Business FAIL: Western Union

OMG...

FAIL is such an understatement. Really.. there are no words.

If you never had to send money via Western Union and find yourself in the position of having to.. remember this:

DO NOT DO IT ONLINE

Especially if you are using a phone that is not in your name.

Because one their "security" checks is your phone number and if it isn't in YOUR name then guess what? You can't send money.

I know this because I went through this earlier today. I never had to send money WU before and so I did what probably every person with a laptop and internet connection would do.. I went to their website. Filled out their information, including their request for TWO phone numbers, and hit send.

A message popped up with the transaction information and instructions to call their customer service department so that information cold be verified.

Never having to do this before I thought it might be because it was a new account.. or maybe because I was using my debit card? Have no idea.

So I call and get a lovely foreign women named Monica. :: In case you didn't catch on, that was heavily laden with sarcasm :: She asks me questions.. I give her answers .. and then she asks me if my cell phone is in my name.

It is .. but it isn't. It's a long story but it has to do with my once flourishing career and the fact that I had built an awesome reputation with my original name. Like most professional women, keeping that intact once you get married is just a matter of having two names. Or hyphens... but Italian names and Lithuanian names do not make good hyphenated names.

And there in lay the problem because Western Union will NOT... I repeat.. WILL NOT.. transfer money through an online request if YOUR PHONE NUMBER IS NOT IN YOUR NAME.

Let me ask you this.. who's name is your home phone under? On a family cell phone plan? Who's name is THAT under .. ?? Using that as a security is just.. plain.. STUPID.

I'm going to go into more of the story on my personal blog but let's just say that Western Union more then knows my personal opinion on their little rule.

But here's the best part:

If you happen to go into a supermarket that handles WU, you don't have to show ANY FORM OF ID WHAT SO EVER ...

So yea.. for me? Western Union is a HUGE FAIL!