Where are my bitcoins CoinBase? SHAPOW!

mGrunin

mGrunin

New member
Jul 18, 2009
2,973
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NY, US
Before I get scolded for creating another thread on cryptocurrency, I do have a genuine concern and would love for any experienced member to advice me on my issue.

On last Sunday (8th of Dec), I initiated an ACH transfer for 40 Bitcoins - a total cost of $35,104.11.

On Tuesday (10th of Dec), the funds were successfully taken from my bank account.

My transaction on CoinBase was informing me that my BitCoins will arrive on Friday (today).

I spend the better part of today refreshing the page, waiting for the transaction to finally flip to complete status and see my newly added coins. Sooner or later, it is 11 PM and my coins are still not there!

Thirty minutes later, to add insult to injury, the whole transaction disappears from my account. It is as though I never initiated the transfer to begin with. Obviously my first course of action was to verify whether or not the ACH transfer processed properly, and low and behold, the transfer cleared and my money is sitting in their hands.

I searched the interwebs for others that have been in my shoes when it came to depositing funds and then seeing the transaction disappearing, but I couldn't find a common case. I know that there a devoted following here when it comes to BitCoins, so what I would like to know is if anyone else here had a similar experience.

Is this just a case of being just a bit more patient, or is this a case of lubing up my anus?

For your entertainment, here is a very short SHAPOW video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrQOYn5ckfo

Proof is in the pudding:

vr1ERFY.png


This is how my account looks at the moment:

lkHwuKK.png
 


This has never happened to me, but the most I've ever bought at Coinbase in one day is like 10 coins max. (Just under in fact)

Is this your first purchase with them? Perhaps the first purchase above a single coin?

I'm somehow quite sure that this is 100% FINCEN's fault.

Keep the faith bro...
 
CCarter said:
Blast them on their Twitter and Facebook accounts, that'll get their attention.​
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Good idea, I'll try to reach out to them on Twitter. I can't touch Facebook since I have enough cease and desists from them to fill the walls of the Grand Canyon.

lukep said:
This has never happened to me, but the most I've ever bought at Coinbase in one day is like 10 coins max. (Just under in fact)

Is this your first purchase with them? Perhaps the first purchase above a single coin?

I'm somehow quite sure that this is 100% FINCEN's fault.

Keep the faith bro...
Click to expand...

This is my second ACH transfer with them. My first one was on April 9th. Throughout the past two weeks I have been using their instant feature to get coins right away and it was working perfectly fine. Only thing is that I am limited to only 10 instant BTC per week, while I had to place this order of 40.
 
mGrunin said:
Good idea, I'll try to reach out to them on Twitter. I can't touch Facebook since I have enough cease and desists from them to fill the walls of the Grand Canyon.
Click to expand...

LOL, damn about Facebook.

I've only done the 10 btc at a time transactions with Coinbase, never tried above, this is all still relatively new.

Also LOL @ tags, that craziness isn't me bros, it never was, never will be.​
 
Check your email and see if there's anything from them. Some people on bitcointalk have reported Coinbase having a very strict anti-fraud feature that can cancel transactions at the last second - for example, if you usually buy a few coins here and there and then you suddenly buy a boatload (unusual spending patterns), or if you buy too much without having a level 2 account.

If this is what happened then usually they would email to let you know, and they'll wire the money back to you which would take the usual 3-4 business days. I wouldn't worry too much if their customer support takes awhile to respond, they're always backed up on requests and I doubt that will change until bitcoin really comes into the mainstream and they can afford to hire a team of dedicated reps.
 
^

Tell me about it...

Not sure how a company can secure VC funding to the tune of tens of millions of dollars while they have no public phone number available for support.
 
o hai guyz said:
Check your email and see if there's anything from them. Some people on bitcointalk have reported Coinbase having a very strict anti-fraud feature that can cancel transactions at the last second - for example, if you usually buy a few coins here and there and then you suddenly buy a boatload (unusual spending patterns), or if you buy too much without having a level 2 account.

If this is what happened then usually they would email to let you know, and they'll wire the money back to you which would take the usual 3-4 business days. I wouldn't worry too much if their customer support takes awhile to respond, they're always backed up on requests and I doubt that will change until bitcoin really comes into the mainstream and they can afford to hire a team of dedicated reps.
Click to expand...

I have checked my email, and I have read similar. In my case, I have a fully verified account with them and I have purchased about $14k worth of BitCoins with them in the past. It wasn't in a single transaction, but over three different transactions.

Either way, this is pretty frustrating, especially when the coins are trading at a market price that I would be happy to get in at.
 
mGrunin said:
^

Tell me about it...

Not sure how a company can secure VC funding to the tune of tens of millions of dollars while they have no public phone number available for support.
Click to expand...
VCs place a lot of bets. If BTC continues to take off, they will get paid out. If not, they will take a small loss, and hope another investment pays off.

That's what I was saying the other day about power law. VCs spread their bets around because when one takes off and only one in many do, then the returns are exponential. So they don't risk not betting on everything they can, just in-case one of them is the next Facebook.

Anytime someone says, "Oh that is hot, because Schwartz, Goldfarb and Stein invested in it" I roll my eyes. Investment and hype doesn't validate a business.

Profit does.
 
mGrunin said:
I have checked my email, and I have read similar. In my case, I have a fully verified account with them and I have purchased about $14k worth of BitCoins with them in the past. It wasn't in a single transaction, but over three different transactions.

Either way, this is pretty frustrating, especially when the coins are trading at a market price that I would be happy to get in at.
Click to expand...

Try submitting a request and just let them know you're aware of their fraud controls but are willing to submit extra verification if necessary in order to get the transaction manually pushed through. I've heard of this working in some cases.

IMO in a brand new industry with such quasi-regulation that even the businesses have no idea what's going on, it's smart for them to be "too careful" to ensure the future of their business. Just the price you gotta pay I guess. You could also look into Bitstamp, I signed up there as well and you can deposit USD into the account so it's immediately ready to spend as needed.
 
I've seen this before, your order is going to get canceled. The official reason is because it was flagged for fraud but it's likely that you bought on a dip and they would lose too much money to honor their quoted price.

If you really want the coins at that price email them again with all the details about what happened but this time CC the following email addresses:

Code: 
licensing@dbo.ca.gov
sharon.robinson@dbo.ca.gov
brenda.kontos@dbo.ca.gov
melissa.morrow@dbo.ca.gov
shelli.costa@dbo.ca.gov
charles.cowell@dbo.ca.gov

Like magic, customer support springs into action. Those emails are for the California department of financial institutions so use that as leverage if they don't honor their price. I know it's a strong arm tactic but sometimes that's what it takes.
 
ayzo said:
I've seen this before, your order is going to get canceled. The official reason is because it was flagged for fraud but it's likely that you bought on a dip and they would lose too much money to honor their quoted price.
Click to expand...

That seems to be the consensus on the bitcoin forums but in my experience it's not true. I placed a huge order back when the price was right at 500 and by the time it was filled it was a little under 800 - still had no issues.
 
guerilla said:
VCs place a lot of bets. If BTC continues to take off, they will get paid out. If not, they will take a small loss, and hope another investment pays off.

That's what I was saying the other day about power law. VCs spread their bets around because when one takes off and only one in many do, then the returns are exponential. So they don't risk not betting on everything they can, just in-case one of them is the next Facebook.

Anytime someone says, "Oh that is hot, because Schwartz, Goldfarb and Stein invested in it" I roll my eyes. Investment and hype doesn't validate a business.

Profit does.
Click to expand...

I understand. What I really was getting at was the fact that for a company that is attempting to become a leader in the industry, they are definitely lacking on the support side. Hiring two employees at $10 per hour to answer concerns that are called in should not have a detrimental affect on their bottom line.

I honestly hate how fucking shady everything feels like when it comes to cryptocurrency. So many of the exchanges share very little information about the owners and are located in areas of the world were any legislation would be futile. You can top that off with lackluster interfaces and poor communication.

I have been acquiring Bitcoins from CoinBase, transferring them over to BTC-E, and then exchanging them for LitCoins. Have you seen how shady BTC-E looks like? Once I receive this current order of coins, I plan to do the same, but I can't shake the feeling of one day waking up and being robbed of nearly $50k (before capital gain or loss). There just seems to be so little accountability.

o hai guyz said:
Try submitting a request and just let them know you're aware of their fraud controls but are willing to submit extra verification if necessary in order to get the transaction manually pushed through. I've heard of this working in some cases.

IMO in a brand new industry with such quasi-regulation that even the businesses have no idea what's going on, it's smart for them to be "too careful" to ensure the future of their business. Just the price you gotta pay I guess. You could also look into Bitstamp, I signed up there as well and you can deposit USD into the account so it's immediately ready to spend as needed.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I did not have such an email come in. There have been no emails regarding this specific transaction.

I would be livid if they come back to me and tell me they are rejecting my transaction due to security purposes. Keeping my money in limbo for a week is ridiculous.

SLO Ur Roll said:
You know coinbase is just a middleman right?

Took me all of August to get my coins, I use Kraken and Bitstamp now
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Yes, but it is just a matter of convenience for me. Most exchanges require that I send in a wire transfer with specific "credit to" numbers that can only be done by me if I walk into my Bank of America branch. I simply can't do that online. I honestly hate my bank managers and the personnel there, I am tired of listening about their kids and their "great" business ideas.

ayzo said:
I've seen this before, your order is going to get canceled. The official reason is because it was flagged for fraud but it's likely that you bought on a dip and they would lose too much money to honor their quoted price.

If you really want the coins at that price email them again with all the details about what happened but this time CC the following email addresses:

Code: 
licensing@dbo.ca.gov
sharon.robinson@dbo.ca.gov
brenda.kontos@dbo.ca.gov
melissa.morrow@dbo.ca.gov
shelli.costa@dbo.ca.gov
charles.cowell@dbo.ca.gov
Like magic, customer support springs into action. Those emails are for the California department of financial institutions so use that as leverage if they don't honor their price. I know it's a strong arm tactic but sometimes that's what it takes.
Click to expand...

Fantastic information. As a matter of fact, the price of a BTC is cheaper right now than when I placed the transaction. I paid around $877 per BTC last Sunday, right now the price is $859 on CoinBase.

soulravager said:
Your site is hacked -
Click to expand...

I am aware of that, and will have it fixed soon enough. Thank you for the care.
 
There are new findings. It seems that the situation isn't as dire as I led myself to believe at first.

When I was clicking around my account, I finally noticed the transaction under my History. The strange thing is that on my Transaction page, it does not show up but everything else does. On the History page it shows up there, but again, every transaction on the History page is also shown on the Transaction page.

This is the current status:

z5W6ktF.png


It looks like they cleared the funds on the 11th. Right now it is showing that my BTC are pending on the 13th but as I mentioned before, their transaction page stated they would be released yesterday.

The interesting part here is that they seemed to have locked in the price at $868.91. Which is about $9 cheaper than when I first placed the transaction, but also $7 above the current market price.
 
mGrunin said:
There just seems to be so little accountability.
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This is sort of what I was saying about how the ecosystem and confidence in a currency takes a long time to accrue.

You can't just invent a technology and expect the ecosystem (legal, financial, insurance, trust) to grow up overnight. It takes decades, in some cases generations to emerge. Technological change is fast, social change is very slow.
 
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