Western Union

[Salty Gibbon]

I know very little about Western Union and would like to know if it is a reliable way to receive payment for goods sold online.

My wife ( with a little help from me ) runs an EBAY business and receives most of her money through Paypal, cheques, bank drafts or even cash in the post believe it or not.

Is Western Union a reliable route for receiving money from potential customers and is there any risk for the seller ?

Replies and advice welcomed.

 

[Roberto]

My wife and I have used Western Union very many times and have always found them entirely reliable. My only two reservations about them are that they are extremely strict about every imaginable detail of every transfer - just very pedantic really: they certainly don't ever want anyone to be able to accuse them of being careless or of not complying with some tiny detail - and of course the fact that it's an extremely expensive way to transfer money. But we've certainly never had occasion to impune their reliability.

 

[Salty Gibbon]

Cheers Roberto

 

[Old_Bob]

I use western union many times. It's the fastest way to send and receive money. You can send money to someone in another country and he can pick the money in any WU office after few minutes. Only drawback is the high transaction fees.
Anyway,it's very reliable.

 

[thepoliteone]

I would also be wary of PayPal - there's a lot of websites out there outlining how they got ripped off by PayPal, one example I can remember off the top of my head is someone saying that one person made a complaint against them to eBay, PayPal took money out of their account and then froze it, and wouldn't respond to letters etc.

Possibly just scare stories but better safe than sorry that's all.
-TPO.

 

[Kardinal]

Cautionary note

I suspect that Western Union is a very reliable money transfer mechanism. However - a word of caution - Many experienced Ebayers will not use Western Union to purchase items. The reason is that there is no protection or comeback for the buyer of items. I believe Ebay themselves do not recommend payments using the likes of Western Union (although I'm sure that might have something to do with them owning PayPal!). There are hundreds of people who have used Western Union to pay for items, and never received the goods. I can speak from experience having purchased an item and never receicing it (and we are not talking a few quid). I took the matter up with Ebay and Western Union and eventually with the police, but the end story is that Money Transfer mechanisms like Western Union and others seem to fall through the cracks of Buyer Purchasing Laws (like cheques, cash, credit card etc). End result, I gave away my money.

 

[Old_Bob]

Well...WU is not designed for online purchase. It's used to send money to someone you know for example tourists and students in another country may request money from their families through WU especially when it's urgent need for money. If you send WU payment to purchase something online,you don't have any guarantee that the seller will send you what you bought.

 

[dsmodi]

Salty,
have u or your wife any experience of problems with paypal?

 

[Salty Gibbon]

No dsmodi.

None whatsoever.

We find Paypal fast and reliable and have never had a problem............................yet.

But it does take several days to get money from Paypal to your bank account and this can be a bit of a pain.

Going back to Western Union, a person in Portugal has sent my wife money by Western Union, payable in my wife's name. All we have is a Western Union reference number and we were told that any bank could handle this for us. So my missus hot-footed it off to HSBC with her passport, ref number etc.. HSBC could not help and were also incapable of offering any advice on how to collect this money.

Can anybody help ?

 

[Roberto]

we were told that any bank could handle this for us

That doesn't sound right at all, to me. Any local Western Union agent can handle it for you, but that doesn't include all banks. In my case it includes a local newsagent and a local petrol station, though. You need to give WU a ring, Salty, and ask them for their nearest agent to your postcode. Tel 0800-833-833. Or you might even be able to find it from their website: www.westernunion.com . (It's correct that she'll need just her passport and the MCTN reference number).

 

[Salty Gibbon]

You're quite right Roberto. I have to turn up in person at a Western Union agent to get the money and unfortunately our nearest WU agent is 20 miles away.

Ho hum !!

The sender obviously hasn't got a clue.

Must be a stock trader at a guess !

 

[Roberto]

unfortunately our nearest WU agent is 20 miles away.

That's not so good.

Still, that will make you think twice about living in Uzbekistan, next time ...

 

[Salty Gibbon]

Yes Roberto, this incident has forced us to consider leaving dear old Uzbekistan.

We will miss the place tremendously but wifey et moi have a business to run and we must not let emotion enter our decision-making process.

 

[Splitlink]

That doesn't sound right at all, to me. Any local Western Union agent can handle it for you, but that doesn't include all banks. .[/QUOTE

I sent my daughter, studying in Seattle, money once and the local supermarket, gas station agent would not look at it. She had to go the right place, the supermarket provided her with this information, which was a main office in the city. Once she had identified herself, there was no trouble, otherwise, and I would use it again. I remember wincing at the charges, though........ It's like the banks, a minimum charge which on sums of under $500 can be a big percentage.

 

[ben_catt]

have u or your wife any experience of problems with paypal?

Hi, I have had severe problems with both eBay and PayPal in the past.

Last September I paid my eBay fees (£51.14) by PayPal but due to a proxy error at work they went through twice. Problem was that eBay only showed 1 payment, the other just disappeared completely.

After 40+ emails absolutely nothing has happened. Be careful with eBay and PayPal, there customer service is the worst I have ever encountered. Really low class....

 

[Salty Gibbon]

My wife runs a full time Ebay business and uses Paypal for literally thousands of transactions.

She has never had a problem - possibly something to do with using it properly d'ya think ?

 

[Salty Gibbon]

Going back to Western Union, when I received the payment from the sender at a not-nearby Western Union Agent, I was staggered to learn what the sender had paid to send the money. It equated to something like a 22% charge.

Give me Paypal any day.

 

[Splitlink]

Going back to Western Union, when I received the payment from the sender at a not-nearby Western Union Agent, I was staggered to learn what the sender had paid to send the money. It equated to something like a 22% charge.

Give me Paypal any day.

Yes, WU is emergency system for sons and daughters who run short far from home........

Guess what they came home to!

There are all sorts of conflicting reports about Paypal. Some people seem to have no trouble at all, but some of the others have important money frozen. I prefer to leave them alone and pay the WU or bank charge, because I don't have to transfer funds that often. I suppose that people who deal on ebay have to accept the risks of dealing with unknowns. I'm a bit old fashioned and prefer to buy things in the shops.

Split