Terrible customer service-Avoid using WU for money transfers

A simple wire transfer should not take 1.5 hours to process (incorrectly after server iterations and an escalation to a supervisor). I went to a local pharmacy and used their WesternUnion phone to call customer server and process the details of the transfer. Once processed the store clerk finalized the transaction and confirmation.

I am not sure where their call center is located, but multiple mistakes were made from the sender's name, address and recipients details. After asking the agent to repeat the details for the 8th time to find that they were keyed incorrectly - I asked for a supervisor. Unfortunately the supervisor was not much better and wanted to provide a confirmation number prior to me asking for the 9th time to confirm the name and spelling of the recipient. To my dismay it was still incorrect. If there wasn't an emergency with my wife stranded in another country, I would have left and used another method of transfer. Once the cashier printed the final details...both the sender address and name were listed incorrectly. BTW - these basic details are required to pickup funds and any mistakes may prevent the transfer.

I will NEVER use Western Union again for emergency transfers and they asked multiple times if I would like to setup an account. I can only imagine how many people have funds incorrectly taken from their accounts or are pending disputes based on telephone agents making typographical errors. If you have no other option and elect to use Western Union - READ YOUR RECEIPT CAREFULLY...any errors can cause your stranded receiver to not have funds distributed. With all of the available mobile wallets (Paypal, Google, bank to bank wire and the other growing list of providers), I would use Western Union as a last resort. There was no diligence exuded and they made an already bad situation worse. We often take good service for granted, but terrible service is hard to forget. I give 1 star to the third agent for providing the badge numbers of the first agent + supervisor and helping raise a complaint. Im sure the online service which removes the human element works better but at 3 times the amount for walking into a service location. Looking back, paying the absorbent service we would have saved me time, frustration and may have helped my wife whose wallet was stolen and waited hours for something advertised as "within minutes".