A very dear old friend, whom I’ve neglected unforgivably the past several years, heard about my medical trouble and immediately sent me a gift of $100. Being even older than me, he sent it via Western Union.
Yeah, he just went to a WU office, handed the guy the cash and said, “Please wire this to [the little town nearest where I live].” I have little doubt that the guy behind the counter said, “Sure!” and promised to make it so.
So my friend sends me an email telling me that’s what he’s done. I went to the Western Union website, looked up the location of the WU office in the little town, and put that on my list of places to visit soonest. Yesterday was the day.
And the ladies in the dollar store at that location gave me a look that said, “The next one who asks us that question gets it right between the eyes.” They said they’re not a WU office, they’ve never been a WU office, they’re thoroughly sick of people asking if they’re a WU office, they really wish WU would take their name off their *^%$ website, and for the hundredth and last time they don’t know of any WU office in [the little town.] Also, please buy something or go away.
Since the death of telegraph – which I’m not quite old enough to have personally witnessed – the only use I know for Western Union is wiring sums of cash money from one place to another. It’s not a bad concept, but it could be executed better than it is. Makes me wonder how the company’s stayed in business this long, and I really hope my friend gets his hundred bucks back.
I’ve heard a lot of Western Unions stories but I can’t remember even one that actually entailed the money getting to it’s destination as expected. Strange company.
I’ve literally WU’d money all over the world, sending it to people who’s names I could barely spell and never pronounce. It always made it fine. Maybe it is WUing in the U.S. that gets dicey?
I have had to have money wired a couple of times through WU. The only issue that i have found was finding an actual Kiosk for WU. Many chain grocery stores have a WU kiosk either at Customer disservice or near the managers office. May want to check there. As long as you have the transfer number, i don’t believe you will need a plethora of ID.(I used an expired .mil ID for one such transaction, but that was long before our terrorist ways were so frowned upon.)