Thursday, April 3, 2008

Western Union Newbie


Have you ever tried to send money using Western Union? Until yesterday I hadn't. Actually, the day before yesterday. Let me tell you how fun it is.

By agreement, our facilitator, Oleg, required $2,000 to be wired to him when they received our dossier for submission and its subsequent translation to Russian and notarizing. This is reasonable, since we have been working with him and Dima since about last July and they had received nothing from us for all of their efforts.

So, a couple of days ago I needed to wire the money. Since Western Union has a website, you would think you could do this with a couple of clicks of the mouse. So I went to the website, navigated the various screens, and got to the place where you send money. Can't do it, have to register with WU first. OK, did that, went to the screens again, now it lets me send. But wait, there's an error message of some kind, the request is rejected. Please see an agent. Hmmm. I'll try again later.

A couple hours later, I try again. Same message. OK so I'll see an agent. Where? There is a handy link on their website to find an agent. Gave it a try, but I get some other obscure error message. Guess I'll try later.

Gave it a try later from work, was able to find that there are four places here in Mitchell. The closest one is the grocery store, Coborn's. So I leave work for an "errand" and head down there, about 2 min. from where I work, to try it that way. Uh oh. Did you know that Western Union does not accept checks or credit cards? Guess I need to go to the bank tomorrow. The lady says I'll need enough to cover the WU fee as well.

Tomorrow comes and I withdraw $2,124. "Will 100's be OK?" the teller asks me. I head home so I can take a picture of it, then down to Coborn's again. So they have this dedicated phone there with a hotline to WU where this person with a heavy accent asks you about the transaction, etc., and gives you a number. The conversation goes something like this: "No, PRE - TRE. Papa Romeo Echo Tango Romeo Echo." You get the idea. Then you hang up and give the number to the person at the counter, who asks you for all the same information again. Whatever. Anyway it was fun to see her expression when I handed her $2,124 in cash. If you're doing the math, it turns out WU's cut is about 6%. Once you give the info to the lady, she sticks a receipt slip in a machine* and enters a bunch of numbers. Guess what, it won't accept the numbers. After several attempts, she mentions that she's never done this before. She's the manager. So she hands me the money again and runs off to get another employee that knows how to do it. And I'm standing there with a wad of cash with all these other people waiting in line. How fun. Well anyway, the other gal gets it to go through, but in all it took about ½ hr. just at the WU counter.

Dr. David has a humorous post about his experience with WU.

*Alan adds: I forgot to mention, you know, there are 4 ways you can feed the slip of paper into the machine, only one of which is correct, and, well, let's just say one was wasted. Hehe

4 comments:

Ashley said...

What an ordeal! I haven't had to go through the WU experience yet and you would think it wouldn't be this hard trying to send money. Goodness gracious! I hope Oleg received it and all is well!

Alan said...

Yep, got an email from Oleg yesterday saying everything is in order.

Leslie said...

I remember this step and hoping Oleg wasn't going to disappear once I sent the money. LoL, he stuck around and saw us through the adoption. But I felt like I was doing something sly walking into our local grocery store with over two thousand in cash to wire out of the country. Wait 'til you travel with over $10000 in cash strapped to your bosy. Then you'll really feel like you're involved in international intrigue!

Alan said...

Yes, I have to say that, of all the aspects of going overseas, the thought of carrying all that money is what I dread the most. Thanks for stopping by. I'll add a link to one of your blogs. Only one though!