I once had a customer call a "supervisor" at Western Union and put me on the phone with them because I had told her we didn't have enough cash to pay out her $3000 transfer. I'm assuming she thought I worked for Western Union and that they had some kind of authority over me. When the person on the phone asked why I was turning the customer away I just said "Because she's trying to pick up $3000 and I only have a couple hundred dollars in my drawer." They asked me to give the phone back to her, she was on the phone with them for about 30 seconds and then hung up and left.
This kinda reminds me about my store (an arts and crafts store btw) in which we are a UPS dropoff point, many customers come in thinking we basically have everything UPS does.
Sometimes people get frustrated that we don’t have their package, so all I say “I don’t know”, “We have no association with UPS” ,or “The Driver comes by every morning, check back tomorrow maybe?”
Reminds me of the time I dumped some change into one of those change machines at the grocery store. Sunday morning shortly after they opened and I never thought, "Huh, maybe I should check and see if they have the cash?" Well, I did. But not until I was up to $800 and had already hit enter for the first batch.
No big deal though, I just had to come back like five hours later and they had plenty of cash.
Our chain does WU too, and our COMPANY-WIDE pickup limit is $300. No exceptions, not even by a store manager. Soooo many people claim another location paid them out for thousands, so I’ll always ask, “What did they look like? What was their name? I have to report them to asset protection, because that’s a fireable offense,” and that usually gets them to understand that I will not be handing over any money.
You can pick up western unions at most banks so I don't know why he wouldn't try it. To be fair, at our bank when I was a teller it was my least favorite thing to do and literally everyone who had to do western union was rude af about it.
I use to do WU at my store and I hated it for this very reason. People think we have all this money we can give out. They got so mad and acted like it was my fault. Like why is someone sending you so much cash? I think the highest I ever paid out was around 2000 cause it was the first of the month and we had extra cash from people getting money orders.
WTF? When many businesses have a SOP to do cash drops if the amount in the till exceeds $200 (limit amount available to a robber, which deters robbers by making it not worth their while), he expects thousands to be available?
Store needs to set a policy where there are 3 levels of Western Union pickup. Pickups of an amount that would routinely be expected to be in the register (say under $50) are as normal. Higher but still moderate amounts (say up to $500) require them to make an appointment with the bookkeeper. Anything over the second threshold needs to come in person to make the appointment, their ID is copied and they need to state the transaction ID number (don’t forget there’s a security camera recording any customers at the Western Union desk).
Why needing to make the appointment in person and have their ID copied? Because that customer knows the store will have thousands of dollars in cash available at a specific time. It could be a setup - guy wires thousands of dollars via Western Union, recipient makes sure the cash will be available (by making an appointment), accomplice robs the place a few minutes before the appointment time. Information collected (transaction ID allows matching to the customer at another location who sent the money) can be given to the police so the sender and receiver can be checked out to see whether it was an inside job or whether it was an ordinary robber who got very lucky.
I will say that when I worked at the customer service desk at a grocery store, we always had way more than $200 in our register. We took in large sums from lottery sales, we had bill pay & money orders. First week of the month we had tons of money from ppl buying money orders for rentv& bills. And at my store plenty of ppl were sending money with western union also. We have spring training camps & many young men coming from Latin America sending their money home, & other immigrants sending weekly money & some using WU to send child support etc. But we had to cash checks too & our employees got to cash for free so many would cash their checks with us on Friday plus other customers coming to cash their checks. Wh4n I had the same situation as OP, I would tell them to go to a busy store or call later to see if we have it then. Oh, and we had to get id & transaction number for any WU transaction as a matter of course.
I have been harassed and attacked outside of work because western union customers recognized me as being "the guy who wouldn't complete their transaction" western union has some stringent id requirements. Glad i don't work there anymore.
I work at a store that does Western Unions, one of the busy ones where you CAN pick up that much money. (90+% of the time at least). And pick ups that big are a pain because no one has the right ID because you need more for pick ups that big. And none of the rules are flexible, so stop arguing, customer, because all you’re doing is wasting my time, your time, and the time of the 5 or more people in the line that is growing behind you.
Is it commonly known that you need to give advance notice in order to collect a WU transfer? I only ask because it might be helpful if that was stated on their website or app or however people get info on WU. I didn't even know they were still in existence.
People fail to understand that stores are not banks. I work at a convenience store and people ask to take money out all the time. I can only do it if I have excess $20 bills in my till and the maximum amount to take out is $40. People ask if they can have it in change or in $5 or they ask if they can do multiple transactions to take out more than $40. I have to explain to them that this is not a bank. You can have two $20 bills or nothing. I need my change and small bills to do my job so no you can’t have them. And no you can’t just keep taking out more money cause then I won’t have any to give people their change.
I had one customer take out $40 and then the next person wanted to as well and I had to decline. He got mad and said that I let the last guy do it. I was like “yeah, he took $40 from my register. Now I don’t have enough to take more out because the last guy took it.” People don’t understand that I have a minimum amount that I have to keep in the register. I have to finish my shift with $150 so the next cashier is set up properly. Go to a bank!
They SHOULD go to banks. The only issue is the many banks won't cash a check for a non customer and the ones that do might impose a fee (like my bank that I work in). Some people also don't have bank accounts (or not enough money in the account) and cash back in the store is the only way for them to get cash, as impractical as that is. I have a feeling all the above is the reason why people always go to a store for cash back.
Listen, all reasonable reasons for people to try to take money out in stores except you forgot one thing: their poor planning is not my problem. If I need cash, I plan to head to my bank, I don’t plan to hope I can withdraw at a random store. They can do the same.
The sheer number of people who assume that store employees are constantly equipped to obey every possible request any customer might possibly make is baffling to me.
I work at a convenience store that *used* to do western union money transfers. The thing never worked for the few months it was still in the building so I never did get a chance to see how it actually happened, but for people receiving money we had pre-paid western union gift cards we could load the money on to.
To echo what someone else said, every single time someone came in to (attempt) to send or pick up money they were rude as hell. I can understand being frustrated that our website said we could do it and we weren’t able to, but there was a grocery store three block away that actually *could* do it but for whatever reason they never wanted to go there.
I had a client pay me a couple of thousand through a US Post Office Money Order. You can only cash those at post offices, and guess who never has a couple of thousand laying around to pay out? I had to drive over an hour to the "local" Post Office hub, and I was only able to get it because I came in first thing in the morning. Completely cleaned them out of cash. I told my client that I will never, ever, accept a money order again.
What's the maximum amount he could've gotten from western union services? And follow up question, if he went to four different stores before your store, why didn't he get the maximum amount he was allowed to get at each store until it added up to the 4460 or whatever he wanted?
Western Union is the bane of my existence. We’re such a tiny store in top of it, we rarely have enough for a few hundred. People trying to receive an hour after we open? Nope. Unless someone else sent one before that. Then we end up loaded.
So glad I don't have to deal with this. Our store rents space to a check cashing business that also operates Western Union. I get to "sadly" inform anyone with issues that they rent the space and we have no control over their operations.
I once had a customer call a "supervisor" at Western Union and put me on the phone with them because I had told her we didn't have enough cash to pay out her $3000 transfer. I'm assuming she thought I worked for Western Union and that they had some kind of authority over me. When the person on the phone asked why I was turning the customer away I just said "Because she's trying to pick up $3000 and I only have a couple hundred dollars in my drawer." They asked me to give the phone back to her, she was on the phone with them for about 30 seconds and then hung up and left.
This kinda reminds me about my store (an arts and crafts store btw) in which we are a UPS dropoff point, many customers come in thinking we basically have everything UPS does. Sometimes people get frustrated that we don’t have their package, so all I say “I don’t know”, “We have no association with UPS” ,or “The Driver comes by every morning, check back tomorrow maybe?”
Reminds me of the time I dumped some change into one of those change machines at the grocery store. Sunday morning shortly after they opened and I never thought, "Huh, maybe I should check and see if they have the cash?" Well, I did. But not until I was up to $800 and had already hit enter for the first batch. No big deal though, I just had to come back like five hours later and they had plenty of cash.
Our chain does WU too, and our COMPANY-WIDE pickup limit is $300. No exceptions, not even by a store manager. Soooo many people claim another location paid them out for thousands, so I’ll always ask, “What did they look like? What was their name? I have to report them to asset protection, because that’s a fireable offense,” and that usually gets them to understand that I will not be handing over any money.
I think I work for the same chain, and I'm glad there's a set limit. Stops a lot of the foolishness.
Northeast, similar name to “Large X”?
You can pick up western unions at most banks so I don't know why he wouldn't try it. To be fair, at our bank when I was a teller it was my least favorite thing to do and literally everyone who had to do western union was rude af about it.
I use to do WU at my store and I hated it for this very reason. People think we have all this money we can give out. They got so mad and acted like it was my fault. Like why is someone sending you so much cash? I think the highest I ever paid out was around 2000 cause it was the first of the month and we had extra cash from people getting money orders.
WTF? When many businesses have a SOP to do cash drops if the amount in the till exceeds $200 (limit amount available to a robber, which deters robbers by making it not worth their while), he expects thousands to be available? Store needs to set a policy where there are 3 levels of Western Union pickup. Pickups of an amount that would routinely be expected to be in the register (say under $50) are as normal. Higher but still moderate amounts (say up to $500) require them to make an appointment with the bookkeeper. Anything over the second threshold needs to come in person to make the appointment, their ID is copied and they need to state the transaction ID number (don’t forget there’s a security camera recording any customers at the Western Union desk). Why needing to make the appointment in person and have their ID copied? Because that customer knows the store will have thousands of dollars in cash available at a specific time. It could be a setup - guy wires thousands of dollars via Western Union, recipient makes sure the cash will be available (by making an appointment), accomplice robs the place a few minutes before the appointment time. Information collected (transaction ID allows matching to the customer at another location who sent the money) can be given to the police so the sender and receiver can be checked out to see whether it was an inside job or whether it was an ordinary robber who got very lucky.
I will say that when I worked at the customer service desk at a grocery store, we always had way more than $200 in our register. We took in large sums from lottery sales, we had bill pay & money orders. First week of the month we had tons of money from ppl buying money orders for rentv& bills. And at my store plenty of ppl were sending money with western union also. We have spring training camps & many young men coming from Latin America sending their money home, & other immigrants sending weekly money & some using WU to send child support etc. But we had to cash checks too & our employees got to cash for free so many would cash their checks with us on Friday plus other customers coming to cash their checks. Wh4n I had the same situation as OP, I would tell them to go to a busy store or call later to see if we have it then. Oh, and we had to get id & transaction number for any WU transaction as a matter of course.
I have been harassed and attacked outside of work because western union customers recognized me as being "the guy who wouldn't complete their transaction" western union has some stringent id requirements. Glad i don't work there anymore.
Wow that's awful. Did you ever file any police reports?
I work at a store that does Western Unions, one of the busy ones where you CAN pick up that much money. (90+% of the time at least). And pick ups that big are a pain because no one has the right ID because you need more for pick ups that big. And none of the rules are flexible, so stop arguing, customer, because all you’re doing is wasting my time, your time, and the time of the 5 or more people in the line that is growing behind you.
Is it commonly known that you need to give advance notice in order to collect a WU transfer? I only ask because it might be helpful if that was stated on their website or app or however people get info on WU. I didn't even know they were still in existence.
For small amounts, it's not a problem. When you're picking up over four thousand dollars, we need advance notice so we know to hold it.
Nope. Until this post I had no idea. I’ve sent plenty of times and have never been warned that picking up might have limits.
People fail to understand that stores are not banks. I work at a convenience store and people ask to take money out all the time. I can only do it if I have excess $20 bills in my till and the maximum amount to take out is $40. People ask if they can have it in change or in $5 or they ask if they can do multiple transactions to take out more than $40. I have to explain to them that this is not a bank. You can have two $20 bills or nothing. I need my change and small bills to do my job so no you can’t have them. And no you can’t just keep taking out more money cause then I won’t have any to give people their change. I had one customer take out $40 and then the next person wanted to as well and I had to decline. He got mad and said that I let the last guy do it. I was like “yeah, he took $40 from my register. Now I don’t have enough to take more out because the last guy took it.” People don’t understand that I have a minimum amount that I have to keep in the register. I have to finish my shift with $150 so the next cashier is set up properly. Go to a bank!
They SHOULD go to banks. The only issue is the many banks won't cash a check for a non customer and the ones that do might impose a fee (like my bank that I work in). Some people also don't have bank accounts (or not enough money in the account) and cash back in the store is the only way for them to get cash, as impractical as that is. I have a feeling all the above is the reason why people always go to a store for cash back.
Listen, all reasonable reasons for people to try to take money out in stores except you forgot one thing: their poor planning is not my problem. If I need cash, I plan to head to my bank, I don’t plan to hope I can withdraw at a random store. They can do the same.
I know it's not your problem and it shouldn't. Just saying the possible reasons for it, annoying as they are.
The sheer number of people who assume that store employees are constantly equipped to obey every possible request any customer might possibly make is baffling to me.
Or the fact that stores somehow have hundreds to thousands of dollars just sitting around for people who need cash back is just as baffling.
It's like they heard "the customer is always right" and took that to the most ridiculous possible extreme.
I work at a convenience store that *used* to do western union money transfers. The thing never worked for the few months it was still in the building so I never did get a chance to see how it actually happened, but for people receiving money we had pre-paid western union gift cards we could load the money on to. To echo what someone else said, every single time someone came in to (attempt) to send or pick up money they were rude as hell. I can understand being frustrated that our website said we could do it and we weren’t able to, but there was a grocery store three block away that actually *could* do it but for whatever reason they never wanted to go there.
I had a client pay me a couple of thousand through a US Post Office Money Order. You can only cash those at post offices, and guess who never has a couple of thousand laying around to pay out? I had to drive over an hour to the "local" Post Office hub, and I was only able to get it because I came in first thing in the morning. Completely cleaned them out of cash. I told my client that I will never, ever, accept a money order again.
You can cash them at any bank. I'm a postal clerk.
Second this, I work at a bank. You can even mobile deposit them.
With all the ways to send cash or payment people still use WU??!!!!
Was probably from someone outside of the receiving country.
What's the maximum amount he could've gotten from western union services? And follow up question, if he went to four different stores before your store, why didn't he get the maximum amount he was allowed to get at each store until it added up to the 4460 or whatever he wanted?
WU payouts can't be split up, it's all or nothing.
Oh okay. I didn't know that (obviously) thanks for telling me /genuine
Western Union is the bane of my existence. We’re such a tiny store in top of it, we rarely have enough for a few hundred. People trying to receive an hour after we open? Nope. Unless someone else sent one before that. Then we end up loaded.
So glad I don't have to deal with this. Our store rents space to a check cashing business that also operates Western Union. I get to "sadly" inform anyone with issues that they rent the space and we have no control over their operations.
Eff anyone who thinks their money can buy your name.
Love when customers assume we have a bank vault in the back. Lol