Western Union

[Toni]

Can anyone who uses Western Union to accepts payment for online goods please tell me how the process works from the customers point of view?

So the guy goes to a Western Union agant and then get a form and fill it in with my details and the funds are transfered? Do they check his id, do they scan his id how do they identify the customer? Do they do additional checks against the poll register?

Thanks

[Alternative4u]

Hi there,
Just to say I would not recommend you to use Western Union to make your people use to do any payments.
It has had so much fraud on there tranacttions over the last few years, even Ebay wont use it now.
I run an On line shop and I lost £80 only once with them, and I wont be doing anything on that scale again.
It's up to you really how bad you want sales, but your going to be lucky getting them with W U in the picture, that I and lots of others know.
David

[Toni]

.... you lose money?

You are the merchant, so you would have taken the cash from the Western Union Agent and then shipped the goods.

There is no way of you losing money since you have the money in hand.

So how did you managge to lose £80?

[Alternative4u]

The reason I lost money is due to W.U assuring me by phone call that the money the person had paid me 3 days early was a good payment. Then the day after I posted the item W U again rang me to say the payment was a bad one, and took it back.
It's up to you as to what you do, but I do not know of anyone who will use them in UK around my part of UK anyway, and I know Ebay wont.
At least the nice man who rang me to tell me from W-U was at least sounding sad that I had been taken for a ride by them, and he did say it happens often, so he was honest about it which was good, but that's life these days.
At least it was only £80 I lost, I know folk who have had £1000s taken by W.U so I am not too badly hurt by it.
Bye
David

[Toni]

.... you should be the one holding the cards, since you should have only shipped once you had the mnaey in hand and made it a policy to only release goods once money iss in hand.

It is usually said that people do not get their goods because the merchant is bogus. In your case you made the mistake to release goods withought money in hand.

For a merchant, I cannot see how you can lose out.

[quikshop]

Avoid Western Union like the plague, it is so open to abuse and fraud you are leaving yourself wide open. As mentioned earlier there have been so many public fraud issues surrounding Western Union and eBay, Western Union and eCommerce orders from Africa its just not worth the trouble.

There are lots of other more secure payment options available to you.

[Toni]

.....anyone else tell me to avoid WU, can you please explain how I can lose out?

I do not think you can lose out as a "merchant" I think that the "customer" can.


Customer send me money - I go to WU take money and then ship goods. NO loss for me or even a possiblity of any loss.


Customer send me money - I go to WU take money and do not send goods. Customer CAN suffer a loss but not me.


So it appears that WU is safe for merchants since you take the money fisrt and then ship goods. Am I missing something here?

[Alternative4u]

Hello Toni,
Well I do hope your not too upset about the things being said to you about W.U as I can tell you that none is intended ok? but I have to ask myself why you are so keen to use W.U for your sales after you have been warned of problems that could occur and from my experience often do.
I am concerned regarding your remarks about your customers could lose out and it would appear you are only worried about losing money yourself and not about your customers.
Toni please do not take offense at what I am saying, I just want you to be as busy with sales as you can, not put your buyers off your company.
I must say that when the public read and hear about these problems it reflects badly on all internet traders.
All the very best,
from
David

[Toni]

Although you have mostly given your 'opinion' about Western Union it is not good enough for me since a always take a scientific approach to problem solving. I guess I have got this from working exclusively in some of the biggest companies in the world where you have to prove something for it to be accepted by your peers rather than just base something on opinion.

About you remarks on getting upset, I am no where near upset as I welcome your points of view - but am looking for a scientific edge.

My remarks regarding that only customers can lose out is actually providing evidence against your remarks that merchants are losing out. There is no sinister meaning behind my evidence but I have simply tested your remarks against the following scenario:

1) Customer send me money - I go to WU take money and then ship goods. NO loss for me or even a possiblity of any loss.


2) Customer send me money - I go to WU take money and do not send goods. Customer CAN suffer a loss but not me.

I have tested your theory and cannot find any way that I (merchant) can lose out in using WU. I have requested that you or other should prove my test to be wrong by explaining that after me taking the money from WU and shiiping the goods how I can lose out - but you and others have failed to provide an explanation.

"I am concerned regarding your remarks about your customers could lose out and it would appear you are only worried about losing money yourself and not about your customers."

As per my comments earlier I am just testing your comments.

"Toni please do not take offense at what I am saying, I just want you to be as busy with sales as you can, not put your buyers off your company."

I doubt my customers can be put off since they do not know of my company. I am sure they will continue to buy from companies that do not appear to be shaddy in the first place.


So back to my question, if you want you or others can still answer how WU is bad for merchants as I have not been given an answer that cannot be challenged but rather just an opinion of two people.

[Ashley]

A lot of customers seeing Western Union as a method of payment by a merchant put on their rip off radar and move on, I am one such customer. I can see no reason why any retailer would use it as a method of payment.

[Toni]

I hope to be trading internationally and therefore would like to offer WU as an alternative to ther payment methods. I do not intend to use it as a sole method of payment where this payment may be more appropriate.

As far as I can see, I am on trying to look after my different potential customers.

[Joanne_UK]

hi Tony,

You are correct in saying that if someone pay you with Western Union and you wait to have the money to send the goods then you cannot loose out.

That is not the problem, the problem is that Western union is intended for people who wants to send money to people they know and trust (http://www.westernunion.co.uk/WUCOMWEB/staticMid.do?method=load&pagename=fraudIndex), not for business transactions. If a business offer this as a payment solution it screems scam , just do a search on google for "western union scams" and you will see that they warn everybody not to pay (for goods ) with Western union.
I would never buy anything to company through Western union , way to risky for me. If you want to give your business a good reputation don't use Western Union as your way to receive payment, it is not fair on your customers (the few ones that will accept to pay you through WU because they don't know it is risky) because if something go wrong (for example they want to return an item) they have no way to get their money back.


Joanne

[IridiumCorp]

How you can be defrauded through WU is easy. You can top up a WU account with your card online.

Fraudster has stolen or cloned card details. Pays into W.U with the card you take money as you think cash has been handed in, ship the goods etc.

Credit card company does a chargeback on stolen card. W.U. takes money back from you.

Hope that clears things up Toni.