Dear ABC News Fixer: Money Exchange Gone Wrong
Aug. 6, 2013 — -- Dear ABC News Fixer: I was planning a trip to Europe, so I shopped for a good exchange rate to purchase Euros before the trip.
I placed my order with a Travel FX, a foreign exchange broker near London, England, on May 3 and sent them $2,340. I was supposed to get the Euros by May 15, but I have received neither the Euros nor a refund of my wire transfer.
Everyone has been polite, and they insist there is no scam, but I want my money back.
My bank attempted to retrieve my funds, with no luck.
- Robert Jackson, Mehoopany, Pa.
Dear Robert: You were trying to be proactive and get a good rate before your trip, but this took so long to unravel, you were able to go to Bavaria and back before we finally got this fixed.
Early in our investigation, it became clear that the problem was that Travel FX uses Royal Mail to ship its orders and doesn't ship outside the United Kingdom. That fact appears in their online FAQs and again in the company's 3,290-word "terms and conditions" statement. (You said it would have been nice if someone pointed this out when you placed the order using a U.S. address, and we agree -- but they weren't obligated to flag that for you.)
Travel FX was still willing to process your order, if you could have it picked up in England, but you said no thanks. So they offered to cancel it and refund your money. There was a little more back-and-forth but they did return your money, or at least most of it: by the time the exchange rates and transaction charges were calculated, your refund was $2,166.31.
- The ABC News Fixer
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