The ‘Western Union Money Transfer’ boasts instant money transfer to any part of the world. The idea is simple but the convenience is huge, especially for the people in kerala who have at least one person in their family in the Gulf.
Now my uncle (in the gulf) wanted to transfer 20k to his family here. Now that I am around, he asked me to collect it. I went to the nearest Western Union branch with my PAN card as identity when they said that they have already closed their counter. It was 4:15PM.
I hurried to the next one. They were open but then they did not have that kinda money.
I ran to the next one. They did not have enough money to give me.
Exhausted and irritated, I went home empty handed.
The next day I tried a few other branches. I was surprised at the number of branches at the small town like kottayam. But they did not have either.
Finally I approached another branch swearing that this will be the last one I am going to visit. I went in asking “DO YOU HAVE MONEY?”
They were like “??? uh?”
They had money. At last.
If Western Union folks are reading this. Please… please ask your branches to store some money with them. Else the purpose of sending money is void when there is no money at your branches.
All said, I am still surprised at the number of branches in Kerala.
THE CRAPBOOK 
20K IS NOT A BIG SUM, i wonder what is the use of having a branch if they are not able to handle 10-20k of business in a day.
I too wonder whats wrong with the bank, because like Ankur said 20 K isn’t that much. Maybe it was just bad luck.
Today my ATM ran out of money. It’s really irritating.
@Ankur
yea its not a big sum, but the banks (private ones) who usually have the branches at dont have that kinda money all the time.
Nita,
I agree may be it was my luck, I turned up at the braches at the wrong time 😀
ANyways the number of branches are surprising. more than sbi atms.
😀
I usually had that problem with SB atms. Now that I use a free card, i usually walk into some private bank atms.
Oh, so that’s how Western Union works. I thought it worked some other way but it sounds really silly now.
They do have a lot of branches alright. There’s one right in front of the academy where I used to go for studying. And it was always thronged with people.
It sounds like a restaurant without food. It might become a problem for people who want money in emergencies.
This is too much! They have so many branches and no money!?? What a waste!!!!
@Amit: Awesome analogy! Lol 😀
@ish,
its simple and easy. a relief for the families who had to wait for weeks to get the money from their relatives abroad.
@Amit, exactly. Mine was not an emergency, but then the number of braches I had to walk into was irritating.
@Nova, haha. yeah.
What a sad state of affairs!!
@ Amit, Ya man, What an analogy!!
Well, thankyou all.
*takes a bow bow* 😀
@Amit,
congrats you got more readers for ur comments than my post !!! 🙂
haha.
The number of branches have a direct relation to the number of mallus abroad from that region which from ur description seems to be very high! (correct me if I am wrong)
Shortage of money can also be explained: All those mallus (okay not all but a lot of them) incidentally sent money the same day and their poor families having no money to pay children’s school fees withdrew all the money!
(ehmm ya I know.. I should give up trying to be sarci!!)
Balu,
You are right, there is atleast one person in every mally family who is in the gulf. 🙂
@Xylene
Why dont people use icici accounts? Now even NRIs can open ICICI accounts and use the account/debit card abroad!!
I just cant believe I missed your so many posts. I am really ashamed of myself Really!!
I thought western union was much efficient, well now I know not to be dependent on them fully.
@Suda,
they are efficient and the concept is great. But I guess they should be a little more stringent with their branches