One more happy customer for Xoom!
I’ve heard of Xoom, quite a while ago but didn’t have the need to utilize its services until recently.
I did hear about its reputation in the form of various voices/channels, all heresy though.
Of course, nothing beats like first hand experience when it comes to some things. Although I like to experiment while using new products/services
touch basing with all of its offered features/functionalities, I’m usually skeptical like any other person when it comes to financial transactions for the
obvious reasons.
Incidentally, I got a chance to use Xoom for making an international money transfer (to my own account in other country, though) after having a great
recommendation from my brother. My usual route for making such transfers had to be changed due to some hidden charges being levied in between, and hence the need to look for an alternative.
Anyways, the keywords that attracted me to go ahead with Xoom are simple: “$0 transaction fees” & “Super fast transfer delivery time!” (couple of hours at max, which is a sure thing to turn heads towards when usual routes some business days to deliver!)
The process to use Xoom is presented in a lucid manner too:
- You can create an account or log in with Paypal (I’ve used Paypal)
- Directly takes you to transfer section “Send Money” with options to choose currency, country etc (I’ll leave that for you to explore on your own!)
- Anything above 1000 (in EUR, GBP, USD) is free of charge to send (transaction fee) while >= 500 is good in CAD
- Offers “Bank Deposit” or “Cash Pickup” options based on recipient country
- Takes info on sender’s card details and a final “Review” screen to confirm
That’s it! You’re done! Pretty simple, right? Just some minor caveats, there are some limits imposed by recipient’s country restrictions based on the
amount being sent to! In my case, I had to provide some additional details (identity, residence proofs etc) as the sent amount had fallen under Compliance Review (Uhhh!)
Got an automated email from Xoom compliance team to send those required docs in order to get my transaction approved post manual review, which led to me read about their categorization in their transfer limits (Level 1/2/3). I’ve duly responded within minutes of their intimation but like I said earlier, my skepticism sprang into different thoughts, thanks to one of those twisted
cognitive biases. I’ve wanted to get a confirmation quicker, faster and called up their customer care (There’s a free one which takes you to wait around
10–15 min based on time of the day and a paid one which puts you through right away).
Was received with a warm welcome from one of their agents, I’ve explained my situation briefly and was asked to confirm my exact name stated on Paypal in order to proceed further. Now comes a goof up on my side. My full name’s pretty long which often exceeds the limits of most of the web forms/pages usually allow, and this has led me to use abbreviations. I couldn’t recollect the type of name I’ve used for Paypal ID and had to try 4–5 attempts to get the right one. The agent patiently listened to me, confirmed my verbal authentication but politely asked me to call back.
Understood the obvious reason behind that, I’ve called back and met with another polite person who asked me different confirmation details this time (address, amount being sent etc). Once confirmed, agent has quickly checked the transaction status and stated she’d transfer my call to someone from compliance team to proceed further. Under next 15 min, I spoke with their compliance team, customer service a couple of times and had my transfer approved and resumed the process. Felt greatly relieved, I had the transfer completed the same day, subject to recipient country bank working hours.
So what happened here?
- Customer interaction has been swift, quick, polite all along
- My transfer process has been expedited, taking my customer care interaction as the cue behind the need/urgency in a very subtle manner, like water under a carpet
- Looks like they follow the true freemium model “Pay to proceed fast” with customer service number lines (Free one makes you wait while paid one directly hooks you up with one) — At the end, the convenience mattered and I didn’t mind paying those extra bucks from the phone line
- A “Progressive Disclosure” methodology seems to be offered here, in cases of increasing payment limits, which seems totally fine as no first time customer wants to be bombarded with long list of these things right from the start
- Left me feeling greatly relieved & elated, making me think I’ve did the right thing choosing Xoom!
Customer support agents are really the front face of any product/service (wherever applicable) and their interaction truly reflects their adherence towards customer satisfaction. Any company which maintains these standards is surely going to witness success in leaps and bounds, with Amazon being a perfect example.
I’ve worked with an e-commerce company during my early days of professional career and witnessed how much they emphasized on customer service and how that did change over the years, talk about working against their own rules/policies. I just don’t want to see Xoom treading down that path as these are on my love-list. But for now, I continue to maintain the status quo of “One more happy customer” for Xoom and offer my “Free Publicity” for anyone who’d like to do international transfers.
Want to share your personal thoughts & opinions on Xoom? Leave a comment below or write to me themanfromearth1729@gmail.com
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