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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

#311

Post by hbags »

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…

And laws against theft don't prevent all theft so theft should be legal.

I will never, in my life, understand why so many Libertarians take the argument that if some criminal might engage in a crime, then everyone should be allowed to do that same thing. It's the stupidest argument possible, yet you all parrot it unquestioningly. It blows my mind.

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

#312

Post by nilkn »

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?

It sounds like they gave him $35k worth of bitcoins at their current price, which is more bitcoins than he would have received had the transaction went through at the earlier date. Maybe I'm completely misunderstanding though.

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

#313

Post by kbenson »

sheetjs wrote: post #292
joezydeco wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been keeping my mouth shut here about Coinbase after starting that thread 9 months ago. I feel bad for someone that can't put a finger on his 30K, but I can't feel that bad if he didn't do a little research here first. Hopefully on the next bubble people will be a little more enlightened.

As highlighted in the thread and in PG's reply, the default response to criticism of Coinbase is to nuke the conversation. As PG wrote: > Strictly speaking I should have killed the post entirely Now, it's possible that other complaints on HN were nuked by PG or some other moderator, making it difficult for someone to find it.

As highlighted in the thread and in PG's reply, the default response to criticism of Coinbase is to nuke the conversation

As PG wrote:

> Strictly speaking I should have killed the post entirely

That's not why he said that. He explains further down thread:

HN is a news site, not a customer support forum for companies funded by YC, and in fact the site guidelines explicitly ask that it not be used that way

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

#314

Post by tlrobinson »

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?

If the price had gone up would you be ok with them refunding the dollars instead of honoring the original price of the "clearly botched transaction"?

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

#315

Post by anoncowherd »

abijlani wrote: post #76
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've had a terrible customer service experience with Coinbase too: http://amit.roon.io/an-open-letter-to-coinbase

Funny how whenever a company gets enough bad publicity to actually hurt their bottom line, suddenly their customer service runs a bit smoother.

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

#317

Post by ChrisClark »

tedunangst wrote: post #215
ChrisClark wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And because of their delays, many others have made money on the transaction. They pay out at the market price of when the order was placed. The OP thought it was worth it then, and bought them then.

At any time between then and now, the OP could have realized his mistake and sold the bitcoins for a lesser loss had they been in possession of the bitcoins.

Coinbase is not for trading though. He should have purchased on an exchange then.

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

#318

Post by opam2 »

nilkn wrote: post #312
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?

It sounds like they gave him $35k worth of bitcoins at their current price, which is more bitcoins than he would have received had the transaction went through at the earlier date. Maybe I'm completely misunderstanding though.

Coinbase updated their comment after seeing the backlash.

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

#319

Post by AnneOminous »

EGreg wrote: post #171
makomk wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This isn't a failure of Bitcoin. It's a failure of the market.

Bitcoin has an approximate "intrinsic value", which in economic terms is a bit above the cost of mining. Current market price has been very far from that.

Bitcoin market right now is pretty much the definition of a bubble. Beware. In a "bubble" market, your money can disappear overnight.

But again: that's not Bitcoin's fault. It's the fault of idiots vastly and irrationally driving up market prices.

This is really a textbook lesson in why Wall Street does not represent the "real" exonomy.

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

#320

Post by kbenson »

nostrademons wrote: post #273
apalmer wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 accus…

You seem to have missed this part: purchased at the lower price and the company pockets the difference
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