Consumer complaint received 2017-06-03
Company: WESTERN UNION COMPANY, THE
State: TN
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
XX/XX/XXXX I used my XXXX/debit card from XXXX XXXX XXXX to wire {$2500.00} to a man in XXXX. Western Union charged a {$180.00} fee in addition and my total was {$2700.00} XX/XX/XXXX I was informed by the intended recipient that his money was not available. He was told the transaction had been declined. I received no notice, nor did the intended recipient, putting him out time to go retrieve money not available to him, and me time to begin figuring out the situation. <P/>XX/XX/XXXX I contacted western union by phone to ask why declined and when they would be refunding my money. First agent could not answer either question. I got a supervisor, ID number XXXX. She could not answer either question either but told me 7-10 business days until my money was refunded. XX/XX/XXXX. I called a second time to check status and was told I had n't been refunded because my order was never completed. I was told they never took my money. They blamed XXXX XXXX XXXX, my bank. I have an email from XXXX reporting my transaction was confirmed, with a tracking number. XX/XX/XXXX I once again checked my bank account only to find the funds had been delivered to Western Union. They had posted. I called for a third time, waded through another representative to another supervisor, " XXXX, '' ID number XXXX. XXXX, I suspect, gave me a little bit of truth, telling me one department had confirmed my transaction while a subsequent department had declined it but failed to register it as declined, thereby leaving it as an opened transaction. The first supervisor I spoke with, " XXXX '' told me, had tried to start the cancellation process during my call but had also failed to do so. No one thus far, five days after holding my money, had even begun step one to refund my money. XXXX gave me an email address for the " back office '' where I needed to file my complaint, which I did. He also said he had emailed them to begin the refund process. Now another two days have passed and no word. XX/XX/XXXX I looked them up on XXXX and began a post on their webpage. They wanted me private messaging, not public posting. I was told in my private messages another ten vague answers. I was told they were sorry. They were working on it. I was told they themselves were customer care and then three times I was given contact email for customer care. Nothing made sense. All evasive. At this point, a week and some hours past my payment to them with no service received, I have no answers other than those listed. " We are working on it. '' More than one person, when I pressed for specifics, told me that once the process began, it would be 7-10 bank days but the process has not even begun. The irony is that their fee is for being a wire service yet it will take them nearly two weeks to process my refund, once they begin that process, which has yet to be determined. It 's an endless stream of vaguery and passing the buck within their system. <P/>An intensely frustrating part of this is that they make it close to impossible to contact a human and when I have been able to, I am told that human ca n't do anything but contact another human, only by email. There seem to be no actual humans available for help. I have paid for a service I did not receive. They have had a significant sum of my money and given me no concrete indication as to why they cancelled my transaction or when I 'll get my money back. I went to a XXXX XXXX XXXX yesterday after I was paid and spent {$25.00} to have them wire funds to the man who has been waiting a week to be paid. This money was from my account, so I 've doubled my out of pocket expenses until I am refunded. I need to pay my mortgage and can not without my money back. <P/>My complaint includes money out, time out, late charge pending for mortgage, total disregard for humans on the part of this big business. <P/>In my supporting documents I will include screenshots of my email confirmation from them, my email to the " back office, '' where I was told to log my complaint internally, and the automated response back. I have received no other emails from them other than the automated response after receiving my complaint. I will also include screenshots of my XXXX correspondence with them. I could also screenshot my phone calls to them and the length of phone calls totaled. I have a document from XXXX XXXX confirming the wire transfer I made yesterday to pay the gentleman I owed. I am happy to provide whatever is needed. My frustration is that these big entities seem to be able to do whatever they want to do without having to be held accountable. And I truly need my money back. Thank you s much for your time and consideration.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation