Western Union

Western Union made several rapid unauthorized withdrawals from my debit card account totaling more than $2,600. When I called to complain their representative was rude and unhelpful. The unauthorized withdrawals are clearly fraudulent and the company is still refusing to accept responsibility.

12Jan2022: BEWARE... I visited 7 dealers more than 11 times and was not paid because Western Union software has been down in past 2 weeks. I contacted WU customer service 4 times now. They refuse to acknowledge the issue and have no resolution for me, although charged me $58 fees for the money transfer! Will file formal complaint with local Ombudsman but want to warn the general public.

Sent the money 4 days ago, was told it would be 0-1 day for the money to reach at the receiver's end, but after 4 days no one knows where my money is. Phoned numerous times and got told lies (I mean absolute lies) by everyone. Escalated it to their ''senior'' department and was supposed to get an email in 24 hrs by their senior staff but nothing. Phoned and made a complaint, compalint ref was given and was told I would get an email in 24 hrs but nothing at all. Phoned again, as usual, some very very rude guy, given some silly reasons again. They have my money, which is a substantial amount, and kind of walked off with it. Please DO NOT use Western Union if you want your money to reach at the other end safely.

Absolutely shocked how bad this company is and how they treat customers. They gouge your for a fee to send your money, understandable, but they also are shylocks and don't give you a fair exchange rate on an international transfer so they make more money. They also ask a lot of personal questions that they have no business or right to ask. When you question what their policies are, they won't tell you. They discriminate on age and race. Stay away from them and use other companies.

Today 4/21/2021-no fluently English speaking CS guy (sounds like African or Indian guy) needs more training on how to be an effective customer service. He was so fast and he put this echoing noise on me while he claimed he was explaining which I didn't hear any of those because of that noise then when I told him I didn't hear anything because of that echoing noise, he told me this "You let me talk & talk then you will tell me you did hear it & you want me to repeat it"? Is that how Western Union trained this guy to work as customer service? I told him he was rude & I don't want to talk to him. Zero star for him. Whoever you are, or for those who are like him, go online even YouTube, you will learn & get ideas on how to be an effective customer service or just learn the basic to work as customer service. Next CS who helped me correct the name of the receiver is really good. Kudos to you & to those who are like you. Western Union needs more employees like you. Mahalo

If you risk sending your money with Western Union, you are in for a really stressful 2 weeks. Because its exactly how long it will take them to take your money, not deliver it to your receiver and keep asking you for more information, then tell you that everything ok and money is ready to be picked up, and then they told you that money can't be located. Every call you make to customer service gets dropped after they put you on hold. Good luck trying to ask to talk to supervisor - all agents are trained not to do that. They will literally tell you: there is no supervisor available, and they themselves can't help you.

After four years of sending thousands of dollars in many transfers to the same recipient in the Philippines WU cancelled my transfer today. I spoke with the agent who had no idea of my history over the four years with the same recipient, and she said the company would give no reason for the cancellation other than a suspicion of fraud. I even provided WU with a copy of my passport. I was told a supervisor would call me back within two minutes but no one called back. The service is unprofessional. I can only hope that I will be given back the money that I tried to send. I will not use this poorly run company again.

I have transferred money to my account in India and it's been cancelled. When I enquired the Customer service they just said it's been cancelled and refund back to account takes 10 business days. This is such a reluctant service and this is not the first time making me to give this feedback. When they cannot offer the service they should not debit the money and put them on hold for weeks to get them refunded. I would never recommend this to any one prevent one from using it. Holding the customer's money in their accounts for weeks has become the way of their working style. Such a great service in holding up someone's money for weeks. When you can't do it, just stay away Western Union.

Bad experience when you find out that an international company like western union doesn't inform the client about extra 2% fees on top of the fees that we pay.
The agent answer was now you know that next time there is 2% fees. There will be no next time. Next time I will give business to MoneyGram.

Western Union has long been the preferred mode of collecting money by SCAMMERS!
This does not Western Union is at fault. They did what the victim told them to.

Don't send money to people you only know from the internet, or phone calls, and there is no reason to use Western Union for payments to purchase items online, also.
Businesses who only accept payment by western union are suspect.

My experience with Western Union was extremely disappointing. I sent $1500 to a recipient in the USA, only to find out that they could not access the full amount at multiple locations in Los Angeles, Miami, and New Jersey. When I requested a refund, they initially insisted I could only get it from the Florida location where I made the deposit, despite me being in Massachusetts at the time. It took numerous frustrating phone calls to change this. Western Union's response was unhelpful, stating they have no control over their locations. This lack of accountability and misleading information make Western Union an unreliable choice for financial transactions, and I strongly recommend exploring alternative options.

I'll try to be polite but the cancel me twice my transfer to my friends just because supposedly fraud and I'm so frustrated with their like it's stupid, annoying and ridiculous they way they managed because even tho I called several times they tried me like a thief asking me so many questions like interview, they policy of security it's ridiculous and stupid.

This company is discriminatory towards my nation. I will absolutely not support this type of business and I will be sure to tell all of my friends. I will bad mouth this company any chance I get have a good day!

My name is Venus, I had to close my western union account because they put my account on hold, rather my account is blocked and under investigation. Without any prior warning or explanation, and I don't understand why, since I don't have any illicit business or any suspicious transactions. I called and asked for an explanation, and they denied it. In my opinion western union (VIGO) is an incompetent and irresponsible company, which has no consideration or respect for its users or clients. I do not recommend it to anyone, this review will be my recommendation.

Tried to send money overseas to a close friend, who I've sent to before with WU. Understandably, they questioned me based on me possibly being frauded. Was denied. Told to drive to local agent (phone booth in a Walgreens). Phone didn't work well and hung up on me. Tried calling again. Was interviewed, questioned and denied again. It's my money, If I want to send it, let me! I know what I'm doing. I don't need to be "protected". Ridiculous. I'll never use WU again. I went to PayPal, same scenario, was questioned, then they sent it. Seemed so simple after all the headache and running around WU caused me!

Customer service staff doesn't know how to reply, to talk to supervisor you need a half day, stay on hold for 30 minutes, they will hang on the line and you will call again and no result or solution for your issue. They cancel my transfer after waiting 10 working days without tilling me, its their fault, no one from WU contact my bank or send any request to get the fund. I contact my bank they said no one contact them, when i call WU the time number 10 they don't know what to say, the supervisor transfer me to the specialist when i asked for evidence they contact my bank asking for the money, the specialist told me let you bank contact us, why she involve my bank although they will not do that of course because its their mistake, no one for their company request the money from my bank. Its bad company and i don't recommend it for any one.

I bought a WU money order for Christmas for each of my 3 grown children, who live in various parts of the country. All 3 said that not one WU location, located inside various stores, would cash the out of state money orders. None of my children use brick and mortar banks, instead all using banking apps (I'm pulling my hair out) so there was no option to deposit and let clear to get the money. Upon calling WU, I'm told that it's up to each individual "WU extension office" to decide what they will and will not cash. Absolutely ridiculous! I paid for each money order, paid for priority mail + ins for each, and now I'm going to have to pay for certified mail to get these money orders back to me to file a claim, and pay $15 for each money order to file the claim! I just threw away over $100 using WU money orders! Never again!

After using Western Union for many years, I have actually discovered what a scam they really are. They are over charging customers for money transfers. It is very important that you totally read and understand the conditions as to how your fee is calculated. If your money has to be converted to a different money you can bet that you will not receive a true conversion rate and will receive a minimum amount of what you send based on the conversion rate used by Western Union. There are a huge number of ways to send money that are fair. I will never send a penny through Western Union again.

Their pre-registration process is tedious, requiring you to upload a passport of driver's license (their camera kept saying out of memory and I had to taker a picture of my passport and send it separately). Worse, they never checked the passport info but some how adding a "e" to my last name by themselves. I had to make many phone calls to find out why my credit card rejected payment and each time a staffer gave a different reason. In trying to save money, they hire people whose English is often incomprehensible even though Western Union is the most expensive in terms of foreign exchange rate and commission (3%). It took two days of back and forth to finally get the money to be sent to Tokyo, and the charged 4,800 yens more than their competitors like Remitly. Never use Western again.

The website always have technical issues. If you think you're going to receive your money after transferring it to your bank account and receive it the same day you're mistaken. The customer service representatives do absolutely nothing to help you. And if you think getting a supervisor to escalate the issue will fix it, you're on for a ride. The absolute worst part about this company is that they have so many locations on Google but 99% of them are inactive and they do nothing to update their location information so think of how much time and gas spent going from location to location just for them to tell you they don't have a WesternUnion.
I have used this company for over 15 years, but after being disappointed over and over again, I will NEVER use them again.

For a big player in the game of money transfers, you expect more from them. I'm officially done with this guys. I tried transferring money to my colleague in Africa but the money never got to her with no sufficient reason to back their decision. I was never refunded by them but from Finetouch Tech who was handling similar complaints at the time.

So this is in part my fault, but I recently got scammed. I should have known something was up when I had to send money via Western Union. They have absolutely ZERO customer safeguards! Its like the freaking wild west. Be advised, if anyone asks you to use Western Union for ANY reason please please please avoid it!

I have been using western union (WU) to send money to friends and family whenever their names don't match their ID, WU wouldn't give them the money. January 2022 they deposited $500 to the wrong bank account # which the name didn't match, 6 months later I still can't get my money back. How did you release a transaction when the bank account # didn't match with the receiver name? Shouldn't it be the same process when someone is picking up the money? I would advise people to use other money transfer service instead of WU. In this economy this is too much money for me to lose.
Case #*******