if I could give them no stars I would. Difficult to get in touch with. Poor website integration where connection does not go through. Extremely poor oversees customer service with harsh attitudes. Poor communication via emails. My funds were on hold because the $148 was too much to send to my client BUT the site indicated it as available. Guess what, it was on hold..... Not available. Suggestion - Try another way to send funds! read more

This is the 5th times i sent money but my mom could not receive it and before this 4 times my transfer had been returned after one week by inquiring where is my money. Sali read more

I used Western Union's money transfer service for the first time a few days ago, and it was plain awful. Something went wrong during the process and I tried to contact their customer support to correct it. And let me tell you this, it is a total nightmare to even find their contact information in the first place. They design the website to be "kid-proof". What I mean by that is they made it so that it is impossible for customers to find their contact information. You will be funneled with FAQs upon FAQs, even on the phone, which I spent an eternality staying on hold to speak with a real person, that sounds like an underpaid dude from India. My experience with customer support was a total nightmare. It was worse than anything you could see in 'IT'. The person that I spoke with a person name Elisse, and she was the slowest responder I've ever dealt with in my life as a consumer. I'm not going to bore anyone with the details, but in the end, I ended up losing my money in fees and wasted 2 whole hours of my life in holding and waiting. My recommendation for money transfer? I don't really know. Maybe MoneyGram, or even something like cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin. read more

Western Union money to my daughter come to find out Western Union canceled the transaction. Why they canceled it they cannot give me the answer said they would refund the money to me so for the past 8 hours I've been trying to get my money back still have not gotten it back this is over $2,000 that Western Union owes me and still no one can give me an answer of how to get my money back do not use Western Union they're awful don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all so I'm just going to leave it at that read more

There are far better money sending services that I would prefer to use than WU. So it started with me sending $2.5k dollars to India in mid June 2021. I went for in store transfer in Fred Myers as the website was not allowing me to schedule an amount of $2.5k online. For some reason, they said that they could not allow so much for cash pick up and told me that I would get a refund and it would take around 14 days to issue. After 14 days I called them as I could not see the refund, and they told me that they had not acknowledged the transfer, so my bank would have to issue a refund. So I called my bank and they told me to file a dispute and they will investigate it. I did that and after one month, the bank came back and told me that they could not issue me the credit as I had my money already debited. So I contacted WU again and they told me that the money was ready for the receiver to pick up. And I told them that I had already sent the receiver through some other means and immediately requested to issue me a refund. Since the money was not picked up by the receiver (which is so dangerous, as if the money would have already been picked, I would have lost all the money), they issued me a refund and gave me a new MTCN number which I can take to the store and collect the money. THIS IS SO HORRIBLE, that after assuring me a refund they still went ahead and processed my original request and made money available to the receiver but the story doesn't end here So I went to the store with my new MTCN number and they told me that they cannot give cash to the tune of $2.5k. So I went to another WU store and they told me the same thing. Then I called the customer service again and the person called Kabir, spoke very rudely with me but still managed to give me the new store address which would be able to process my request. Then I went to that store and they gave me the same reply that they could not arrange for so much money. Luckily it was a safeway location and they had the money, so the nice lady did told that they can honor my request. But guess what, when she tried to take the money, WU website showed that I was being serviced at some other treminal. Now this is because the previous 2 stores that I inquired, some idiot WU employee there forgot to log me out and it was another 20 minutes call with their customer service. The safeway store employees then called the WU office from their store and they managed to shut the other location access and give me the refund finally! To see my own money, I had to go through so many loops which is unacceptable. The entire way in which they run their business is SHADY at best and there are so many loopholes where the customer can easily lose their money. If the money would have been picked up by the receiver (whom I had already sent them money before through other means because WU initially told me they could not honor the request) had picked up the money, I would have lost it. If the store employee would have hit the serviced button, I would have lost it. There are just too many loopholes in their process and I advice everyone not to use WU as you could easily lose your money. At best BEWARE!! read more

Waited 5 hours for them to eventually deny me sending money to my mother in Perú online. They kept transferring me over and over, they don't know their own products and their fraud system is so strict that they are denying completely legitimate transactions. My problem was trying to send USD from Canada to Perú. They charge you not only their fee, but the exchange rate they give you is so low, that they were making a lot more money in the difference. Send a wire transfer instead. read more

WesternUnion money transfer is the worst way to send money anywhere. I usually use a service that's in a local store. When I couldn't , I tried WU twice. Both times the money arrived a day or two late. While trying to resolve the issue, I had to try to communicate with representatives who could not speak English. And then have them hang up on me when I asked them to repeat what they said. All in all a terrible experience. DO NOT USE WESTERN UNION. Use ANY other money transfer service,no matter what it is it has to be better than WU. WESTERN UNION sounds like a respectable name and I think they paid a lot of money for the right to use it. Shame on them. I looked pretty hard,I couldn't find one positive review. I'm sure there's one out there, I mean they must be able to do their thing correctly one in a while. read more

In these times where COVID-19 is causing so much pain, Western Union claims it is helping by providing fast services online. What a sham!!! Even though I paid online via my Bank account, the receiver still needs to wait four business days to get the money. How exactly is Western Union helping us with fast service??!!! What I don't understand is that the money is already withdrawn from my checking account to complete the transaction. So than, what are the four business days needed? Why can't they help to make the money available to my parents. True disappointment!!! 749 914 2953 read more

There's a reason Western Union has only one star on Yelp. In addition to all the poor customer services experiences you can read about below, here's a new one: I merely *mentioned* Western Union in an article on my website, not even in a negative way or anything, and then they went and complained to my webhost that my merely mentioning them infringes on their trademark (!), and now my webhost is breathing down my neck about my supposed "illegal" activity. (BTW, rather than looking at my page, seeing that I simply *mentioned* Western Union, and then telling Western Union to F-off, instead my webhost is now demanding that I either remove the reference to Western Union or provide a legal argument as to why I think I'm not infringing. Their business practices leave a lot to be desired, too.) read more

0 stars. I never used WU before and will never again. My son needed emergency money, they called and said because of fraud alert my money had to be refunded. Went to Money Gram, it went right through....and it was cheaper to send! read more

I had the most difficult experience trying to switch the pick up location from my original request to a different one which does not sound to difficult to do but after spending nearly 45 minutes on the phone and kept being put on hold over and over, I did not get anywhere with the agent and she told me to call back later on to complete the switch or cancel the transaction without reimbursing the transaction fee, so I decided to contact them the next day to complete switching to the new pick up location. The next day I contacted them again and had to go through explaining what I am trying to do and what she told me was that I would need to cancel my transaction and lose my transaction fee and start it all over again so after spending over an hour on the phone I lost the fee and had to start all over again. So the bottom line is if you use their online system, you better not make any mistake and you do not want to deal with the agents. VERY POOR SERVICE read more

NEGATIVE FIVE STARS, if I could post such a rating. I tried sending money to someone I know personally in Central America, and my transaction was put on 'secure hold' until I contact the department responsible--for which I waited on hold for more than an hour--all for a $55.00 transaction. I even e-mailed them, and was told to contact their customer service number, which tries to advertise some service instead of getting you to a customer service representative--and then hangs up on you! Their customer service is abysmal--if you can reach them--as is their incompetence and authority to resolve issues such as this. I will NEVER use Western Union EVER again, and I advise others to avoid Western Union like the plague. read more

Don't use this service it is a joke!!!! Spent 4 hours trying to get Western Union to release funds to a family member who was in need. The so called "customer service" rep wanted to know everything about the money transfer. Why did they need the money. When did we last time we saw the family member. On and on. And guess what! They declined the transfer of the money and we had to pick our money back up. Western Union YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS!!! I should have gotten in my car and driven 12 hours and delivered the money myself. read more

If you want your money to transferred in guaranteed way, then never use western union. My transaction was initially approved and later it was declined without any reason. Then they take 7 to 10 business days to refund the money back to your account after multiple follow up. Use Xoom that is way better then westerunion. read more

0 stars!! Had such a back and forth process for money orders, returned money orders, and trying to cash the returns! I tried to deposit some of the return money orders from Western Union, and my bank said WU would not fill them. Called WU and they said I needed to send all my documents to them. MORE BACK AND FORTH, more fees that WU SAYS THEY WILL NOT REPAY ME. What an awful system. Do whatever you can not to use Western Union. I feel stuck, trying to get my money back, and I can't get out. read more

Western Union is the worst! They refuse to pay out my money without giving me a reason. I've called customer service numerous times and am unable to talk to anyone outside of the Philippines! It's been 2 weeks and it's still not resolved. Do not use Western Union!!! read more

DON'T USE THIS! If you want to send a transfer internationally to a bank account, it looks like you are able to do that based on their website but this isn't possible! You have to pick it up IN PERSON at a certain location in the country you sent the money!! NOT CONVENIENT! And when you want to cancel the transaction, there's only a VERY SMALL amount of helpful people in their customer service. NOT HELPFUL! Find another way to transfer money. Seriously. read more

I put an order online for a couple of hundred bucks to be sent to Bhutan. Western Union sucked the money out of my account the next day. Then it took about 6 phone calls (with the usual wait wait wait wait wait wait wait, press this button, press that button, talk to one know-nothing after the next) to even get them to say it was OK'd. 9 days later they said it was ready for pick up. The recipient went a distance at great trouble to pick it up, and sent me a photo of their computer screen saying that the money was not transferred for the tracking number. TWELVE DAYS LATER after endless emails and interminable calls to the Philippines Customer WhoCares call center, they finally delivered it. Never again. Western Union sucks. read more

Western Union is one of the worst mob organization that handles money. Very poor customer service (especially this stupid automated phone service). I have been a WU user for five years and all of a sudden they tell me they need to review some of my transactions. They referred to Patriot act...Damn what do they know about it?...it really piss me off that they try to scare good customers.. I burnt all my bridges behind...I don't need WU anymore. I can go to my friendly bank and so the transfer. Don't use WU...they are a bunch of unprofessional hooligans. read more

Western Union has had my money since Sept. 24 and I have not been able to get help through chat (online), get an email reply, or have someone help on the phone. I am now concerned about how to get my money back, as refunds will probably take several days. Six days ago I had an email saying my funds were available, today the person on the chat said they were on hold, but that they could not help because I had to call instead. The other day it took them twelve minutes to answer and let me know the agents were busy. read more

After years of sending cash via WU they changed their policy. Note the following Customer service failure. Md Safder Ali OPID 164 Hi, this is Md Safder Ali OPID 164, how may I help? 10:05:13 AM Me I have had my last two transfers to XXXXXXXX canceled but my bank card is charged. tracking number is 102-127-xxxxx. Note I have been a long time customer of WU and resent this poor service. 10:07:36 AM Md Safder Ali OPID 164 You are a valuable customer for us. Please do not worry and be assured, certainly I will help you out with your concern. 10:07:41 AM May I know your full name? 10:07:45 AM Me XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 10:08:00 AM Md Safder Ali OPID 164 Thank you for sharing the necessary information xxxxxxxx. 10:08:48 AM Me Yesterday I called and they said resubmit and it will be okay. I also asked to speak to a Manager and was transfer to never never land. 10:09:40 AM Md Safder Ali OPID 164 I apologize for the inconvenience you experienced using our services. 10:09:58 AM Me Just fix it 10:10:13 AM Md Safder Ali OPID 164 As I checked the transaction status, The refund is in process. We apologize for the inconvenience but Western Union has introduced new system controls to limit the number of transactions and the amount of money sent to the Philippines. 10:10:47 AM Western Union does this for many reasons to address risks with certain countries. 10:10:53 AM Me Your new system should not become my problem twice in 48 hours. 10:12:00 AM Md Safder Ali OPID 164 Once again, I apologize for the inconvenience you experienced using our services. 10:12:34 AM Also, I would like to inform you that the refund is in process. 10:12:51 AM Me That does not help xxxxxxxx who needs this money. 10:13:20 AM Md Safder Ali OPID 164 The refund will be back into its source within 7 business days, xxxxxxx. 10:13:24 AM Me Twice that is over $100 your company has locked up. As stated you have done NOTHING to help Malou 10:14:23 AM Md Safder Ali OPID 164 I would request you to send money from the Agent location by paying in cash. If you want to send money urgently, it is the faster way to send money. 10:14:32 AM Me I am 100% disabled and am 17 miles from nearest agent. You are doing NOTHING to resolve this problem. PLEASE get a manager at your desk now. 10:15:57 AM Md Safder Ali OPID 164 Okay, this is the only option as of now for you. I am unable to do anything, since my system does not have any option, the money is already in process of refund. I wish I could help you somehow, but bond to follow the policy to the Western Union, since I do not any option. 10:17:25 AM Me Apologies are worthless without actions. WU fails me again. 10:18:54 AM Md Safder Ali OPID 164 Once again, I apologize for the inconvenience you experienced using our services. If you still have any queries, please contact us on 1800 325 6000, Robert. 10:21:02 AM read more

Excerpt from my call to the Western Union allegedly located inside Rite Aid: "We no send money." Sooo, just drugs. Gracias, mi amigo. read more

Liars and crooks, unfortunately. These guys pulled a classic bait and switch. They advertise that you can send money "in minutes" for $5. Then 90 minutes later when the transfer still hasn't gone through, and is "on hold" for some unknown reason, Western Union then tells you that it's actually going to be $19 if you want the money sent right away... otherwise, they can't tell you when it will actually arrive. Nice. read more

Their WesternUnion.com site does not work on Internet Explorer 11 under 64 bit Windows 8.1. Western Union's reply? Get Google Chrome... Even if you do drag out an old XP/IE6 machine the site is like amateur night in grade school. There is no plain text option to check that you keyed a password correctly, Should you make an error the page is simply redrawn -- sometimes without the data you labored to put in. There seem to be no error messages to guide you to fixing problems. There are error messages from space, like the last step when you confirm your email address with the emailed pin number, where you are asked to "enter your temporary password." Alas no password, temporary or otherwise, has been issued and there is no blank to enter the "temporary password" in should you somehow discover one. Phone support from the US is frighteningly uneven. One agent says you can send money to a business bank account and other says you may only send money to a personal bank account. The web site says you can use a credit card phone support says cash or debit only. Phone support says you have to sign into your Western Union account to send money but WesternUnion.com's main page starts off asking "how much do you want to send?" not "please sign into or create an account." Perhaps somewhere the programmer's mom is delivering a well deserved spanking to the youngster who threw up the Western Union site. Aza D. Oberman Washington DC 5/21/15 read more

Initiated transfer online. I got the confirmation that the transfer is successful. A couple of weeks later I hear from the recipient that they have not received the money. Turns out Western Union silently canceled the transaction. There was no information provided to me about the cancellation. I have made a couple of transactions successfully on Western Union. When I called customer service they said they did this for my "protection". Funny thing is the transaction shows as completed in my online account. They offered me a 50% discount code to send the transfer via code. Yeah right. So I should pay an extra fee (bank account transfers like the one I did before are free) and pay a cash advance on my credit card just because Western Union's customer service is messed up. The other choice they offered was going to a physical location. Amazing how they come up with crappy alternatives to cover up their unwarranted practices. read more

I think one star is too much. My son was arrested for back child support when he went to Arizona court to deal with it. They would not release him until he paid $2500 cash his attorney led me to believe that Western Union was the only way to get the cash there other than fly to Arizona from California. Western Union lost the money. Blamed the bank and the bank blamed Western Union. They would not give me any information because it was my husband that sent the money not me. Finally a week later I called Western Union and said that I was my husband I finally got information that they sent the money to the wrong routing number and it would be 3 to 5 business days before we can get the money back and then to resend it would be another 3 to 5 business days My son sat in jail for almost 10 days before I could get the money together again. This time I paid a bond agency to go to family court and give the cash for back child support in order for my son to be released. I will never again use Western Union. Don't EXPECT to get your money in a timely fashion it will usually be anywhere from 2 to 5 business days. Very disappointed in the customer service read more

Not able to send money on line or over the phone. I tried to send funds to my Son from NC to CO and no matter what I did or who I spoke to, I was not able to complete a transaction. One person I spoke to was so surley I feared for my credit card information. Shame on them. read more

WESTERN UNION IS ROBBING ME!!... Twice I sent $ 100.00 dollars to a lady in Argentina that won a poetry contest using Western Union and Twice the transaction was rejected, but a pop up came up telling me that I was able to resolve the issue by using the "bill pay" feature from my bank, meaning that I can authorize my bank to send them the money electronically and so I did twice and twice I got an email from Western Union telling me that my money had been refunded to my bank account and that it will take seven business days for my money to show up in my account. What I don't understand is, if they can send money in minutes, why they cannot refund my money in minutes. It is sickening that the Internet is full of crooks and thieves always trying to scam you and take advantage of you. It has been seven working days and my money is not back in to my account!!.. These people are robbing me and made a complete fool out of me. read more

On line, the Money-In-Minutes feature can take up to 48 hours!!! You have to actually GO to a location to send money. All calls are routed to Mexico City! If you ask for a phone number in the United States, the number they give you is 'no longer in service'. Finding a sending AND receiving location is DIFFICULT. On WU website, each location has a phone number listed; CALL IT! I called just to make sure that the money would arrive and be available. Most are located in grocery and drug stores. I called and most of the stores told me, 'It's not working'. This has been a 3 hour process. I had to talk to 3 agents - the last of which had a brain, and had to endure 3 live-chat episodes with idiots. Oh God. read more

Heaven help you if you provide a wrong account number and try to get your money back. You will get a runaround like you cannot believe. Three weeks later I still do not have my money back that I gave Western Union to make my Gas & Elec bill payment of $550.00. I have called 7 times. Been promised someone will get back to me. No one ever does. Western Union says the Elec. Company has the money, the Elec. Company says they never got the money. ARRGGHH where do I go for help getting my money back? read more

Do you wish to be raped financially? Do you want to waste time and money? Look no further than WesternUnion.com. I have relatives in the Philippines and I need to send them money occasionally. Since I don't know any better I used Western Union. I go online and try to use their service. It's pretty straight forward, however when it's time to complete the transaction, I get a message to call Western Union to finish the transfer. After being on perma hold for nearly 15 minutes, the operator on the other end says my transaction has been declined. I ask why and I get no explanation. None whatsoever. They tell me, "You need to walk in a local office and give them cash." Apparently my credit cards aren't good enough for them. Did I mention this was the second time this happened? Shame on me. Next time I'll just go to the bank and wire the money. read more

We received a message that claimed it was from Western Union that $115. had been taken out/or put into our account -- "funds received" was the vague claim. We have not had any dealings like this with WU so I went on line and found their Fraud Hotline with the directive to "call immediately" if you have the suspicion of fraud. MY advice -- Don't Bother! They are a scam too. (By the way their false Fraud Hotline at 1-800-448-1492) You will first be routed to a long list of ways you can use WU that have nothing to do with fraud and then circulated back to the beginning. If you respond to "other questions" the same thing will happen. If you decide to go for the options (nothing about fraud) and get an operator, he/she will be entirely befuddled and then connect you to the Fraud line -- guess what -- the original number you called. I finally caught someone in the fraud department and explained that I was trying to report fraud. She was quiet for a few minutes and then started saying" Is there anyone on the line...Hello? Hello? I don't think there is anyone on the line so I am going to hang up ..." In all I made about 8 calls. In other words, they have no interest in helping you with any fraudulent Western Union claims and clearly don't care a hoot for their company's reputation. Please pass this on! read more

wow never again will i use this service. i hope they go bankrupt by another business. I tried to send money and they said because i send "a lot of money" (2000) it was placed on hold.. now i ben waiting for 1 hour and 30mins just to get a hold of the " correct department" which will remove the ridiculous hold. NEVER AGAIN read more

I've been using western union for years sending money to my people, they were good and easy specifically with their app online but now I don't know what's wrong with them now they're so stupid. This is the second time I try to send money and they keep putting my transfers on hold. Get a text from them saying I need to call first, when I call they asked me a bunch of stupid questions. I'm so fucking upset now. F U western union and T U. read more

I tried to send bank deposit $56 to India and after da hours got an email stating that I have cancelled the transfer request which I didn't request. Next day was an holiday for banks in India so I won't be able to send money for next 2 days. I tried to reach western union guys they said it was canceled by the receivable bank but my bank in India said they didn't and also they were ready to send me an email stating the Same but western union was not ready to confirm the same on email. Then after a long hold I got disconnected but after that every time I call I am on hold and no response. Hats off for the response and customer service from a large financial institution.Way to loose read more

Yes, Western Union is the absolute worst. What a waste of time. I had a similar experience. Went to Western Union online to transfer some money. Pretty simple I thought. Then I was told I had to call for verification. I called and was told they had a third party service that would verify my phone numbers were indeed Me. They were able to verify my home phone. So the next step (after they'd already verified the number) was for them to call me back at that number. Since I wasn't at home, they couldn't re-verify the number. If offered my cell phone, but they said they couldn't verify the cell number. I asked if I could file a complaint and after speaking to the operator and then the supervisor, I was told the Western Union does not have a mechanism to log complaints. Go figure. Sounds like they're not interested in hearing from their customers to improve their processes. So I went to a local Western Union and after waiting in line was told that they only accept cash and there are no ATMs available. That would have been nice to know. Out to the ATM, back in line at Western Union. What should have taken 10-15 minutes took an hour! What a waste of time and how frustrating. When I went back to my e-mail, there were messages about the online transaction being cancelled. There was a "Contact Us" link. I clicked it and of course got a "Page Not Found" error. Perfect. read more

Have been waiting since Jan 2019 for a refund of a lost money order. I called, it's now June 2019. I have a letter with ref # & money order # but was told that because I don't have the correct $ amount they can't help me. I followed refund directions on money order and still told I have to send processing fee to research money order. On the money order it gives option of having fee taken from refund. I guess this isn't true because they want me to send it in even though they owe me money. Scam! I will never use Western Union again. NO STARS!! read more

If I could give a negative stars I would. Worst experience dealing with western union as a whole. Never again will I do anything which has to do with western union. Painful to deal with their customer service line. I cannot express how terrible it was!!! Seriously do not deal with them. So bad! read more

I spend 24 hrs on the phone with Western Union trying to complete the transaction, they call "verification of your identification and they could not help. It is a total disaster. They told me $ was ready to pick up but it was not. Western Union took my $ from my CC and did not pay my receiver!!!! I had to cancel ALL the transaction. Don't waste your time with Western Union, it does NOT WORK. read more

Western Union is a total rip-off. If you're into wasting your money, be sure to go there. To send cash from a location in Mill Valley up to Crescent City - inside the state of California, I was told would cost $12.50. When my mom went to send the money via Western Union, they charged her $46.00!!! On top of that, they tell the clerks not to tell you the cost of the transfer ahead of time. Oh, I wonder why?????? When I went to get the money, the clerk showed me the transaction on the computer screen, and they did charge only $12.50, so why are they collecting an extra $33.50???? Yes, I will be contacting WU about their rip-off schemes, but I want to put it on yelp first. I'm telling everyone I know NEVER to use Western Union. read more