Western Union Transfer Screw-Up

[aposhark]

Hi,

I have had a really bad experience with Western Union, and I wonder if anyone can offer any advice?

On 13th March I paid £100 & £9.20 commission to a Western Union agent for a transfer to be collected in pesos in Phils (P 8,216.33).
I received a receipt with the usual information on.
The receiver was my GF’s uncle as she does not have an ID yet. I know her uncle and have met him many times.

My GF told me her uncle went to the nearest Western Union office but was refused the funds as they told him the Claim Number was wrong.
I entered this MTCN number into the Western Union web page tracker and it too said that the number could not be found so I could not track the progress of this money transfer.

I went back to the Western Union agent in UK and complained about the bad service because this number was wrong, and could not get an explanation as to why it was wrong.
This agent phoned Western Union who told them that this money was paid out on 16th March 2008, three days after I sent it.

My GF has told me once again that her uncle has again told her he could not get the money because the claim number was wrong.

I have contacted Western Union by their website contact page but haven’t received a reply yet after a day.

The UK agent told me that Photo ID is required before the funds are paid out, and in no way anyone else can get the money without the correct ID of the named receiver on the original form.

As you can imagine, at the moment I am totally confused and irritated, even saddened. My GF is saying the money was not collected by her uncle and Western Union is saying the funds were paid out.
Q. How can anyone collect funds when the MTCN number is incorrect?
This is what the uncle told her to tell me.

I don’t want to upset my intended as she said the money still hasn’t been collected by her uncle and I don’t want her to have any problems with her uncle. I understand how close-knit Phils families are.

Any ideas whilst I am waiting for a reply from Western Union?

I have thought about her Uncle getting the funds and not telling her, but if this dreadful scenary is correct, I still don’t know how he could have received the money without the correct claim number. The thought of him withholding the money from her is a terrible thought, and I am doing my best to hold onto the fact that it is a big screw-up by Western Union.

We have talked about marriage and we speak every day on the phone, I just can’t believe she would be involved in anything unsavoury as it wouldn’t benefit her if her future was me! This is really bad for me, my first money transfer with Western Union.

Any thoughts good and bad gratefully received. I am a bit shell-shocked by all this.

Thanks,
Mike

[aromulus]

It seems to me that the uncle has scammed the both of you.
Close knit family or not, if money is involved they will stitch each other up....

try www.xoom.com in future, they will deliver the cash in her hands provided she can prove who she is.
And cheaper than WU...

[alicat]

i use western union for almost 3 years now,but i dont encounter any
problem at all...i smell something fishy is going on...your gf should come
to her uncle to the western union first...so she knows whats happen
exactly.

[IainBusby]

Hi,

I have had a really bad experience with Western Union, and I wonder if anyone can offer any advice?

On 13th March I paid £100 & £9.20 commission to a Western Union agent for a transfer to be collected in pesos in Phils (P 8,216.33).
I received a receipt with the usual information on.
The receiver was my GF’s uncle as she does not have an ID yet. I know her uncle and have met him many times.

My GF told me her uncle went to the nearest Western Union office but was refused the funds as they told him the Claim Number was wrong.
I entered this MTCN number into the Western Union web page tracker and it too said that the number could not be found so I could not track the progress of this money transfer.

I went back to the Western Union agent in UK and complained about the bad service because this number was wrong, and could not get an explanation as to why it was wrong.
This agent phoned Western Union who told them that this money was paid out on 16th March 2008, three days after I sent it.

My GF has told me once again that her uncle has again told her he could not get the money because the claim number was wrong.

I have contacted Western Union by their website contact page but haven’t received a reply yet after a day.

The UK agent told me that Photo ID is required before the funds are paid out, and in no way anyone else can get the money without the correct ID of the named receiver on the original form.

As you can imagine, at the moment I am totally confused and irritated, even saddened. My GF is saying the money was not collected by her uncle and Western Union is saying the funds were paid out.
Q. How can anyone collect funds when the MTCN number is incorrect?
This is what the uncle told her to tell me.

I don’t want to upset my intended as she said the money still hasn’t been collected by her uncle and I don’t want her to have any problems with her uncle. I understand how close-knit Phils families are.

Any ideas whilst I am waiting for a reply from Western Union?

I have thought about her Uncle getting the funds and not telling her, but if this dreadful scenary is correct, I still don’t know how he could have received the money without the correct claim number. The thought of him withholding the money from her is a terrible thought, and I am doing my best to hold onto the fact that it is a big screw-up by Western Union.

We have talked about marriage and we speak every day on the phone, I just can’t believe she would be involved in anything unsavoury as it wouldn’t benefit her if her future was me! This is really bad for me, my first money transfer with Western Union.

Any thoughts good and bad gratefully received. I am a bit shell-shocked by all this.

Thanks,
Mike

Quote from Fred on the subject of building houses in Phils

Thats true but unless you have people here to send the money to that will spend it honestly where it should be spent then it might be worth taking off an extra two months from work. Its a tough one I know..

We built our place from scratch completely from the UK..We sent them rough plans of what we wanted with pictures sent by email..They had drawings done by the head municipal engineer who also issues the building permits required..They sent us a copy of the plans by DHL and we approved them.. The permits were issued and work started.
It takes a great leap of faith to send huge heaps of hard cash..
My brother in law tells me that it is common practice here for family members to divert large amounts to secret bank accounts and simply tell the sender that the project is over budget..We are very fortunate and I could not in good conscience advice others to attempt the same...Just in case it all goes horribly wrong!!
No wonder a lot of people overseas come here for a month and buy ready finished houses in new sub divisions.

Of course they are slow..They are on day work! The more days they work the more money they end up with. (Same in UK)

Of course!! The problem you now face is will the foundations have the tie beams they quoted you for? Will the posts and beams have the correct size rebar?...and so on.
You need someone that you can trust to be there to oversee just about everything.
Yes..Thats exactly what you need. Make sure you get one.

If it smells like a rat it probably is a rat!

[Eljohno]

NEVER let anyone collect what you send except the G/F there is too much temptation for others whether they are family or not!!

Like others i have never had a problem with Western Union!

[aposhark]

Thanks all for your replies so far. Much appreciated. We are all in a common ground or sailing in the same ship, and your comments are so helpful.
I don't have friends in the UK who would have any idea what I was going on about.
The thing is, Rochelyn asked her uncle to collect the pesos for her, so she must trust him.....
He lived less than 50 yards from her when I was there one month ago.
He was the first person I met from her family who had to "vet" me.
I paid him to take me on his bum-boat to take me to visit her family on another island two hours away. He seemed so helpful and friendly and just before I had to leave he said "don't worry I will look after Rochelyn for you, until you come back to marry her!"
He went to Bogo on the mainland once before to collect a parcel I sent for her from Cebu City.
He is married to Rochelyn's mother's sister. He seemed very genuine to me.
Nothing seems to make sense.
If he has kept the money, this is my first skirmish will the unsavoury side of Filipino families.
How can I find out for sure what happened?
This incorrect MTCN number which I could not access on the WU webpage baffles me.
As alicat mentioned, should I ask her to go to the WU office on the mainland so she can find out the truth?
Once again, thanks all. I am very open to all your comments.
I don't have much experience with Filipino ways.
I'm still holding out for WU to own up to a problem they caused....slim though it may be.

The permutations have been spinning in my head all day.
The loser is my GF as she said the money wasn't collected and it was for her.
Please continue to shed any further light from your experiences.

This has done my head in and I'm trying so hard not to apportion any blame to my GF. (I don't think it was a good idea to read the articles about scams on this forum).
This is making me feel so uneasy, I am usually strong but when things are out of my hands and I cannot solve the problem, it leaves a nasty taste.
How can I find out what has really happened???
Thanks,
Mike

[andypaul]

So who wrote down the mctn the agent? Do you have any other refrences on the paperwork?

You sure the agent is not on the fiddle?

[aposhark]

The agent "The Money Shop" in Rugby wrote down the MTCN number and then phoned Western Union when I complained in their shop.

Do you think it is possible that an WU agent on the high street is on the fiddle?
By them phoning WU immediately indicates to me that they think WU is the problem.

[andypaul]

The agent "The Money Shop" in Rugby wrote down the MTCN number and then phoned Western Union when I complained in their shop.

Do you think it is possible that an WU agent on the high street is on the fiddle?
By them phoning WU immediately indicates to me that they think WU is the problem.

Well none of us know for sure.

What i find strange is the number you had on the note was incorrect.

So if the number when inputted doesn't work ie incorrect then i would have thought that your gfs uncle couldn't walk in wth an incorrect number with all the ID in the world and get the money.

But the agent says western union said someone claimed the money so someone must have had the correct number and the ID that goes with it

[aposhark]

Yes, if it wasn't for this wrong MTCN number, I would suspect the uncle, but it doesn't ring true for him to lie to her like that, so out of character.
I have spoken again to WU tonight and am waiting for them to phone me back.
Thanks :-)

[IainBusby]

I entered this MTCN number into the Western Union web page tracker and it too said that the number could not be found so I could not track the progress of this money transfer

It's possible that because the money had already been claimed that it had gone off the system as far as the web tracking system is concerned.

I went back to the Western Union agent in UK and complained about the bad service because this number was wrong, and could not get an explanation as to why it was wrong

At this point I assume they still couldn't trace the payment.

This agent phoned Western Union who told them that this money was paid out on 16th March 2008, three days after I sent it

Then they say the money has been paid out......

It could be as you initially thought, just a Western Union blunder... I wonder......

The trouble is that some Filipinos think that we in the UK are so wealthy that this sort of sum of money means nothing to us and if her uncle did collect the money and pocket it, he would probably think that you would just write it off without giving it another thought, just like dropping a 5 pence coin in the street, then send another payment to replace it.
I don't know how true it is, but from what I've heard from various sources, this sort of thing is not really thought of as theft, it's just looked upon as a sort of family extension of the kano tax that we all come up against everywhere, everytime we travel to the Philippines.

In conclusion, all I can say is if you have known her long enough and you really trust your girl, just write it off, but make sure she gets her ID sorted out so that any money you send in the future will be and can only be collected by her. Better still, send her P5000 for the maintaining balance and get her to open a PNB account. Then you can transfer money directly into her account either through Western Union, Xoom or directly through PNB Europe if you open an online remittance account with them.

Cheers,

Iain.

[aposhark]

Hello Iain,

I hate being taken for a mug and I also have a big respect for the strength of the family unit in the Philippines.
With these two things in tandem, I have initiated an investigation with Western Union and have told my GF to contact me next time with the truth. I will let the "family" sort this problem out now.
Perhaps it is hard but "you have to start the way you mean to go on."

I met her in January and I have to hope that the love she professes will make her stand up to this blantant rip-off.
I will not be taken for a mug by anyone, better to stay single than be treated badly, and she can now prove what she feels about me.
Perhaps her uncle is much higher in the family hierarchy, but he has caused a big rumpus now.
They say we have tests, well she has a big one now and I did send her money as well as many other things when I was in Cebu.
This whole business has made me mistrust her and she has some bridge-building to make now.
If Western Union admit to some fraud or a mistake, I will be the first to apologize , but I will have to wait and see...
We live and learn

[andypaul]

Hello Iain,

I hate being taken for a mug and I also have a big respect for the strength of the family unit in the Philippines.
With these two things in tandem, I have initiated an investigation with Western Union and have told my GF to contact me next time with the truth. I will let the "family" sort this problem out now.
Perhaps it is hard but "you have to start the way you mean to go on."

I met her in January and I have to hope that the love she professes will make her stand up to this blantant rip-off.
I will not be taken for a mug by anyone, better to stay single than be treated badly, and she can now prove what she feels about me.
Perhaps her uncle is much higher in the family hierarchy, but he has caused a big rumpus now.
They say we have tests, well she has a big one now and I did send her money as well as many other things when I was in Cebu.
This whole business has made me mistrust her and she has some bridge-building to make now.
If Western Union admit to some fraud or a mistake, I will be the first to apologize , but I will have to wait and see...
We live and learn

I think your doing the right thing don't throw any accusations at anyone yet just give western union and your Girl friends family chance to own up.

One cousin of my Wife borrowed A phone like Ian says has i had two with me he probably thinks wow Andy won't mind. Of course i was concerned when the phone that stayed in a locked room suddenly had moved where i had left it.

The family almost had a collective seziure and i had to ask him on our last vist to stop appoligizing for borrowing the phone. He meant no harm and presumed it was just like a girl borrowing her girlfriends pair of shoes.

[chino]

i have never had a problem with WU though use Xoom now...

I think it might be a scam... i hope not! Hopefully you will get some more info ina couple of hours!

[aromulus]

Then they say the money has been paid out......

I don't think that WU is at fault here, they have been doing this sort of thing for a fair number of years, and cock-ups of this magnitude are a thing of the past. Too many safeguards in place.


[quoteIainbusby;60138]
The trouble is that some Filipinos think that we in the UK are so wealthy that this sort of sum of money means nothing to us and if her uncle did collect the money and pocket it, he would probably think that you would just write it off without giving it another thought, just like dropping a 5 pence coin in the street, then send another payment to replace it.
Iain.

I am still of the strong opinion that the uncle wilfully received the money and is telling a lot of porkies.
Iain is right, they seem to think that UK people have an inexhaustible supply of money at their disposal, and if you are not careful you might be treated as a personal ATM machine.
I am sure that your Girl is the innocent party in this, and just a victim of her uncles greed. But confrontation will cause huge family rifts, and you have to be very diplomatic.
Good luck mate

[aposhark]

I received two texts from my gf whilst I was asleep.
She says 100% the money was NOT collected by her uncle and am I calling her a liar?
Oh jeez.
She says "sweetheart, f u love me u beleiv me. its hurt 4 me. i love very much, pls beleiv me."
This is ripping me apart. I really fell in love with her.
I don't know what to do.
I cannot for one minute understand why an uncle who is "looking after her until I return to marry her" would do this to her.
Western Union say it can take up to 3 weeks to investigate the problem.

I am waiting their reponse to my email of yesterday.

[IainBusby]

Hi Mike,
I think you have to tread very carefully at this point if you want to preserve your relationship with this girl. Nobody likes too feel that they have been taken for a mug, but you have to keep a sense of proportion about it.

It's only £100 which in the grand scheme of things is a tiny drop in the ocean in terms of the overall costs of courting, marrying and being married to a Filipina.

I suggest that if you really feel something for this girl and your quite sure from your experiences before this Western Union fiasco that she really loves you, that you write off the money, put it down to experience, move on with you relationship and hope that it turns out to be, as you first though, a Western Union Screw Up.

It's quite obvious from her texts that she's also feeling very hurt about all this. So I suggest that you tell your sorry, that you didn't mean to accuse her and that you want an end to all discussion on the matter, you know, least said, quickest mended etc. But as I said in my earlier post, make sure that she gets her ID sorted out or a bank account set up before you send any more money.

Cheers,

Iain.

[LEAHnew]

Relax... take a deep breath and keep thinking about the lovely moments when you're here

Local Postal ID or Voter's ID will do for your gf identification, tell her to inquire at there Municipal Office

[aposhark]

There is something very special about Filipinas.
I mean VERY special. (but I don't want to preach to the converted )

When we are with them they make us feel like a king, so when we in some way cause them pain (whether intentional or not) we feel the pain too.

I have never met a woman like this, and I worked overseas in 45 countries.
When a Filipina tells you every day that she will be yours forever until the day she dies and that there is no-one else for her, well, you know the story.
This is a completely new world for me, where love for a woman means everything.
I know western women want to be loved but love is EVERYTHING for Filipinas.
I can see that the florist will be very important when she finally comes over after marriage and visa. The joy Filipinas can impart is a million times warmer than anything I have experienced but if we hurt them, their sadness rips your heart out.
I've only been back in the UK 6 weeks and it feels like 6 years.
Her laughter is the nicest thing in the world but her cry takes the legs out from underneath me.
Now where did these ladies get their love from?
We marvel at the overwhelming warmth we see and feel when we are in Barangays with all the children all trying to be in the photos and holding our hand.
This sense of family and community is something I have not experienced in any other place.
I remember going to work in Brunei years back and a colleague married to a Filipina asked
"Are you married?"
no
"Have you been to the Philippines?"
no
"That's why you are not married"

Never a truer word spoken.

Mike

[Alan]

I remember going to work in Brunei years back and a colleague married to a Filipina asked
"Are you married?"
no
"Have you been to the Philippines?"
no
"That's why you are not married"

Never a true word spoken.

Mike

So, so true!

Al.

[chino]

"Are you married?"
no
"Have you been to the Philippines?"
no
"That's why you are not married"

Never a true word spoken.

Mike

Have to agree too.. (not married yet)

[kimmi]

hi Aposhark,

am sorry for what had happened with ur experience with WU but I guess whatever the outcome may be take it as a learning experience..

and like sis leah had said, it will be better that ur gf will have her own identification so there will be no third party needed when u send her financial support..

she can get a postal ID from their post office or even her school ID,as long as it is still valid or even NBI Clearance..

[Gie]

I've been using WU for more than 2 years now and no problem like this at all. I send money using WU online and my family can get the Money within minutes. Also I always received notification everytime they pick it up. Hmmmm...

[aposhark]

Hi kimmi,

She went to the mainland but has to back next week with a witness.
There is no post office (nor cars) on her little island. It is so hard for her to do things.
This is why i sent the P8,000+ (which she never received).
========================================================
Hi Gie,

Who do you receive notification from when they pick it up?
Is this on-line notification or from your family/friend in Phils?



Mike

[kimmi]

its a Notification from the WU Aposhark..

[Gie]

Hi Mike,

I send money through western union online and they (WU) send me notification on my email once the money has been picked up.

[aposhark]

Thankyou to everyone who replied to my original post.
Your comments are gratefully received.

I hope one day to help with other peoples' dilemmas.

When I receive news from Western Union, I will let you know what the outcome was. They said an investigation could be up to three weeks.

I must learn to not fear the worst and believe the best , and the best is my GF She is a star.
I have sent many texts and have phoned Rochelyn and she seems ok with everything now.

Mike

[Mrs Daddy]

Hi aposhark,
when i read your thread title about western union I did open and read it because I was using western union for about a year now and so far I havent got any complains.so I am wondering what happened to the money you sent for your gf!cross finger for the result.hoping you`ll get what you deserve.

[andypaul]

Thankyou to everyone who replied to my original post.
Your comments are gratefully received.

I hope one day to help with other peoples' dilemmas.

When I receive news from Western Union, I will let you know what the outcome was. They said an investigation could be up to three weeks.

I must learn to not fear the worst and believe the best , and the best is my GF She is a star.
I have sent many texts and have phoned Rochelyn and she seems ok with everything now.

Mike

Like thw wiser guys have set no ones going to be harmed due to the money dissapearing. take it easy and relax (easier said and done i know)

Before you know it the ID for your girlfriend will be sorted and then the next step and the next step and then your be muttering under your breath as you walk round a primark loaded down with bags following a certain little lady round.

[aposhark]

....and then your be muttering under your breath as you walk round a primark loaded down with bags following a certain little lady round.

Right now I would give my eye teeth to be able to follow her anywhere
Don't remind me when I'm moaning in 6-12 months