Consumer complaint received 2019-11-25
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — International money transfer
Issue: Money was not available when promised — 
Company: MONEYGRAM PAYMENT SYSTEMS WORLDWIDE INC (NY)

On XX/XX/19, I was going to CVS to the money gram kiosk there where I was going to send money to my boyfriend with whom I am in a long distance relationship with. I have been in my relationship with my boyfriend for nearly four years. Backstory is that I lived in XXXX XXXX XXXX   XXXX and living with the love of my life for 2 years there. I had to come back to the states to get my life together personally as a now XXXX year old woman from XXXX XXXX XXXX. I had wanted to send him money to help him pay his rent from the old apartment we had lived in together there while I was XXXX  XXXX. I had planned on sending his {$490.00} USD and after the transfer fee that pans out to exactly {$500.00} USD. I had done the transfer on money gram, I had gotten a receipt and it looked to be all in order- like I'd have no problem. I took a photo of the reference number that my boyfriend would need to receive the money on his end. We had done this transaction in the past few months prior to XX/XX/19, usually sending around $ XXXX {$400.00}. Occasionally I'd have to call money gram or XXXX and confirm that it wasn't a fraud, I really was sending money to my long distance relationship boyfriend and that the money was to help with his rent in XXXX XXXX. When he went to pick up the money at an XXXX ( the XXXX XXXX equivalent of a XXXX ), he talked with the cashiers there, gave the reference number, and they said that that number was incorrect. I double checked the reference number and we both realized it had in fact been the same as on the receipt. I proceeded to call XXXX XXXX, must have been at least 6 times that money and into XXXX, demanding to let me know what had happened to the money. It was stressful, as my boyfriend had to ask his mother to loan him money to pay the rent at the time. He is an honest man and a XXXXXXXX of  XXXX at one of the main XXXX  in XXXX XXXX so he's a very by-the-book, follow the rules type of guy. When I called Money Gram again that month, they instructed me that I had to tell my boyfriend to physically go back to the same location he had first gone to and then have the cashiers or the manager call Money Gram ( the XXXX speaking line ) from there. It was a pain to do this as my boyfriend 's job during the week was in a very different part of the city from where he had gone to the XXXX to receive the money from me. He was able to get there and then we went through several more weeks because when he went there the manager wasn't there and the cashiers told him that he'd have to wait a week and come back to see the manager. The manager in essence eventually told him there was nothing they could do on his end - that I had to solve it since I tried to send the money in the first place. So basically my boyfriend and I were back to square one with just trying to send money. I called several times after that, asking Money Gram how long the process would take for " investigation '' - ( of what? that my boyfriend is real? ). It made me feel disgusted at the organization. Everytime i called them I had to get a long talk about how he is my long distance boyfriend and yadda yadda yadda.  Anyways, I gave up on this because it was a pain and a headache. It was a lot of money to lose to fraud -- {$500.00}! I live at home with my mom and make minimum wage currently as a mid 20s adult trying to find her path in the world. I would love to know what happened to the money and I wish I knew who stole it and how. I'm disgusted by Money Grams clearly incompetent security " system '' ( clearly with lots of holes in that system ) and I feel robbed which in essence is what has happened. I have the receipt and the original reference number if needed. I'd just really like to figure out what happened.