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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

#171

Post by EGreg »

makomk wrote: post #160
bonemachine wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lemme get this straight, Brian: Rather than refunding the dollar value ($35,104.11) of the original, clearly botched transaction, you ended up giving him the 40 BTC at their current trading value (about $560), that is, for net a loss of $35,104 - $22,400 = $12,704? And you think $50 plus a thank-you note(!) is enough to make him whole on this loss?

Don't worry, based on their past behaviour I'm pretty sure they'd have managed to refund him the dollar value if the price of Bitcoin skyrocketed.

Funny dynamics for bitcoin to be used as a currency

For now its swings are like the Zimbabwe dollar

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

#172

Post by jeremyrwelch »

bonemachine wrote: post #155
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…

Lemme get this straight, Brian: Rather than refunding the dollar value ($35,104.11) of the original, clearly botched transaction, you ended up giving him the 40 BTC at their current trading value (about $560), that is, for net a loss of $35,104 - $22,400 = $12,704? And you think $50 plus a thank-you note(!) is enough to make him whole on this loss?

Don't be ridiculous. Sure, the order was delayed, but there is no reason why they should have refunded the entire order.

Kudos to Brian and team for getting on top of this and solving the problem quickly. They executed the order as originally promised, admitted their mistake, and gave him a credit for the inconvenience.

I've executed many transactions with Coinbase and although one of my transactions was delayed briefly, I've been very pleased overall with the service.

They are go much farther than most other Bitcoin exchanges and services, which barely have any support channels and have frequently stolen user money entirely.

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

#173

Post by jnbiche »

PeterisP wrote: post #43

To all of you who say that Bitcoin shouldn't be regulated - this is what it results in. If it was any regulated financial deal - say, purchase of stock or Yen - then there are clear rules on how to handle that, namely, you'd be entitled to at least compensation for any decrease between the 'locked' price at the agreed settlement date and the real settlement, whenever it may happen, and the interest for the period. Re…

No, wrong. The reason people have to put up with Coinbase's shenanigans^, is because of the super intense regulations in this sector. Those of us who would take customer money more seriously (and who would have refused additional customers much earlier) also take legal liabilities more seriously, particularly the legal liabilities of running an unlicensed money transmission business.

If these regulations weren't so onerous, a dozen more of us would have jumped into the arena, and the one of us who gave the best customer service would be the market leader.

Instead, buyers are stuck with Coinbase.

^ Not suggesting anything purposely illegal -- just incompetence combined with too much business. Yet another reason regulation is hurting everyone here: less regulation would have left Coinbase left overwhelmed with so much business (since there would be more competing businesses).

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

#174

Post by ffrryuu »

ajju wrote: post #100
GarrettBeck wrote: post #62

This is the same situation as Facebook's IPO with NASDAQ. Orders were placed $40, then cancelled, then filled at $40 six hours after the market closed (at which point Facebook was already trading below its IPO price). Unless you are a massive financial institution with some serious clout/legal department, I recommend you cut your losses and move on. Your time is much more valuable spent doing something else rather th…

Not sure if this is sarcasm, but $35,000+ is a HUGE sum of money for even the decamillionaires I know.

Not really, I can easily come up with 35k at the drop of a hat...

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

#175

Post by gamblor956 »

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.

No, it's nothing like shipping a book 2 days late. The OP has actual, recognizable economic losses as a result of Coinbase's delay. The transfer of money via ACH is a separate transaction from the Bitcoin acquisition. After the admitted delay following the Bitcoin acquisition transaction, Coinbase should have either reaffirmed that the OP wanted to purchase the coins at the original price, canceled the transaction, or acquired the coins at the then-market price. (Note, normally when the price increases, Coinbase cancels the transaction.) Consequently, the OP has a solid legal case against Coinbase.

Unfortunately, for the amounts involved its borderline not worth pursuing. It's too large an amount for most small claims courts, and too small an amount to justify the time and cost of civil litigation (unless it settles at the very early stages). Indeed, based on Coinbase's record (refunding purchases if BC prices increase rather than executing the transaction), it's very likely that they are factoring this arbitrage into their business model.

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

#176

Post by prawn »

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…

I laughed at $50!

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

#177

Post by towski »

ivanplenty wrote: post #142
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 :)

Welcome to the wild west

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

#178

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#179

Post by bdesimone »

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…

Skettios.

What is coinbase doing to prevent this from happening in the future? Both from a customer service perspective, and from a technical one. I want to assume good faith, but I'd also like to verify before doing business with you.

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

#180

Post by asperous »

kjackson2012 wrote: post #153
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…

Hopefully you are selling him the BTC at today's rate, and not at $868. This post is an admission of guilt on your part, so if you don't, he likely has a great case when he sues you (which I would, if I suffered a $12k loss like he just did).

He only suffers a loss if he sells. I'm bearish, but it's too soon to say that it's never going back up to 800.
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