I don’t heart Xoom.com
February 14, 2007
It’s Valentine’s Day but I don’t love Xoom.com.
Last Sunday I used Xoom, the money transfer service, to send PayPal funds to a recipient in the Philippines. Yesterday I received an email notification that they are canceling my transaction and refunding my funds.
This was the first time it happened to me, but then again this was only my second transaction with them. Last week, I made exactly the same transaction without a hitch. I sent PayPal to the same recipient and the corresponding peso amount was deposited to her local bank account in just one day. Now, that’s zoom, zoom, zoom.
But this latest transaction was not. Yesterday, two days after I initiated the new transfer request, it got canceled without any explanation. They wrote that the transaction supposedly violated their Terms of Service (TOS). But what exactly this TOS violation was was never explained.
PayPal, another online payment system, at least provides reasons whenever they are reversing transactions or issuing a chargeback. Xoom, on the other hand, wants you to call their US-based Verification Team if you want to know why your transaction was canceled. Why they can’t or won’t include this reason in your member account page or at least the email notification escapes me.
So what I did earlier today, Valentine’s Day, was to contact Xoom’s Verification Team in the US. I called them up three times — all within their announced business hours (before 5pm PST time, February 13) — but I never got to talk to anyone.
All I got were machine responses such as “Your call is important to us… blah.. blah..” and “We appreciate your patience. A customer service representative will be with you shortly.” Yeah right. I held on for 10 minutes before decided to hang up.
A simple search in Google yields hundreds of similar Xoom stories. There’s one who complained about his transaction also getting canceled without any explanation and another who ranted about Xoom’s poor customer service.
I don’t heart Xoom and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
Have your own Xoom problem or story? Share them in the Your Xoom.com Experience discussion thread in the PMT Forum.
July 29th, 2008 at %I:%M %p
i just had a transaction with zoom yesterday…. they confirmed to have process my money sent to philippines… but today, when my recipient is about to get claim the money that i sent, he was told that my transaction has been cancelled…
XOOM didn’t even care to notify me, about that transaction been cancelled…
IS THAT HOW XOOM WORKS?
is that what you guys are proud of? F***
January 20th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
Please STOP recommening XOOM. This company sucks and disheartening!!!
THOSE PEOPLE WHO ARE POSTING GOOD THINGS ABOUT XOOM SAYING THEY HAVE VERY GOOD EXPERIENCE WITH THIS *%&$$5%$# AND ARE RECOMMENDING IT ARE PROBABLY WORKING FOR THIS *%&$$5%$#. I JUST HAD THIS VERY BAD EXPERIENCE!! THE TRANSACTION WAS CANCELLED WITHOUT GIVING ANY REASON.. NOW I HAVE FINISHED EATING ALL MY NAILS THINKING WHEN WOULD MY MONEY BE REFUNDED….
Please!! Please!! Help!! Can anyone help me? How can I contact XOOM and ask them when will they refund the money that was cancelled!! this money was supposed to be for an E M E R G E N C Y USE!!!
January 28th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
Xoom fucked up my transaction! I processed some transaction to send money to my bank (BPI) why the hell didn’t they inform us ahead that the bank cannot pick-up their transfer to BPI? they collected in advanced my funds but cannot guarantee when will I be refunded. Without even emailing me when or what to do. Bad service.
January 29th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
XOOM SHOULD BE INVESTIGATE BY THE US GOVERNMENT FOR THEIR SCAMMING METHOD.
February 10th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
I have been using xoom for several years with no major problems. For the most part, it has worked well and I have not had any issues. I have sent money for cash pickup and to be deposited directly into a bank account. However, that has changed now. I sent money to an account with PNB four days ago. Normally, my wife has the funds in her account in 15 minutes or less. Two hours after I sent the money, I get this message:
There is a temporary delay in processing this transaction. The status should be updated shortly. If there are further delays, Customer Service will contact the sender.
I call customer service and they tell me they will research the problem and get back to me. One day later, I get a message from them that says the problem has been kicked up to a Customer Service Specialist who will get back to me in a short time. Another day goes by, still no money and no email from Xoom regarding the problem. I email them again and ask them what their definition of a short time was and that my definition was certainly not one day. Soon, I get an email reply from them again that they are working on the problem and will get back to me shortly. So, now I am 4 days down the road and the only time they send me an email is when I email them. The last two emails were identical with the only difference being the name of the customer service rep. Great! I just now called them and cancelled my transfer and the rep tells me that it will take 7 days to get my money back. 7 days? Luckily, my bank has not debited my account yet; the operative word being yet.
Meanwhile, last night I sent my wife money for pickup and there were no problems so it appears the problem is with depositing the funds and not pickup.
Sigh, all in all, not a good experience with xoom the past four days.
March 27th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
sent money on 17th..last status was on 19th..busy transferring..it is now the 27th and it is still “transferring”..Xoom does not answer any of my queries and I`m beginning to think “fraud”..I will NEVER use this so called “service” again and will surely help spread the word on the net..
April 27th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
Definitely right!! I HATE XOOM! my transaction from my client was CANCELED twice! they dont even know the problem. I switched to paypal. They now support the Philippines. Just verify a creditcard with Visa or Mastercard icon (not mastercard electronic). If you dont have credit card, you can use EON debit card from union bank which has a yearly fee of 350 pesos. So what are you waiting for, switch to MORE RELIABLE PAYPAL!
May 19th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
Same old thing with the money agents, don’t have to stick to rules of banks as they do the best not to be banks, like pay pal. They pool the money on purpose and gain interest ON YOUR MONEY. End of story.
May 21st, 2009 at %I:%M %p
First transaction yung denideliver sa bahay, ang tagal! Tapos tumawag yung CSR nila. after ilang days na na naipadal. Ang hina ng update nila. Pero nung bank transfer na,ok naman so far walang problema. Taga tanggap lang kasi ako, hindi ako yung nagpapadala kaya siguro…
July 4th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
XOOM should be banned in the Philippines.
The Cebuana group should stop transacting with XOOM.
Ni hindi nga natin kilala ang managers ng XOOM. Nakakatakot baka dumating ang araw na hindi lang cancellation, kundi theft na ang mangyari. Hindi na natin mahahabol pag-nagkataon.
XOOM get out!