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Sent $35,104.11 USD to CoinBase. Never received Bitcoins

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Re: Sent $35,104.11 USD to CoinBase. Never received Bitcoins

#141

Post by dopamean »

jonpaul wrote: post #105
PeterisP wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've had some recent bitcoin companies simply shutting down/running away while taking the customers' stored funds. Sure, they lost reputation - was that any help to the depositors? And from history of 'classic' banking we know very well that the 'lost reputation' doesn't work - we've tried that all over the world in the earlier times, it resulted in people creating new 'fresh clean reputation' companies one after an…

Tell me how regulation stopped Enron. Tell me how regulation stopped the 2008 financial crisis with the housing bubble. These all happened in traditional markets. You're right that some Bitcoin companies have screwed their users. Consumers need to educate themselves on who they're doing business with. A lot of these Bitcoin companies operated anonymously without impunity. Coinbase is an entirely different case. They…

> Tell me how regulation stopped Enron.

One of the major problems at Enron was deregulation specifically. You need to a do a little more research to bolster your regulation = bad for bitcoin argument.

Re: Sent $35,104.11 USD to CoinBase. Never received Bitcoins

#142

Post by ivanplenty »

barmstrong wrote: post #53

Brian from Coinbase here. Sorry for the delay on that - definitely not the customer experience we are striving for. We should have things squared away for you by end of day. Edit: your bitcoin credit has now been processed. It looks like as we were performing server upgrades last week a handful of jobs didn't run as normal. We should have certainly caught it and responded sooner so that was our fault. My deepest apol…

The server upgrade bug:

1. How many other customers were affected by the server upgrade?

2. Why was this not caught at the time or after?

The customer response bug

1. What steps are you taking to correct the issue it took a front-page HN story to get traction?

2. Will you commit to writing a post-mortem blog post?

If you don't learn from your mistakes, then you are deeply doomed. I don't want you to be doomed :)

Re: Sent $35,104.11 USD to CoinBase. Never received Bitcoins

#143

Post by fleitz »

oijaf888 wrote: post #110
fleitz wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.bankersonline.com/regs/210/210.html http://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/4A Please explain to a judge how something called 'bitcoin' is more like a car than cash. If it was called bitcar and people were could redeem their bitcars for a ride then you might have a point.

How is it more like cash than a commodity? I can't directly take bitcoins or gold or copper and purchase anything at my local wal-mart. Since the car analogy didn't work for you, lets say I contract someone to buy 1 oz of gold/platinum/etc at a specific price. They don't deliver, are they falling afoul of funds transfer laws or is it a contract dispute?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

It seems that the overwhelming popular opinion is that it's a digital currency.

According to Coinbase: Bitcoin, safe and easy. Coinbase is an international digital wallet that allows you to securely buy, use, and accept bitcoin currency

So pretty much everyone agrees that bitcoin is a digital currency.

Re: Sent $35,104.11 USD to CoinBase. Never received Bitcoins

#144

Post by hack_edu »

eof wrote: post #91
barmstrong wrote: post #53

Brian from Coinbase here. Sorry for the delay on that - definitely not the customer experience we are striving for. We should have things squared away for you by end of day. Edit: your bitcoin credit has now been processed. It looks like as we were performing server upgrades last week a handful of jobs didn't run as normal. We should have certainly caught it and responded sooner so that was our fault. My deepest apol…

again, the best way to get support from coinbase is posting on public forums. i love coinbase, i think guys have done and will continue to do amazing things for bitcoin, and by proxy the world at large.. but your initial customer support is outrageously terrible and has been for way too long. you always seem to make it right in the end.. but you should hire about a dozen of the ten thousand kids that would love be on…

After the 25mil from a16z, I doubt these problems will continue for much longer.

Re: Sent $35,104.11 USD to CoinBase. Never received Bitcoins

#146

Post by oijaf888 »

thedufer wrote: post #134
oijaf888 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it more like cash than a commodity? I can't directly take bitcoins or gold or copper and purchase anything at my local wal-mart. Since the car analogy didn't work for you, lets say I contract someone to buy 1 oz of gold/platinum/etc at a specific price. They don't deliver, are they falling afoul of funds transfer laws or is it a contract dispute?

> I can't directly take bitcoins or gold or copper and purchase anything at my local wal-mart. You can't do that with Euros, either (assuming you're in the US, otherwise s/Euros/USD/). But that's obviously closer to cash than commodity. There are merchants that accept bitcoins in return for goods. You're just purposefully avoiding them in your argument.

There are merchants that accept gold in return for goods too, but we don't consider all gold transactions to be money transfers do we?

Re: Sent $35,104.11 USD to CoinBase. Never received Bitcoins

#147

Post by gst »

CyrusL wrote: post #136
bonemachine wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If in fact there's been no fault on the customer side, then obviously he deserves not only a (profuse) apology -- but fair restitution for any losses suffered while your people were dithering on how to follow up to his perfectly reasonable request. BTW in equities trading I believe this kind of botched transaction would be treaated as a "Failed to Deliver" (FTD), and that's exactly how these things are handled.

Coinbase is not an exchange like Bitstamp or Mt.Gox. This fact is not just something buried in their T&C. Their company communication has never described their product as a tool for day-trading. They made a promise to deliver bitcoins at a certain price and on a certain date. The original poster's issue is equivalent to Amazon promising 2 day shipping but the book came a few days late.

So with Amazon I'd just return the product if it arrives too late. Does this work with Coinbase too?

Re: Sent $35,104.11 USD to CoinBase. Never received Bitcoins

#148

Post by quannabe »

onedev wrote: post #70
barmstrong wrote: post #53

Brian from Coinbase here. Sorry for the delay on that - definitely not the customer experience we are striving for. We should have things squared away for you by end of day. Edit: your bitcoin credit has now been processed. It looks like as we were performing server upgrades last week a handful of jobs didn't run as normal. We should have certainly caught it and responded sooner so that was our fault. My deepest apol…

Make sure you give him the new price.

I don't think you quite understand how Coinbase works. Since most transactions are ACH (and reversible) they take ~5 days before the coins are available.

This is disclosed up front, and again when you purchase bitcoins.

Re: Sent $35,104.11 USD to CoinBase. Never received Bitcoins

#150

Post by tga »

rrrx3 wrote: post #113
tga wrote: post #48

For anyone considering using Coinbase or similar services where you have to pay via bank transfer -- think twice and take this as a serious warning that you have almost no protection if they screw you/up somehow. I have a problem with Coinbase for a much smaller sum (luckily): ordered at what I was convinced was a fixed price and just received less BTC at a much higher rate. Their customer support refuses to help (or…

Care to elaborate more? Specifics?

There isn't any more to it. I disagreed with what I received, they said "we're so really deeply truly sorry but don't care, kthx for the money". Bank said "lol direct transfer". End of story.
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