My daughter is out of the country, and I needed to send her money. I chose to use Western Union because she has a card with them on which I could put it. I called Western Union’s toll free number to verify that the money was on the card, and the lady to whom I spoke said that yes, the money was on the card for immediate use. I was sending $100, and they charged me $12.99 to do so, for a total debit from my account of $112.99.

I was unpleasantly surprised to find that she was wrong about the money being on the card immediately. I called back to Western Union and was told that the money would be there for pickup. I was not happy at all because it was late on a Saturday, and there would be no Western Union locations open until Monday. In the case of an emergency (which this was), she definitely would need the money NOW and not in two days or more. I called back to cancel the transfer, figuring I would find another way to get the money to her. I entered the number associated with the transaction and it was accepted. I was transferred to a representative who asked for the number again, and this time the representative said that it was not valid and that I should call back when I had the correct information. I called back with all the details I had available to me and requested they cancel the transfer and refund my money. They agreed.

Three days later, I called back asking about the refund I was supposed to have gotten. They said they had not started the refund process! They said they would do it right away. However, when I received the “refund,” all they had sent was the $12.99 fee! This was definitely unacceptable. I called the bank to verify, and they agreed that the $12.99 was all that had been refunded. Highly upset, I called Western Union. The man who answered the phone was extremely rude and unhelpful, so I asked to speak to his supervisor. When they got the supervisor on the phone, I asked him about the $100 that had not been refunded to me. He said he would find out, but I have yet to hear from him.

If I have any choice at all, I refuse to use Western Union again. They are scammers and they ripped me off.