Consumer complaint received 2016-02-01
Product: Money transfers — International money transfer
Issue: Other transaction issues — 
Company: WESTERN UNION COMPANY, THE (FL)

I needed to send XXXX XXXX, XXXX currency, to my sister-in-law in XXXX XXXX to pay for her XXXX kids school. On XXXX XXXX, I submitted a request to Western Union on their web site to use their WU Pay service. The WU Pay service acts like a regular bill for your online banking and you pay through your bank 's normal online bill pay. Is this case my bank is XXXX XXXX. 

On XXXX XXXX, I received the transaction bill of {$500.00} at an exchange rate of XXXX USD = XXXX XXXX. Plus I would pay {$5.00} for the service. So a total of {$500.00} and my sister-in-law would receive XXXX XXXX. She needed this money by Saturday. I have used this service three or four times in the past. The first two times there were problems with the recipient 's name appearing properly but the last time there were no problems. 

I submitted my payment through my online banking to pay on XXXX XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, my money was withdrawn. Western Union emailed me on XX/XX/XXXX claiming that the money had not been received. So I contacted my bank 's customer service and they said sometimes it takes twenty-four hours to be released. So I called Western Union again on Saturday XX/XX/XXXX, they claimed again the money was not received. I called my bank again and the customer service representative said I would need to speak directly with the Automatic Clearing House ( ACH ) department which processes these transactions but they are closed on the weekends. 

On Monday XX/XX/XXXX, I called XXXX 's ACH department. They confirmed the payment had been made on XXXX XXXX and gave me the original trace id of the transaction ( XXXX ). The representative also gave me Western Union 's bank, XXXX XXXX XXXX, and their ACH department number and said I could call them and confirm it was received and placed in the correct account. I contacted XXXX XXXX XXXX and they did indeed confirm that the money was received on XX/XX/XXXX and deposited into Western Union 's account ( XXXX ) along with my account number XXXX. 

Still on XX/XX/XXXX, now that I felt I had proof that they had received the money, I called Western Union again. Unfortunately, I did not get this representative 's name. She tried to claim yet again the money was n't received. I insisted it had been and gave her the original trace id for the ACH transaction. She said she would ask her supervisor to resolve the problem. I also submitted a complaint to their complaint dept at XXXXXXXXXXXX. 

I called on XX/XX/XXXX to check the status. This representative tried to claim yet again that they had not received the money. When I insisted that I had proof it was received he put me on hold to check the account and he came back and said it had been confirmed that the money arrived and my receipt should be able to withdrawn today or tomorrow. 

I told my sister-in-law she could withdraw the money. Because of her work schedule, she did n't have an opportunity to do this until the morning of Friday XXXX XXXX. When she tried to get the money she was told it still had n't been sent. 

So still XX/XX/XXXX., I called Western Union and spoke to XXXX employee id XXXX. He tried to again say the money was n't received. I kept insisting and finally asked for his supervisor, XXXX employee id XXXX. XXXX said I needed to submit the original trace number to the bank transfer department and he gave me the following email address : XXXXXXXXXXXX. I emailed that department and also the customer advocate department again since I had n't had a response from them. 

Currently it is XXXX XXXX and I received a response finally from the complaint department saying my payment of {$220.00} was received. Since the company has been almost totally unresponsive to my attempts to fix this problem I am submitting this complaint.