Consumer complaint received 2020-09-27
Company: WESTERN UNION COMPANY, THE
State: MI
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: International money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
Due to the pandemic I attempted to send a money transfer via Western Union ( WU ), a supposedly reputable company I could trust, after business hours on Monday, XX/XX/2020. I was attempting to make this money transfer into a XXXX bank   account from the United States. I was hesitant to physically go into a local WU office, thus, I tried to make my first online wire transfer. I set up an account and had tremendous trouble in trying to provide various Banking routing numbers, account numbers, institution numbers and transit numbers. Therefore, I called the WU customer service line after I'd received several rejections of my transfer not having the ability to be completed. I received mixed information from several WU representatives, first I was told that my XXXX bank   would receive a WU online transfer from by using my banking debit card and then after failed attempts, post this call to retry the transfer, I was told via phone that they reason my transfer was not successful was due to the fact that I could not transfer money internationally  from a US bank  account into a XXXX bank  account. So, I accepted this reasoning as to why I continued to get messages that the transfer went thru at XXXX and others that if did not complete, or rather my recipient was waiting for me to finish my transfer at XXXX. 
These emails and customer service calls were so confusing with conflicting information, and as well I did not see a WU withdrawal or even pending transaction from my US bank  account, I was frantic that this type of WU transfer would not satisfy my XXXX banking   deadline. Thus, the first thing Tuesday morning, XX/XX/2020, just before the border between the US/XXXX   was closed to non essential crossings, I physically went to my XXXX bank  and made my deposit. At that time, I also confirmed with the bank assistant manager there, that they could not have accepted a WU online banking transfer or deposit, as it was not their policy. They only accepted international wire transfers from banks. 
I assumed that no WU transfers were completed as I stated that I kept receiving emails to complete my transfer and neither the US or XXXX banks showed any indication of WU withdrawals or deposits.

However, this was the beginning of a WU nightmare for me as the next day, I saw that WU had withdrawn the transfer amount from my US bank account. XXXX, when I contacted WU they could not tell me if the transfer had been picked up or received on the XXXX end. Thus, my main or big questions to WU, was where is my money or where did it go? Could they tract it somehow? Later in the week, with subsequent calls, WU informed me that someone/somewhere in XXXX my transfer was accepted or I assume picked up. Again, I contacted my bank in XXXX and they stated that this was not possible and they had no record of receiving the transfer. 
I then turned to my US Bank and from XX/XX/2020 thru XX/XX/2020, filing a debit card disputes. The US Bank shifted responsibility back onto me the consumer and WU to determine or tract my lost money transfer. I even physically visited my US Bank, contacted the XXXX Bank  again all to no avail. 
As a last ditch effort to have WU to refund my money due to the lost or unreceived or untraceable funds on XX/XX/2020, I spoke with XXXX, operator XXXX inquiring as to why WU never returned my previous calls or sent any written response to my inquiry of the missing transfer. XXXX, gave me a case noXXXX and stated that someone would respond in 24-48 hours. On XX/XX/2020 WU sent me an email stating that I should again contact my XXXX bank  to confirm the deposit or request a rejection to have the funds returned. 
At this point, I am overwhelmed with frustration and appear to be caught in a vicious cycle of being bounced between WU & banks as a consumer to resolve these issues myself. Even after receiving erroneous or conflicting, ever changing information from WU, they still are exhibiting poor customer service in non attempts to assist me as a consumer. Previously, I was told that the transfer had been  delivered to the XXXX bank  and now they are asking for proof of rejection of the funds! Either the money is with the XXXX bank  or not! 
I sincerely hope that your agency can assist me as a consumer to retrieve my money and to finally resolve this issue. I will never trust or use WU again for any transactions seeing that this is their level of customer service offered. During these trying times, many consumers like myself do not have disposable income to give or donate to large companies. 
Thank you in advance for your attention in this matter.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation