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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

#271
post #217
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forget the difference in the exchange rates. Are you saying you have no system in place to monitor if transactions execute successfully ? I'm not trying to be hyperbolic but that's really shocking for a company that is trying to play a role as a financial institution.

>that's really shocking for a company that is trying to play a role as a financial institution. That is probably the scariest part about the current Bitcoin community. Many of the big names are simply "playing a role". We have no idea of their technical expertise, the viability of their software, their USD/Bitcoin reserves, how they plan to address disputes like this, or even whether they are skimming of the top.

The wild west of currency, with everything that entails.

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

#272
post #246

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Yikes! Please tell me you consulted with a lawyer before posting this publicly? Even if you gave the OP the BTC at current rates SEC/Courts can make a case against this sequence of events. It does not even have to be reported. I have nothing against you or Coinbase and I do sincerely hope I am wrong. This can have dire consequences on your current and future business(es). It would have been best to refund the withdra…

Coinbase is not a bank. Or a financial institution. If it were, it'd have a charter and licenses. It's a merchant just like any other. You give them money in exchange for goods. No different than iTunes.

It does not need to be licensed as a financial institution to be deemed as one. The courts can and will deem them that the company is subject to some of the rules and regulations governing the financial industry and up the charges against them when this enforced.

I am purposely not saying 'if'. Because there is no possibility of this not being brought to a judge on the behest of SEC themselves or a consumer complaint.

In layman terms:

(1)they buy and sell BTC on behalf of clients and charge the client for the transaction including their fees.

(2)they are an online payment processor of sorts.

They will need to follow more regulations than Paypal, as paypal is also a digital wallet of sorts, but while it provides a conversion, they technically do not trade(buy/sell currencies) on behalf of clients.

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

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 brie…

Its not ridiculous at all. With that much spread and at prices as high and fluctuating as much as they currently are you cannot expect to take 10 DAYS for a transaction of this nature. Honestly, looking at this from the outside what is the difference between this an actual larceny? A large purchase comes in while the commodity is priced high, the commodity is not purchased but instead funds are held on to while the p…

Umm, if the Bitcoins were purchased at a lower price that would be good for the buyer. It's "Buy low, sell high", remember? The problem, it seems, is that the price was locked in at the original, higher, order price, but the transaction didn't go through and so the buyer had no liquidity as the price continued to drop. Had the transaction gone through the buyer would've lost an equal amount of money (and so the accusations of outright theft or fraud are a bit over-the-top), but the big problem is they were prevented from taking corrective action to limit their loss, which I'd consider to be pretty shitty service for a financial institution.

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

#274

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…

Edit2 = Damage control.

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

#275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem quite the apologist: "To not expect some errors from a startup with an emerging technology is just silly. Users should expect some errors, and expect fixes to those errors by Coinbase as properly happened in this case." Huh? A startup dealing in financial instruments doesn't just get to say "Startup!" "1.0!" "Beta!" or "MVP!" and wash its hands of responsibility. If I do $10,000 worth of damage to your car d…

I never advocated that they could wash their hands of responsibility. My statement was that any users of a startup should understand that there are risks that come with using any new service/technology/etc. That's not to absolve a new company of their responsibility, it's just prudent business sense from a user perspective. I just think that too much blame is being put on Coinbase. There is anger at the delay mixed w…

You may not have intended this, but your posts on this thread have convinced me that Coinbase should not be held responsible for their own errors that hurt their customers.

Now, care to take a guess at whether I'll ever be a customer?

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

#276
post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. The joke is that people are demanding a product so badly that theyre doing business with kiddies who dont know how to run a financial institution. This is literally an economy of "shut up and take my money," but no one wants to play ball.

I know this is bad, but financial institutions haven't exactly been reliable, honest, faultless or good, particularly the last few years. My own experiences have been bad, but the world still hasn't pulled out of the hole that the financial industry dug, so I'm pretty well off and lucky if I'm compare myself to the average. I'd suggest a different standard to hold this company to.

I suppose that even with this, bitcoin banks still appear to be far more reputable establishments at the moment than say, either RBS or the Co-op, unless Rob Ford has founded one recently.

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

#277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP has no economic loss as a result of Coinbase's delay. OP has a loss as a result of Bitcoin price changes independent of this error.

Which could have been mitigated -had Coinbase fulfilled their delivery, as negotiated-. Ergo, material losses.

Yeah, fair point that he could have sold his coin the day he received it.

As I mentioned in a few other comments, just seems to me that frustration over the Coinbase's error and frustration over the price swing are both being heaped only on Coinbase.

I've had great experiences with the product and company, I would hate for this particular screw-up to be seen as representative of their overall service.

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

#278
post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I don't work for Coinbase. I'm an avid user and big fan. I've tried a lot of alternative products, and none compares to Coinbase in terms of reliability and overall experience. Sure, they screwed up. Brian owned up to that and fixed the issue quickly. I just think some of the anger at the market swing is being wrongly directed at Coinbase.

They haven't fixed the core issue at all. What they have done is admitted the situation is entirely their fault (and Brian deserves credit for showing up here so quickly). Hopefully an appropriate remedy will be forthcoming.

Fair point. And agreed, hopefully they will address it further.

Again, not saying that this is not a major screw up.

I just think Brian and crew deserve more support than they are getting.

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

#279
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's the thing about financial institutions: when they make a mistake, they pay for it. They should really be crediting him 62.9 BTC, which is approximately what he would have gotten by selling on December 13 and buying again today.

No, the trade should have been failed. We can't just assume he would have sold opportunistically; that's insane.

Agreed, this is a failed trade.

They should simply wire back the money to end this matter and blame a back-end gremlin.

As a gesture of goodwill, maybe comp the guy $100 credit, cash, starbucks gift cards, whatever.

They've actually made it worse now by executing the trade but only after a public outcry.

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

#280

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…

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