NEW JOB, MONEYPAK, EVICTION & THOSE FOLKS FROM WESTERN UNION

Our daughter, the microbiologist… moved to Arizona… lock, stock and barrel. The job she went there for did NOT work out. So what else is new? She is NO stranger to being unemployed. My husband and I have damn near bankrupted ourselves trying to help her the past 10 years. We have tried to cut the cord, so many times it isn't funny. My husband lost his job in September 2011. A new one hasn’t come along. We’re on Social Security on a very fixed income. Even though we can’t really afford to... we still pay her car insurance and cellphone bill each month.  With no money coming in, our daughter has had to apply for government assistance. Her food and electricity are covered. But... because of the expensive neighborhood she lives in, they will NOT take care of the rent, water or sewer. She is in arrears... one month going on two... the first of April. We told her to start selling off her belongings to raise cash. Because it’s a gated community there are rules against garage sales. We suggested Craig’s List or a local bulletin board at the grocery store. So far, no bites on anything. Her landlord, as predicted, started the eviction process. She tried to negotiate with him, but he won't work with her. She is out of luck.  So suffice to say, things are a BIG mess.  Seeing her suffer, knowing we can’t help with the rent situation, this time around, has NOT been easy. But it's a lesson that needs to be learned. She is almost 40 years old. HOWEVER, we are NOT heartless. Since her bank account is empty, adding money to it would only result in MORE fees coming out, than cash going in... Therefore, our daughter devised a convoluted plan so we could put gas in her car, so she could have internet access to apply for jobs. It works like this. We buy this thing called a MONEY PAK card. It costs $5. You add whatever dollar amount from $20 to $1100, you want to put on it.  The store activates it. Then we scratch off the code on the back of MP card and call our daughter with the number. With this number she can add that dollar amount to her Visa/Debit card balance. Last weekend we bought her a new MP card for $100. She added it to her debit card via phone. She checked to make sure the NEW balance showed up on her account. It did. At 3am, Sunday morning she went to Wal-Mart to get a few things. The transaction was denied after her card was scanned.  According to the cashier there wasn’t sufficient credit on the card. The websites associated with our daughter’s Visa/Debit and the MONEYPAK card were both down, for routine maintenance. She CALLED us screaming and crying, like it was our fault. What did she expect us to do?  We're halfway across the country. When she tried to access her account again to see what was going on... she was denied access, unless she changed her password. After she did, she still got no information.  When the website was finally back up... it showed that the MONEYPAK card had indeed been credited to her Visa/Debit but was showing up as being SPENT, so her balance was a big fat ZERO. We were out the money. That was OBVIOUSLY wrong. She couldn’t call anybody in customer service about the situation until Monday. The problem with Monday was... even if they FIXED things, and re-issued the credit back where it belonged, it would be TOO late. On MONDAY at 7:30am our daughter was supposed to start a NEW temporary job, forty miles from where she lives. We got this particular MONEYPAK card so she could make that trek.  Because of this debacle... she was without the funds needed to put gas in her car... She told us she now could NOT report to work. My husband was having NONE of that nonsense. So we decided to put PLAN B into action. We’d send her some quick cash via WESTERN UNION. It was now around 5 or 6 am. I called their toll free number. I went through the agony of a computer talking to me for the first 15 minutes. Then WESTERN UNION put a customer service representative from ANOTHER COUNTRY on the phone, to complete the transaction. The problem was this man’s accent was so thick, I could hardly understand a word he said. It was like pulling teeth. He told me it would cost $118 to send the $100. He wanted my daughter’s name, exactly where she would be picking the money up. Then he wanted my full name, birth-date, my credit card information, my driver’s license number, my email address, my phone number, my street address, my first born child, etc. After all of that, he informed me that his computer said NO. It could NOT complete this transaction, sorry. Try visiting your local WESTERN UNION kiosk, he suggested. Goodbye. Say what? What kind of racket is this? He had enough information to STEAL my identity and clear out my bank account. I was livid. I got back on the phone to complain to WESTERN UNION but there was an endless loop of computer talk to thwart my best efforts. My husband said, "Let’s go to Meijer’s, instead. They have  WESTERN UNION. Maybe we can straighten this out".  It was 7:30am. They’d now be open. There, we met a charming young lady in customer service. We told her what had happened. She made things right. She said NEVER EVER do WESTERN UNION by telephone or computer. She handed me a piece of paper that didn’t ask a million questions (like that guy on the phone had asked). I filled it out. Handed it back. She said it was going to cost $112. I gave her the cash.  She transferred it. MONEY was in Arizona in 15 minutes. IMAGINE that?  Our daughter collected it. She put gas in her tank and started the NEW job. She works TWELVE hour shifts. Her first paycheck will be in 3 weeks. I guess it’s better LATE than never... to get a FRESH start. Tell that to her landlord, though. UNFORTUNATELY, our daughter is STILL being evicted. Meanwhile, she can’t take time off work, to go to court to appeal it. So... she’ll be out on the street, with no roof over her head. Our hands are tied. All we can do is PRAY.