Genre: Opinion/Argumentation

Customer Service Value For Money Media Gallery for Western Union Money Transfer Latest Reviews WU stinks their customer service is non existant. I have yet to have a money transfer overseas to go smoothly there is always something I have to call about and wait and then get someone who I can barely understand as it appears they do not hire anyone who doesn't have an accent. I actually had to resort to yelling at the customer service person today, they are slow, they want confirmation but won't send you a confirmation e-mail, right now I have two seperate transactions hanging out... I sent money online for just 44 as it stated that you can send upto 400 x2 before ID is required. It clearly states this, i only did the transaction because of this, as i dont have any i.d at all. They took my money from my credit card, then frozen the transaction saying i need to send id. Its a joke! I need to send id but dont have any, my money is held and i cant pay my reciever Terrible Service, Bad Company You will be asked to confirm your to call for this message. For your security, we need more information before we can process your money transfer. You call.....then...you'll wait forever!!!.... until your phone runs out of battery charge and wasted so much of your precious time!!!!!!!! What an awful experience I've just had trying to send funds from the U.S. to Canada. It was not sufficient for me to get cash from the bank, fill out forms, provide identification, and pay a $111 fee (to send $1,200 U.S). I needed to also return a phone call to Western Union, wait a half hour, then identify the transaction number, my driver license number, and the recipient's name. Then, incredibly, I had to identify HOW the recipient would SPEND ALL the funds, HOW I am SURE of the... Western Union has the worst system I've ever encountered, you actually went in to my credit report for the transfer of a lousy $200, I was asked questions about who I pay my mortgage to and who I took credit from to purchase my car. To put the icing on the cake, you denied my transfer of $200 for my desperate brother and the agent had the audacity to offer a 50% discount hahahaha what a joke you people are, I rudely stated to him that I wanted nothing from Western Union and rather stick to... Last month, my boyfriend and I were sending money to California from New York to my boyfriend's brother in order to put down a deposit on an apartment that we really wanted to get. We decided to use Western Union and we called the 1-800 number and asked the customer service representative if they deducted the money from the credit card and if it was sent to the destination. The rep "assured" us that the money was there and the transaction was complete and to have a great evening. The next... Mdmdm's response to courtneyrose05's Review Written on: 01/11/2012 I am in the Phillipines.. I have been here 2 1/2 months as I extended my visa 2x and got married.. I am renting a house with my wife and I furnished it and buy her family dinner all the time.. I have burned through all my cash so I try to send myself a $1000 transfer the first one went through ok so after I pick it up I try another one but they cancel it.. they keep cancelling my transfers.. I call them.. I email them I send them my passport but they just say the system is cancelling my transfers.. I KNOW!!! Then they say something about security issues.. Hey dumb butts I'm sending money to myself. I have to show my passport to pick it up. I have had this online account 5 years!!!! Why is this a security issue?? On top of that I can't load my Western Union Debit card.. Then I apply for a Western Union ForX account and get approved but I can't log in. I am running out of money and Western Union does not care if I have been a good customer for 6 years. I recently used the WU Pay service by transferring money from my bank account to them. It's been 2 days now since WU received the money, still they haven't sent any confirmation of receipt. It's impossible to contact them via chat or phone (they're always unavailable, even during their business hours) and their email responses are a bunch of baloney and vague at best. I hope to recover my money soon thanks to my bank. I called in to ask about a problem, but I couldn't understand the person, his english was so bad. I asked him to transfer me to another agent, but he said to hang up and call back. I was on the phone for 2 hours and got hung up on 3 times. No one I spoke to could speak english, and they didn't help at all. I have been using Western Union for may be 4 years sending money home every month. The only reason I stick to WU is it's convenient for my receiver to collect money from local Western Union place. I have spoken to hundreds of companies over the phone but Western Union is by far the rudest one. It is as if I have made a call to some third world police department and I'm getting interrogated! I have always had problems with them whenever I had changed address or phone number etc. They REALLY... This company/bank goes further than the people from the great black continent south of Europe! If you want to be taken for a ride, this is the best Company/Bank to do it. What a lack of unmitigated slight of hand! To start with, they have now started charging 4% above the going base exchange rate, which was only 3% 6 months ago, and only 2% about 2 years ago. They don't provide Vaseline when you start dealing with WU and the problems they create! Then there are the exorbitant transfer... I agree with all the other reviewers regarding this company, which is the worst I have ever dealt with. They have now been holding my payment hostage for over a week and will not respond to my emails. Over the phone, they were "too busy" and wanted me to leave a voice mail. I said that was not acceptable and foolishly continued to wait. After half an hour, I asked for a supervisor, who eventually said she "escalated" my issue (whatever that means) and would call back "hopefully within 24... Took two hours to deal with agents on the phone, then finally after hours of waiting and frustration, they figured they cannot help by phone and wanted me to go to their office to make the transaction. Cancelled the transaction for money transfer but the fee is NOT reimbursed!!! Terrible! Never ever gonna make business again with them! The level of irresponsibility at western union is unimaginable, for a company with global reach, i am completely shocked at how they conduct business. How do you decline service to a customer without explanation of any sort. It's a shame they are still in business. The following is an email I sent them. It explains almost everything. I am a very loyal customer to western union and have been making money transfer for years through this company. But I am so disappointed by the customer service so much that I wonder why the company is even paying people who are like robots and can't help customers. Less than a month ago, I made a large money transfer, but my rewards points were not printed on my receipt. I called the customer service line and after ... What kind of legitimate company denies your transaction, and also closes your account without even sending you a courtesy email as to the reasons WHY it was cancelled and denied? To take it further, I was sending money via Billpay, which required me to verify my account by accessing my online banking (which is a reputable bank btw, CHASE). To put it short, Western Union is a joke. Unless you want to deal with hassles and your money being frozen an a non-FDIC insured system, don't even... Western Union paid money to someone else who didn't have MTC number ( this umber only supposed to be known to sender and receiver) They wont admit it is their issue - said we need to report to police as it was fraud but cant explain how money was paid to someone who was not the correct receiver. They are not interested in helping to solve what happened to money and police cant do anything without details of where money was paid out. Their agents are not trained and pay out to anyone even... They deducted money from my account and it did not reach to receiver . After 2 days they said the transaction has been cancelled . No reason given by them . They said your money has been refunded to your bank account . It has been more than 5 days still I have not received money back . If I try to ask western union they say check with your bank , we have refunded your money back . My bank is asking reference number from western and western union is not providing any reference number . Western Union is worthless! I first started making online transaction in July because they offered zero transfer fee. The money came in the recipient's bank account in a next business day, very impressive. Then I made another transfer to the same recipient's account and they held the money for nearly one week, always stating that it has been transferred, but the recipient has never got the money, until they sent me an email about transfer failure stating that the beneficiary's name was... western union has no customer service i paid for the minute service and my money was not recieved for four days i tried several times to correct an agent mistake and found it very dificult to do so finally after days of effort i was able to get my money sent i will never use the service again I tried sending money OL and it won't go through coz they're asking for some stupid codes.. Everytime I call they'd say I have to wait until the transaction posts then I can enter the code... 3 days later, I decided to just cancel it since it's still on pending approval... To my dismay the next day... My money was deducted from my account even after I cancelled the transaction.. I've called them so many times and all they say is that they'll give me a refund but until now... THEY STILL... Minike's response to Guest's Review Written on: 29/08/2012 I hear you. I had the same experience. Customer service is sluggish, giving nasty reasons to not process the transfer and holding the money for so unreasonablly long time. Their business is just a failure! Reply to this comment Pintikan's response to Guest's Review Written on: 10/10/2012 i am having the same problem right now. they are imbeciles. did they returned the money to you? Reply to this comment Pintikan's response to Guest's Review Written on: 10/10/2012 i am having the same problem right now... are they able to refund the money back to your account? After typing and retyping several time their details required I got nowhere! so annoying! so i popped the cash in an envelope and wished it bon voyage! and yes it made is safely at no cost to me! yes me, the consumer the no 1-the customer! who? yes me! the customer! get lost, waste of time............ THE BIGGEST WASTE OF TIME!!! Most of the locations listed on their website are no longer active e.g Rite Aid at Grand Central. For those money centers that are still open, their computers are often down. Their online service is ABYSMAL! They make it impossible to send money. The security checks they have in place don't work (e.g. you don't get a text message on your cell with the code as promised etc). The customer reps don't know how to resolve the issues and all they say is they can't... A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME. I understand that protecting the privacy of customers is important, but I feel as if they make up things. I couldn't wire money online even though the website clearly stated that you could do so and have the funds available in minutes. They told me to try sending a smaller amount which I did, but was charged a separate transaction fee for every smaller transaction sent. I seriously could NOT believe the customer service... and I work in customer service so I feel... When I attempted to withdraw them money in minutes I couldn't until the next day. Attempted to call in to the customer support and demand a refund for mislabeled services. They treated my like I was no one and didn't even care about my call. I was left on hold for half the call and the other half was them shouting company policy at me which had nothing to do with my issue. After an hour of battling I simply asked where I could pick up the money, they put me on hold for twenty more minutes to... Here is why western union should not exists: - Western Union is the ONLY company in the world makes mistakes and refuse to corrected them.In fact, they ask customers to correct them. - the customer service seems like a scam! they cant help you , they don't know how to help you, and can't commnucate at all and their supervisor have no problem being rude and mean to you. - thier over-charge service fee don't match the service quality. finally, if you have someone in need money right away DO... Western Union Money Transfer Fiasco I tried to send money to a friend in Canada yesterday. I gave Western Union $2500 to send, which they on their web site had told me was the maximum I could. I took the cash to their agent. They took my cash and said everything was fine. Then, my friend went to get the money and it wasn't there. In the meantime Western Union had called my phone. Their fraud department had intercepted my transfer. The person who sounded like he was in South America... Okay, listen everyone... All i can say, STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY IF YOU COULD FIND A WAY TO SEND MONEY TO YOUR FAMILY MEMBER, FRIENDS OR TO ANYONE. Someday, they will hold your money and start asking some personal question which is really rediculous and after that, They will ask you to send some documents before releasing your money. I never did.. I never send anything and i never say or mentioned anything. I told them, you know what, just refund my moneyback. Which is they did but before... I tried to use Western Union online money transfer, because they have a promotional zero money transfer fees. It initially shows that the my transaction went through fine and after couple of hours I receive an email that the trasaction is not complete and is rejected. So I call their customer support, this is what they have to say and I quote " Use one of the agent offices, online service requires a lot of verification and is a delayed process", which is suprising because Western Union... I used WU today to transfer money to Spain for my daughter.Because of the RB/Ulster Bank fiasco she was unable to use her own card.Firstly my credit card was declined so I rang my CC issuer and they told me they automatically put a stop on all WU transactions because of fraud. They lifted the stop and I tried again and only after I put in my card details did WU inform me they needed a scan of my passport/id -then followed major panic as I had to change computers and email myself the scans... I sent money to my son in England, from NYC, Western Union Refuses to pay in Brighton England. Customer service give you the run around, they are keeping the money, now they are giving me hard time to get a refund for the lmoney they are keeping and refused to deliver to the receiver. Want to keep the $104 dollars they charged me for "no service" thieves, lousy customer service, people in India that cannot and will do nothing to help, a total disaster of company I hope people read this... Ngocchau's response to Guest's Review Written on: 14/08/2012 NEVER USE WU AGAIN, NEVER NEVER I've sent money to vietnam for my sister on 31/07/12 .She has not received money yet until now, they sent me an email to inform receiver would receive on 02/08/2012. Ive been contacted customer service lots of time but the same answer is to find out why the money has delayed and they would ring me back to let me know.No one ring me back, only i contact them.I want a refund but i dont know how long .Its hard to get money back from them. TERRIBLE COMPANY I tried to send money on line - it failed, after a couple of attempts and 15 min spent filling out all the fields/security questions etc.- with no explanation as to why. I called them, after 15 more minutes wasted on the phone, the agent told me he could not put the transaction through and he did not know why. He offered to look up a location for me, after a few more minutes he got back to say that the system was down and that I should look this up on line. I asked for a phone or email I... I recently tried sending under $5000 from here in BC Canada to Arkansas and got an email from the fellow in Arkansas that WU was very difficult when he went to receive the money. So I phoned WU and had an equally difficult time. They wanted to know all kinds of things like why I was sending money, what it was for, how was I sure that the receiver wasn't scamming me, etc. Basically a lot of information that is none of their business. I cancelled the transfer and will try Money Gram. I will... So Inhad my wallet stolen while abroad in Italy, and my boyfriend sent me euros to hold me over in Florence until I could have my credit card replaced. So I told him where the nearest western union was in Florence, and I went there today with a friend who spoke Italian fluently to help me retrieve the money. I brought my passport and gave the man the transaction number, and he immediately said he couldn't help me. When we asked why, he pointed out that my boyfriend has written the... i would NEVER recommend western union to ANYONE. they have the WORST customer service i have ever encountered. not only was i rudely spoken to but i was blamed for an issue that i did NOT do. save yourself the trouble and the fees and go with another money transfer company. Very bad! Very slow! Very unresponsive customer support! They held up transfer and did not notify me. I kept calling and they asked for more information. I gave them what they wanted and then it happened again. Another call and more questions. Once they had asked everything that was possible to ask they said it would be two more weeks to transfer the money. Four days just to deposit the money from my bank to there account. I have been using Western Union Service for 2 years now. I use it twice a month to send funds to my family in another country. Apart from the fact of it being expensive... considering i was using it twice a month. I still used it because it was available and I really did not want to search for other options. I started with using the agent locations and then eventually moved online. Today there was an error with sending the funds online and asked me to call the number to complete my... Guest's response to emmaferns's Review This is the worst customer service experience I have ever received in my life. I will never recommend this business to anyone in need of transferring money. The only thing I would ever want from you all again is for you to shut all of your doors- GO OUT OF BUSINESS!!!!! I was trying to find how much it costs to send money between the US and Hong Kong. Western Union was the first company to spring to my mind as it has shop locations almost everywhere worldwide. W.U seems like a friendly company judging by it's wording on it's websites but it does not make it easy to find the actual cost of a transaction. Only in the US sites is there a calculator to find the total cost. I also came across this article in my searches. So I tried the calclator to find... I usually don't write reviews . I do make an exception here as the service received in High barnet western union branch was appalling. I waited 1 hour ! There were only 2 people changing currency in front of me ! The agent was EXTREMLY RUDE and UN HEPLFUL. I didn't knew what to fill to receive money . He just vaguely pointed at a paper on the desk nearby so more queue for me. Then he asked any info he could think about including the sender town birth which i have no clue about.. to end... Had not got a clue how to use this service so went to co-op travel on High Street Oldham and could not thank them enough for all the help they gave me.I would use this service again and would gladly advertise this.I was told about Western Union from a colleage at school. Thankyou xxxxxx !!! In mexico showed my ID and they couldnt verify it or something. Wouldnt give me the money. Totally incompetent. Who else would have the code number- it was sent to the same name ! USE MONEY GRAM _ MUCH BETTER !! Ill never use this scum country again ! I went to receive 3700$ was sent from Russia to Alaska for some climbing support, they say they can give me only 2000 $, and sender must split money, so I asked how much people can send by Western Union, so they say up to 10000$, so you can send but you cannot receive. to change transaction - 170$ , are they real?? they must be stoped Bleep's response to Guest's Review Written on: 15/04/2012 THREE times I told the agent my wife in the Philippines requires DOLLARS...as she has a dollar account..of couse it arrived in pesos and at a very unfavorable rate of exchange...which had to be repeated to get it back into dollars! Submitted a online money transfer, then i decided to cancel. Western union said that if my card was debited that it would the money would be returned. I needed to know a timeframe. They said it would be 3-5 days for it to return but they could speed it up by faxing my bank and they would do that within the hour and my money would be in the bank before noon the next day. THAT WAS A LIE. They never faxed anything, so i called my bank and got a direct fax number then called Western Union back... Guest's response to Guest's Review Written on: 17/04/2012 17-4-2012 I can only echo the comments here - WU is an inefficient and incompetent service with possibly the most terrible customer service I have ever experienced (and they dont seem to speak/understand English too well - which doesnt help matters!) Western Union could not be more unhelpful if they tried. You can't get anyone who speaks English. You'll get transferred 10 times. And in the end, never get to make the transfer anyway. They wasted 2 hours of my time tonight and I couldn't be more frustrated. Let this be a lesson to everyone, take complete control of your life and never have an emergency that you don't have money stashed away for because you will definitely NOT be helped by Western Union. If I could have given them no... To send 600 used to cost 12 dollars to send to the Philippines which in my opinion was too high, but now it costs 18 dollars to send 600 dollars which is nothing but a complete rip off and to send online it cost 30 dollars and to send over the phone they will amazingly charge you 60 dollars, and the worst thing about it is that they have everybody over a barrel in that there is not any good competitor of western union to easily choose from otherwise.