Cancelled orders on CoinBase is going to kill their business. New customers are unhappy and the post does not make sense as the users are verified and money is withdrawn from their account.
I understand where they're coming from, but my experience with support has been less than stellar. About four weeks ago I bought 10 BTC from them. My transaction was deemed "high-risk" and the order was cancelled. I never got my money back.<p>I've been corresponding with support over the past four weeks and still haven't seen a dime. Support generally takes 4-5 business days to respond to each email. I understand that their support staff is extremely limited, but it is still unacceptable, especially because they're dealing with monetary transactions.
If a transaction is decided to be "High Risk", why not postpone the transaction until additional verification is done?<p>Instead, we are left wondering if Coinbase is selectively cancelling transactions that they can make a profit off of (due to the volatility of bitcoins)
Until Coinbase complies with applicable laws, every transaction they handle is a high-risk transaction. They could be shut down at any moment.<p>They're not alone. There isn't a single Bitcoin exchange in the world right now compliant with U.S. money transmission laws.<p>Buyer/seller beware.<p>Full disclosure: we're in litigation over this.
I am surprised that nobody mentioned that yesterday, Coinbase crossed their global "daily buy limit"! Users of Coinbase were greeted with a new interface to buy coins, prompting them to click and confirm their transactions would not be completed until Friday (the usual condition on a Monday) and that their USD-quoted price would be processed at the effective market rate at that time (if you're used to doing business with Coinbase, they mention a time but really the deal is done at the time of their choosing) on Friday.<p>So, you are agreeing to spend a given amount of USD to acquire BTC, but the price is not fixed and you actually don't know the number of BTC you'll be getting until their calculation of the market rate occurs, five days from now. I had the same experience as the person in Coinbase Blog, they white-listed me, now I have an expectation that they will deliver on their promises.<p>Before that, I don't think I ever did (or had any reason to.) Some company on the internet is agreeing to take my bank details and make a withdrawal from my bank account, but what happens next is anyone's guess.<p>(A thought exercise: what is it exactly about letting 5 days pass before that makes it safer for Coinbase to part with a sum of bitcoins when a bank transfer is completed? The owner of the account has had zero opportunity to contest the charge as fraudulent, and those bitcoins go "at-risk" on that day when the transaction is completed. If there is a run on bitcoins, how does Coinbase guarantee they will be able to satisfy all of the orders they've accepted?)
People like to make it seem that a bitcoin purchase is life or death and basically equate being able to buy bitcoins whenever and however they want up there with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
What does a reversible payment method mean? And how does that differ from Mt. Gox? I know Coinbase is not an exchange like they are but are their payment methods different? Genuinely curious.
A couple large bitcoin funds go broke to hackers and the price of bitcoin subsequently doubles in a little over two weeks. I'm curious to see how this will continue to play out.