Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: 5 months and counting waiting for Coinbase customer support. Advice?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 191 posts

Ask HN: 5 months and counting waiting for Coinbase customer support. Advice?

#1

Post by benbreen »

So Coinbase's disastrous customer service has come up on HN before [1]. But my issue is rather more extreme than a wire transfer that takes a few weeks to go through - I've been waiting for over five months for Coinbase to unlock my account and allow me to access my funds. Since August 20 of 2017 to be exact.

I've never experienced or even heard of such a long wait time for action to be taken on an open customer support ticket and I honestly have no idea how to proceed. Should I start contacting the CFPB or BBB, writing registered letters, etc?

To be clear, I have had contact with various Coinbase customer service reps since August. I also have tried emailing and tweeting at the CEO and Coinbase executives. The refrain is always the same: "We're expanding fast and adding to our customer service team. Your case has been escalated for further review. Please bear with us." I've been patient for months now and am thinking that maybe I'm not following the right strategy - any advice?

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16106793

Re: Ask HN: 5 months and counting waiting for Coinbase customer support. Advice?

#3

Post by mankash666 »

They seem like a chronic bad actor. I believe small claims court, BBB, CFPB are all valid recourses.

Better still - if you can make this a class action by eliciting similar victims to come forward, you may actually get them to change their ways. Right now it seems like they can simply fuck with you without consequence.

And then there's the irony of coinbase being a middlemen in a market that aimed to remove the middlemen

Re: Ask HN: 5 months and counting waiting for Coinbase customer support. Advice?

#4

Post by benbreen »

smarky wrote: post #2

Is there a reason your account was locked? Something personally incriminating? For instance sending funds directly to a darknet market, or online casino. If not, perhaps hire a lawyer.

It was locked for a quasi-legitimate reason, but one that should be easily resolvable. I accidentally opened the app while on vacation in Iran and got an automated message from Coinbase about Iranian nationals not being allowed to use their service, etc.

Fair enough. The email simply asked me to prove that I was a US resident by sending in my driver's license and proof of residence (like a utility bill). Which I promptly did. Then nothing.

For the record, I also opened my Bank of America app in Iran and BofA didn't seem to care at all. It's not like I was trying to trade, buy or sell - I literally just opened the app.

Re: Ask HN: 5 months and counting waiting for Coinbase customer support. Advice?

#5

Post by benbreen »

mankash666 wrote: post #3

They seem like a chronic bad actor. I believe small claims court, BBB, CFPB are all valid recourses. Better still - if you can make this a class action by eliciting similar victims to come forward, you may actually get them to change their ways. Right now it seems like they can simply fuck with you without consequence. And then there's the irony of coinbase being a middlemen in a market that aimed to remove the middl…

It really does seem like they don't care about the consequences. I was listening to Reid Hoffman's "Masters of Scale" podcast where he talked about LinkedIn simply unplugging their customer service line when they were in the midst of a particularly fast period of expansion.

That's maybe acceptable if you run a social network, but I fear that Coinbase has taken that lesson to heart and applied it to a business where real money is at stake. I'm increasingly concerned that Coinbase will either get sued or regulated out of business before they can give me my funds back - which at this point should be around 2.5k, so not a fortune, but also not inconsiderable either.

I guess I'll look into a lawyer but it bums me out that it has to come that...

Re: Ask HN: 5 months and counting waiting for Coinbase customer support. Advice?

#6

Post by mv4 »

It's been over a month for me. My case hasn't been touched, except for one automated "read the FAQ" update. Lost my ETH transaction.

Thousands are having the same issue (lack of support), based on Twitter alone.

Tweeting at the CEO is useless, unless you're someone famous.

The really sad part - with the amount of money they are making ($1B/yr), they should be able to handle support. It's only several categories (account verification, transfer delays, lost transactions) that can be easily parsed/routed, and even answered to, programmatically in 80% of cases.

Re: Ask HN: 5 months and counting waiting for Coinbase customer support. Advice?

#10

Post by smarky »

benbreen wrote: post #4
smarky wrote: post #2

Is there a reason your account was locked? Something personally incriminating? For instance sending funds directly to a darknet market, or online casino. If not, perhaps hire a lawyer.

It was locked for a quasi-legitimate reason, but one that should be easily resolvable. I accidentally opened the app while on vacation in Iran and got an automated message from Coinbase about Iranian nationals not being allowed to use their service, etc. Fair enough. The email simply asked me to prove that I was a US resident by sending in my driver's license and proof of residence (like a utility bill). Which I prom…

In that case file a Consumer Finance complaint, and/or bring them to court.
Post reply on HN