Be careful you may get trapped!
I need to wire money to my friend in the US.
I phoned twice and came to the shop talked to the staff before I actually do the money wiring to make sure I have everything that required to make things fast and easy. I was hurry to catch the last bus to Montreal.
I run to the bank bought the draft and had all needed information stored in my phone.
Things happened like night mare. The manager on site, Natasha (provided by one of the staff), handle my transaction. She asked me for the SWIFT code or ABA code. I gave her the VOID check from my friend. She did not know what the number on that check mean. I taught her how to read that routing number. She then asked for account number, again, I had to teach her what it is and where to look for. Finally she can understood how to look for the info on the check.
Not there yet, she pulled out a piece of paper asked me to write down clearly all the information that she needs. I gave her back the paper with everything clearly written.
She entered into the system and give me a print for confirmation. There were mistakes: wrong name, wrong address number, wrong street name, wrong city, wrong account number !!! I checked on the paper what was wrong and how the correct ones are. She then gave me the print to check. I checked and still errors.
She and I played that correcting game 5 times in order to correct all the spelling and info. She looked at me like it was my fault.
Finally, everything seamed right. So scare of what was happened, I asked her is there anything that would need me to do, she said "NO, everything fine". OK, 45 minutes gone for what the bank can do in 5 to 10 minutes. I run to my trip to Montreal, it's almost late. But the phone rang and Natasha again. She asked me to spell my friend name in full, which I do not know. She also asked for my friend's date of birth in order to release the fund to my friend. I told her that I will be back right away to solve the problem.
I told her that I was never asked that info before and would like to cancel that transaction. She said no, I could not do so. If I do then I need to sell that US amount to her and than buy it back or something similar. In general I will suffer the big loss.
I felt I got trapped. There was no way to get out the trap until you gave them that info.
I was passed to the other one, Tammy, who was much better and more professional. I then text to the US for my friend number, called him for the problem. I forwarded him email from Tammy. Finally I got all the info they needed with several calls and texts to the US, I lost my trip to Montreal.
Well, I started at around 12:20PM and finished at 2:32PM just for something that need to be done in 10 minutes max with the lost of the trip and money for long distance calls.
I tried to save money because they have better rate than my bank but it ended up a big lost. So next time, come to the bank, deal with professional, and save time. read more