having the proper team resolving the issues or error you have encountered. 

Should you require further assistance, please let us know. 

Finally, please remember to bookmark our Help Center page where you can always find the most current information on XXXX XXXX products and services. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ref : XXXX : ref ''

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation