Consumer complaint received 2017-06-10
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — International money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: WESTERN UNION COMPANY, THE (NC)

I am filing this online complaint against Western Union financial services. On XXXX XXXX 2017 I went online to pay for professional services and I had made the legal agreement to hire a professional to do some consulting services for me. I did extensive research on this business and individual and everything checked out so I decided to hire them. The total amount of services I requested was going to cost me {$800.00} however I indicated to the business I would only pay 25 % down and the following payments would be sent as I seen progress on the work. <P/>We agreed on everything and in order for them to start the project they required a {$200.00} down payment. I was satisfied with the agreement so I went to www.wu.com put in all the information that the payee had provided me and I processed the {$200.00} payment via my debit card. Once the payment was processed I received a confirmation number ( MTCN ) money transaction control number as proof and evidence that the payment was actually made. I kept checking back on www.wu.com and a few hours later it indicated that the payee had successfully picked up the Western Union that I sent via online. <P/>The arrangement and total agreement between them and me once they received the {$200.00} they would immediately would start to work on my project and provide full professional consulting services and what I had requested to have performed should not take more than 4 business days. Moving forward each and every day I kept checking online to see the progress on the work that I hired them for and I was not seeing anything getting done or accomplished at all and I was getting quite upset about this whole thing. I immediately contacted this entity via email to get an update and status on to what exactly what was going on. <P/>About 10 hours later I received a reply from then and they stated that they never received the {$200.00} Western Union payment that I had sent on XXXX XXXX 2017. I had replied to them that they were not telling me the truth as I had a receipt for it from Western Union and a copy of my bank statement to prove the {$200.00} was deducted and paid from my account. I emailed them a copy of the Western Union completed transaction with the MTCN on it with the exact time and date and the person who actually went to a Western Union location that had to show valid identification to pick it up. A few hours later I received another email response from them indicating that it was their mistake informing me prior that it was never received and now after checking their records the Western Union payment was received and work on my project would begin immediately. <P/>I kept checking online every single day dozens of times to see the updates and any progress and there was nothing getting done at all and I was becoming very angry over the situation and circumstance. I continuously kept emailing and calling them leaving multiple voice mails and no one every responded to me. Something was very wrong and I decided to cancel the project, emailed the business about my decision and requested a full refund of {$200.00} in which I paid to them in good faith and nothing was being done for what I had originally hired them for and again no response at all. <P/>I went online and contacted Western Union customer service and at first I sent them a defined professional customer service email about the entire situation and episode and I did not hear back from them for at least 48 hours and they responded to me that I had to call customer service at XXXX and finally after 10 minutes I got someone on the phone and at first the customer service agent was rude, nasty and had a real bad attitude problem but besides all of that I explained the entire situation and after explaining everything I was informed to send all of them to them at their security department and they provided me a direct email address and after they received everything they would respond to me within 24-48 hours. To this date I have not heard anything from Western Union at all regard my pending problems and issues and it is totally unprofessional and unethical business practices and business acumen.