Western Union continues to face challenges in St. Maarten

~ Light at the end of the tunnel ~

COLE BAY—The continuing criticisms of the functioning of the Western Union has the attention of the Operation Manager Patrice Paines. The crowds that gather at the establishment has complained that they are unable to send their remittance to their families overseas because in some cases the entity closes earlier than is expected.

Paines in an invited comment said that because the establishment has only opened a few weeks ago, the cashiers are overwhelmed with the amount of persons sending their funds to their loved ones overseas. He pointed out that Western Union Corporate Office has set quotas on the amount of funds being sent abroad.

He explained that since the office has been opened they were given the quotas because the other Western Union offices around the world could only handle a certain amounts of funds for now. He noted that it is for this reason that the offices have to be closed early when they reach their quotas.

However, the persons who did not receive assistance on a particular day at their offices are given a card that gives them preference the following day. There is “light at the end of the tunnel” for the customers since there is a plan to issue Western Union customer cards to their clients which could be presented to the cashiers to ensure that process goes smoothly.

While the customers outside the building were not satisfied with the explanation, they maintained that they need the relief immediately. He indicated that he has already ordered some 500 cards which should have arrived on Friday.

Paines is looking to issue “buzzers” for their customers as is used at restaurants in the United States as they move forward in the future.

When questioned about why some countries have restrictions in sending and receiving funds he explained that in high risk countries such as Nigeria the clients will have to provide a copy of the recipient passport before the funds are transferred. There are also the issue of some persons who are allowed only a certain amount of funds per month or per transaction.

“These are only efforts to protect the clients to ensure that their parties on the other end get the funds that were sent,” he concluded.