The Great Robocoin Rip-off: How We Lost $25,000 Buying a Robocoin ATM
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Re: The Great Robocoin Rip-off: How We Lost $25,000 Buying a Robocoin ATM
#2I've heard nothing but bad reviews about these things from the user end as well.
I have no idea why one would buy a Robocoin machine when there are a number of evidently superior alternatives.
Re: The Great Robocoin Rip-off: How We Lost $25,000 Buying a Robocoin ATM
#3I was looking at going in on one of these with a friend. Thanks for the heads up. Good luck getting your money back, the whole thing seems hellish.
Re: The Great Robocoin Rip-off: How We Lost $25,000 Buying a Robocoin ATM
#4wow that sounds like a horrible experience!
it is unfortunate that you got stung like that.
out of interest, what was the expected ROI? I mean, you sunk $25K into it. even if you were charging 5% fees - you would need half a million in transactions to break even, and that isn't including the monthly rental fee for the location.
is there really that big of a demand for BTC in a pub?
Re: The Great Robocoin Rip-off: How We Lost $25,000 Buying a Robocoin ATM
#5wow that sounds like a horrible experience! it is unfortunate that you got stung like that. out of interest, what was the expected ROI? I mean, you sunk $25K into it. even if you were charging 5% fees - you would need half a million in transactions to break even, and that isn't including the monthly rental fee for the location. is there really that big of a demand for BTC in a pub?
I would guess the demand would be created to a certain extent. A single data point, but I travelled to Tokyo from another part of Japan to visit the only BTC ATM in Japan, so there may be a novelty factor involved for other people too.
Re: The Great Robocoin Rip-off: How We Lost $25,000 Buying a Robocoin ATM
#6wow that sounds like a horrible experience! it is unfortunate that you got stung like that. out of interest, what was the expected ROI? I mean, you sunk $25K into it. even if you were charging 5% fees - you would need half a million in transactions to break even, and that isn't including the monthly rental fee for the location. is there really that big of a demand for BTC in a pub?
I think the idea is that there's demand for cash at a pub, but I also don't see how you'd reasonably expect to break even with this setup.
Re: The Great Robocoin Rip-off: How We Lost $25,000 Buying a Robocoin ATM
#7wow that sounds like a horrible experience! it is unfortunate that you got stung like that. out of interest, what was the expected ROI? I mean, you sunk $25K into it. even if you were charging 5% fees - you would need half a million in transactions to break even, and that isn't including the monthly rental fee for the location. is there really that big of a demand for BTC in a pub?
Eh, I think it's going to draw people to the pub more than anything else. And if you're a bitcoin evangelist, I could understand sinking your disposable income into a cool thing that might get more people into the currency. Current BTC owners/speculators only stand to profit from userbase growth because the currency growth rate is fixed or very controlled if I understand the system correctly. Probably wouldn't make 25k back, but it softens the blow a bit.
As a side note, I just realized BTC may become a really good existence proof for Piketty's r > g proposition, though one probably can't extend that idea out to economics in general because bitcoin is so weird.
Re: The Great Robocoin Rip-off: How We Lost $25,000 Buying a Robocoin ATM
#8From my experience with one of their ATMs (both myself and two friends using it), they're incredibly error prone and not even shitty-ATM levels of usable. (I'm loathe to name locations, since the owners of the ATM are friends of mine and have dealt promptly with any problems I've had stemming from the ATM. They're often at the bar where it's located, as bar customers, and I've seen them deal with other upset ATM users. Great businessmen, bad equipment.)
That being said, it doesn't really surprise me that people with that poor of a user experience have poor customer service.
What is it about the bitcoin market that seems to attract less-than-ideal business practices?
Re: The Great Robocoin Rip-off: How We Lost $25,000 Buying a Robocoin ATM
#9I've heard nothing but bad reviews about these things from the user end as well. I have no idea why one would buy a Robocoin machine when there are a number of evidently superior alternatives.
How are the alternatives "evidently superior"? Not that I doubt this Robocoin experience, but playing devil's advocate and the bitcoin economy... is a bit necessary.
When Butterfly Labs was scamming people over so long a period, it was difficult to mention them without a flurry of negative personal anecdotes coming your way. Is this also the case with Robocoin, or is this an isolated incident?
Re: The Great Robocoin Rip-off: How We Lost $25,000 Buying a Robocoin ATM
#10wow that sounds like a horrible experience! it is unfortunate that you got stung like that. out of interest, what was the expected ROI? I mean, you sunk $25K into it. even if you were charging 5% fees - you would need half a million in transactions to break even, and that isn't including the monthly rental fee for the location. is there really that big of a demand for BTC in a pub?
I think the idea is that there's demand for cash at a pub, but I also don't see how you'd reasonably expect to break even with this setup.
Ah yeah thats right, when I read the emails, it read more like an ATM that accepted deposits (there were currency scanning issues attributed to the polymer notes) rather than cashing out. I guess it would work both ways.