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Sent $10,701.03 to Coinbase. Still missing bitcoins.

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Sent $10,701.03 to Coinbase. Still missing bitcoins.

#61

Post by Einstalbert »

grimaceindex wrote: post #27

To the OP: if Coinbase provides terrible customer service but you still publicly declare you're a "huge fan", what incentive is there for them to change?

Isn't the incentive to show them that you're still willing to work with them in the future so long as they get their crap together? I'm honestly not impressed with this stuff happening to people, even as a mistake, but at the same time I don't see people writing off entire companies that have otherwise acted in good faith.

Of course, if it happens to many more people, you can only do so much with so little.

Re: Sent $10,701.03 to Coinbase. Still missing bitcoins.

#62

Post by [deleted] »

aidanlister wrote: post #32

Does anyone else get the creepy feeling that this is mgrunin posting to stroke his own ego? "That guy must have been one of our extremely high volume VIP users or something in order for something like that to have happened." That just does not sound right. And it's not the first time he's tried a sockpuppet account [1]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6930297

[deleted]

Re: Sent $10,701.03 to Coinbase. Still missing bitcoins.

#63

Post by imsofuture »

streptomycin wrote: post #58

Just a fun anecdote to throw in: I never bought through Coinbase, but I did sell some coins there recently for like $7k. They deposited the $7k in my bank account twice, and then a few days later took the extra $7k back. So although ultimately it all worked out fine, they do seem to be ridiculously reckless in their dealings with thousands of dollars. I can't imagine my bank doing something like that. Made me very wa…

Are you sure that's the case, or could it have been ACH or reporting weirdness?

Re: Sent $10,701.03 to Coinbase. Still missing bitcoins.

#64

Post by imsofuture »

lisper wrote: post #52
colanderman wrote: post #50

1. Chargeback. 2. Better Business Bureau. 3. Federal Trade Commission. 4. Lawyer/lawsuit. All of these are better options than whining on some Internet forum.

1. You can't chargeback a completed ACH withdrawal. (It is possible to revert an ACH transaction, but that generally happens only if the original transaction was unauthorized, which is not the case here. ACH/debit transactions do not have the same level of consumer protections as credit card transactions. That's why Coinbase doesn't accept credit cards.) 2. The BBB is a corporate shill. 3. Rotsa ruck. 4. Will cost mo…

In all fairness, Coinbase doesn't accept credit cards because that same consumer protection can be abused into defrauding them. Which, seems reasonable :)

Re: Sent $10,701.03 to Coinbase. Still missing bitcoins.

#65

Post by streptomycin »

imsofuture wrote: post #63
streptomycin wrote: post #58

Just a fun anecdote to throw in: I never bought through Coinbase, but I did sell some coins there recently for like $7k. They deposited the $7k in my bank account twice, and then a few days later took the extra $7k back. So although ultimately it all worked out fine, they do seem to be ridiculously reckless in their dealings with thousands of dollars. I can't imagine my bank doing something like that. Made me very wa…

Are you sure that's the case, or could it have been ACH or reporting weirdness?

I guess it could be reporting weirdness? Never seen anything like it before, though, and I've made withdrawals and deposits to my account from many different sources.

One $7k deposit soon after I made my sale. Another distinct $7k deposit a couple days later, reflected in my account balance which was now up $14k. And then a $7k withdrawal a few days after that. Both deposits and the withdrawal still show up in my transaction history.

Re: Sent $10,701.03 to Coinbase. Still missing bitcoins.

#66

Post by sheetjs »

The same class of problems (questions regarding account balance, money taken out but BTC missing, support went dark) happened earlier this year and there was another front page conversation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5427985

Sadly, it seems that the key takeaway (the importance of customer support) was lost upon the Coinbase staff. Based on the last response, its clear that they have not learned their lesson.

I recommend pulling all money and BTC out of Coinbase before the next crisis. And I say "next crisis" because there is no indication that steps were taken to rectify the underlying issues here. For example, as speculated in both threads, do they need to move off of MongoDB?

Re: Sent $10,701.03 to Coinbase. Still missing bitcoins.

#67

Post by sheetjs »

DanielRibeiro wrote: post #36
seferphier wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. When there is a public outcry, it means that there is inadequate processes are put into place for protect their customers. This happened twice today. This means something is fundamentally broken in Coinbase's customer service. Many famous VCs and founders browse HN. This will hurt their reputation.

Yes, Coinbase is a YC company[1], yes YC hosts this site (Hacker News is, after all, https://news.ycombinator.com ), yes their investors do comment on Hacker News threads[2]. Also, the CEO of Coinbase is on HN[4]. He is the top response to the other indignant thread[5], where he seems to be trying to fix this issue. Also note that you can easily find the CEO's email from his GitHub account[6] I understand there are m…

Like Coinbase staff, you are making the same mistake in interpreting the situation. The outrage primarily stems from the utter lack of communication, and the recent volatility merely exposed the poor customer support. The underlying problem was there from the beginning, as noted in various forums and even in a front page post 271 days ago. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5427985)

The correct takeaway is that they should have been aware of the customer support issue months ago. They saw the issues (and another Coinbase representative "Fred" replied https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5428465) and failed to improve their processes. What makes you think this time is any different?

Re: Sent $10,701.03 to Coinbase. Still missing bitcoins.

#70

Post by lisper »

imsofuture wrote: post #64
lisper wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. You can't chargeback a completed ACH withdrawal. (It is possible to revert an ACH transaction, but that generally happens only if the original transaction was unauthorized, which is not the case here. ACH/debit transactions do not have the same level of consumer protections as credit card transactions. That's why Coinbase doesn't accept credit cards.) 2. The BBB is a corporate shill. 3. Rotsa ruck. 4. Will cost mo…

In all fairness, Coinbase doesn't accept credit cards because that same consumer protection can be abused into defrauding them. Which, seems reasonable :)

CB could accept credit cards without too much risk if they chose to by e.g. putting a 60-day hold on all BTC bought with credit cards. My guess is they don't take credit cards because they have their hands full dealing with their business as it stands, and adding the extra business logic to accept credit cards would just be too big of a PITA.

Another possibility is that the credit card companies won't allow them to do it.

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