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

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

#141

Post by badtuple »

WisNorCan wrote: post #71
benbreen wrote: post #66

Ok, an update, since I can't edit the original anymore. "Kyle" at Coinbase reached out to me via email: "I’m so sorry for the delay in our response. We were able to clear your account." I can't imagine that it had anything to do with bad publicity from being on the front page of Hacker News... anyway, I'm glad it was finally resolved. Thanks HN.

Social media shaming, unfortunately, seems to be the fast lane to escalated customer support. Good to know for other Coinbase customers.

I support it in this extreme case. But as someone who does tons of all-hands support at companies with _really_ good support, please start with normal channels. Starting out publicly paints you as really aggressive and hard to work with. To diagnose anything complex, and for your own privacy, you'll need to move to email anyway. You'll get good support either way because we're professionals, but there's no need to start any interaction with a middle finger.

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

#142

Post by mynewtb »

newyankee wrote: post #117
mv4 wrote: post #6

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 (acco…

I am in the same boat and have had my personal health deteriorate because of this.

Don't gamble with your personal health. Please try to find professional support.

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

#143

Post by mrep »

yeukhon wrote: post #111
mv4 wrote: post #6

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 (acco…

$1B? That’s insane. I know I know the transaction fee... but wow. So many startups like Dropbox can’t even make $1B for a long time until recently.

Sounds like a lot but if we are in a bubble like I and lots of other people think we are, then that could come crashing down at any time.

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

#144

Post by simonebrunozzi »

rublev wrote: post #97
mirimir wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. After five months of brush-off, two hours on HN resolved the issue. That's insane. I guess that Coinbase folk must read HN.

Coinbase is complete scum, not surprising.

I might agree with your comment, but it serves no purpose. I suggest you try to add to the conversation, instead of simply venting your irritation or frustration against them - that's what makes HN a better place IMHO than Reddit or else.

(also, consider that I would happily write several comments like yours... If only they were useful in any form).

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

#145

Post by simonebrunozzi »

GoRudy wrote: post #101
benbreen wrote: post #66

Ok, an update, since I can't edit the original anymore. "Kyle" at Coinbase reached out to me via email: "I’m so sorry for the delay in our response. We were able to clear your account." I can't imagine that it had anything to do with bad publicity from being on the front page of Hacker News... anyway, I'm glad it was finally resolved. Thanks HN.

After waiting to hear Coinbase since May / June and missing the Ethereum run up 4x i'll just go to Robinhood now.

As many will. Which might mean that Robinhood might end up having a worse customer support than Coinbase :(

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

#146

Post by shireboy »

I recently had an issue where I'm fairly certain someone in Coinbase's verification process stole my credit card info and started charging it fraudulantly. I was able to cancel the card before any damage was done. I contacted support, got a "we're looking into it" email, then nothing for over a month. Good to know I'm not alone, at least.

With that and these other complaints in mind, what is a HN preferred alternative? I'd still like to buy some ETH/BTC/etc with USD, but am gun-shy on these now.

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

#147

Post by SheinhardtWigCo »

benbreen wrote: post #66

Ok, an update, since I can't edit the original anymore. "Kyle" at Coinbase reached out to me via email: "I’m so sorry for the delay in our response. We were able to clear your account." I can't imagine that it had anything to do with bad publicity from being on the front page of Hacker News... anyway, I'm glad it was finally resolved. Thanks HN.

Threatening to contact the CFPB and FTC works too (speaking from experience)

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

#148

Post by paulcole »

WisNorCan wrote: post #71
benbreen wrote: post #66

Ok, an update, since I can't edit the original anymore. "Kyle" at Coinbase reached out to me via email: "I’m so sorry for the delay in our response. We were able to clear your account." I can't imagine that it had anything to do with bad publicity from being on the front page of Hacker News... anyway, I'm glad it was finally resolved. Thanks HN.

Social media shaming, unfortunately, seems to be the fast lane to escalated customer support. Good to know for other Coinbase customers.

The best way to do it is to come across as totally unhinged. They know you can’t be reasoned with or ignored so they actually have to solve your problem.

I’ve done this a handful of times when I’ve gotten the runaround after being polite and following the rules.

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

#149

Post by hw »

sitepodmatt wrote: post #54
mv4 wrote: post #6

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 (acco…

Bot support sucks. Revolut is a case study in this #fail. Make things clear and idiot proof is a better path to avoiding time answering simple questions. I missed the days of some human on the end of a mechanical turk task copy and pasting some loosely related canned answer when with dealing with bots.

Totally agree. Bot support is one of the worst things you can do for your customers. Especially in Coinbase's case where there's $ involved, auto bot responses piss off customers wanting their $ in time.

AI is a long way from being at the forefront of customer support. At best AI works well as a complementary tool for customer support agents to help their customers, but not be the customer support agent itself.

What Coinbase needs to do is shore up their support team.

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

#150

Post by hw »

benbreen wrote: post #66

Ok, an update, since I can't edit the original anymore. "Kyle" at Coinbase reached out to me via email: "I’m so sorry for the delay in our response. We were able to clear your account." I can't imagine that it had anything to do with bad publicity from being on the front page of Hacker News... anyway, I'm glad it was finally resolved. Thanks HN.

It's disappointing when a company that's as well funded and big as Coinbase leaves customers hanging. I'm a co-founder at a customer conversations management and helpdesk platform - Re:amaze, and we answer _every_ single customer question and conversation on email, social and on our site that come our way. Every single one. Any that we can't answer right away we let them know we're working on it and set a reminder to get back to them once their issue has been investigated and resolved on our end. Every single employee at our company is responsible for making that happen, and we also help other businesses with the goal of a zero-inbox as well.

Just plain inexcusable that it takes one HN article to get things resolved.

BTW, you're not the only one with these issues. There are a number of complaints from people in the same boat as you on Reddit as well

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