Stay away from xoom.com!!

Xoom

I have only used them a couple of times but no problems at all. Very quick.

I have used them for over a year now several times a month without many issues. Western Union's prices are ridiculous and I almost got my card swiped from their website a while back, so I don't EVER use them anymore.

The one thing with XOOM is that you have to make sure the money is sent the correct way otherwise you'll have to deal with customer service which as you said are not very helpful here in The US and if you need the money returned it will take a while. The one time I did this I ended up having to open up a case with Paypal as they would promise the money would be returned and weeks later nothing had happened. The supervisor was never there, blah, blah, blah.

The times I've had any issues (as in the money didn't get there right away) I call the Dominican partner (Caribe Express) and they normally resolve it right away. If you do this make sure to call the main office in Santo Domingo as they control the delivery throughout the country.

It looks like you used their "Bank Deposit" option. I'm sure you have your reasons, but I fail to see why anyone would use this. If you need the money deposited into a bank account in The DR I think is much quicker and safer to just do a wire transfer (specially if you're sending a larger amount of money you also save on fees as wire transfers are only 25 USD regardless of the amount sent).


Some Tips when sending through XOOM (from my experiences):
- Make sure the recipient has a telephone where they can be reached. Make sure to put this phone number when you send the money.
- Do not use their "value service" cheaper option of having the money extracted from your bank account if you need the money delivered in less than 4-5 days
- They now have several companies who deliver for them. I would stick with Caribe Express as they have the largest network in The DR and so far they have been solid for me.
- Spend the extra couple of bucks you pay in fees and use the "deliver in USD" option instead of having them give you pesos. The rate they give you is at least 1 peso less than the going rate.

There was a thread about this a while back.
http://dr1.com/forums/living/66208-xoom-caribe-express-warning.html

angie12 said:

Hello everyone!
So I just had a terrible experience with sending money to the DR using xoom.com. We've used Western Union in the past, and just thought Xoom might offer better services. So the money was taken out of our PayPal account and for 2 days the process was at "deposit in progress." We contacted Xoom to check what the problem was. Turns out the bank (Bank Popular) rejected the funds, but we didn't get an explanation of why the funds were rejected.
The people at Xoom told us we had to cancel the transaction and the money would be refunded to us within 10 business days (!!). The Customer Service representatives were very rude to us. This is part of an email response we got from Xoom:

"It is not our fault and we did our job to deliver the funds and your transfer was rejected by the bank."

They made me feel like a complete idiot. Now- we constantly send money to Mexico, and to the DR and we had never had any issues of this sort... When I asked the Xoom representative for a manager, they said that there weren't any managers available. I called again and tried speaking directly to a manager and received the same response.
I work in the Quality Assurance department- specifically dealing with Customer experience checks and will never allow my employees to treat a customer like this....

This is a lot for a Wednesday afternoon- now I need a nice cold drink...

Angie

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One of the probably reasons might be that some people commit fraud with PayPal accounts, what some people do is buy hacked PayPal accounts with money in them and use them to commit fraud.

Even when you receive a payment via PayPal, it takes a while to clear, they just have to verify. That's not Xooms fault, it's Banco Popular. I've used Xoom many times to send money to DR and other countries and I have never experienced anything negative from them.

What would really help your situaion would be if you would link your checking account to Xoom, that way Banco Popular knows that they're dealing with another trusted financial institution.

And as for the quality of service, you know there are always going to be jerks, just don't take it personal.

It's interesting how mixed the reviews are with Xoom. I stopped using them because it took my family member in the DR 4 days to get the money. I swore never to use them again and have not looked back. Now, I get raped by WU everytime I need to send money.

For those with positive experiences...are you doing something I did not do to get it right?

El Tigre said:

It's interesting how mixed the reviews are with Xoom. I stopped using them because it took my family member in the DR 4 days to get the money. I swore never to use them again and have not looked back. Now, I get raped by WU everytime I need to send money.

For those with positive experiences...are you doing something I did not do to get it right?

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El Tigre: Read my posts and RubioHiguey's as to hints to send money with Xoom without or little issues or how to resolve if/when those arrive. WU is just ridiculously overpriced and I just don't trust their security as a couple of times I've had cases where someone tried to send money through them with my credit cards and I have a feeling is an inside job.

El Tigre said:

It's interesting how mixed the reviews are with Xoom. I stopped using them because it took my family member in the DR 4 days to get the money. I swore never to use them again and have not looked back. Now, I get raped by WU everytime I need to send money.

For those with positive experiences...are you doing something I did not do to get it right?

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I've never done anything special. I just preset the people that I send money to, their bank account number or mailing address and enter the amount I want to send, choose my payment method (for me the best is checking account withdrawal) and that's it!

If you're sending money to the DR, try choosing home delivery (caribe express) a few times and then I guess the bank deposit method later on, that's what I did.

xoom

I used it yesterday with no problems. I have had issues in the past though. Remensas RHd actually text messaged me the funds were available. I was surprised at that. Typically you have to wait and call Santo Domingo, and the tellers have no idea who xoom is at all. I got lucky yesterday I guess.

xoom

i have used it several times, always the money is available within an hour for pick up at caribe..... first time we had a glitch but one phone call and it was fixed.... have no complaints and it is much cheaper

Well it looks I'm having one of those glitches right now. Sent money on Saturday and still not available. Called Xoom and they said they are having problems sending the money to The DR. Called The DR office and the number given by Rubio is apparently not in service anymore.

Update: Found Caribe Express' number (809) 221-5418 and after talking to 5 different people they finally say I have to call a company called Hemisferio who apparently are the ones who get the file first and then send it over to Caribe. Called Hemisferio 809-534-8668 and they confirmed they are having problems getting the file from Xoom. They say they are working on it and to give them about another hour. We'll see...

Hemisferio IS part of Caribe Express... they actually bought them out several years ago...

Suarez did the money arrive?

People, get a checking account in Bank of America, send the card to the DR, whenever you want to send money to DR deposit in the account and tell the receiver here to withdraw the money in a Scotiabank ATM, it is that simple, the rate I believe is 5 bucks per withdrawal.

I'd really like an update from Suarez. Did the money arrive? What was the outcome?

Oh yeah I did get it that day after I talked to the lady at Hemisferio. So there you have it, I guess if I have an issue like that next time I will start with Hemisferio to make sure the file arrived an then go from there.

Be carefull with xoom!!!!!

Today i receiveved a phone call form their costumer service department asking me all kinds of questions it seems that someone there in dr got hold of the tracking number and tried to pull the money in la capital and i sent the money to be picked up in santiago they got the information some how it has to be soemone in the inside of their office spreading that type of info, so yeah they even went to pick up the money with a fake cedula BE CAREFU LL!!!!
THANK GOD THEY DID NOT RELEASE THE MONEY, but still this is really sensitive stuff. now i am goind thru all kinds pf troubles trying to cantact back xoom because they put a hold on the money and the person i sent the money to CAN NOT PICK it UP !!! I WILL NEVER TAKE A CHANCE WITH THIS COMPANY AGAIN!! mi gente tengan cuenta que bastante sudor para uno ahorarse los chelitos para que no le vaya algo ya lo saben.

tavarezny@yahoo.com said:

Today i receiveved a phone call form their costumer service department asking me all kinds of questions it seems that someone there in dr got hold of the tracking number and tried to pull the money in la capital and i sent the money to be picked up in santiago they got the information some how it has to be soemone in the inside of their office spreading that type of info, so yeah they even went to pick up the money with a fake cedula BE CAREFU LL!!!!
THANK GOD THEY DID NOT RELEASE THE MONEY, but still this is really sensitive stuff. now i am goind thru all kinds pf troubles trying to cantact back xoom because they put a hold on the money and the person i sent the money to CAN NOT PICK it UP !!! I WILL NEVER TAKE A CHANCE WITH THIS COMPANY AGAIN!! mi gente tengan cuenta que bastante sudor para uno ahorarse los chelitos para que no le vaya algo ya lo saben.

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I have sent money to the DR for almost 10 years now. In the beginning I used WU but realized they charge way too much. I finally tried out one of the companies in a Dominican bodega and it worked out great. Also, I have used companies that you find in Mexican stores as well. Check your area for these types of stores, they are safe and economical.

Zoom = bad news right now. Back to paying high fees or going to La Nacional (which isn't near my house)