<story><title>Sent $35,104.11 USD to CoinBase. Never received Bitcoins</title><text>This story dates back to December 8th when I initiated an ACH transfer with CoinBase.com for a total sum of $35,104.11. On that very same day, the system informed me that I would be credited with the bitcoins come December 13th.&lt;p&gt;December 13th came by and it was this past Friday. No coins ever came in, the only thing CoinBase did was lock in a price for me @ $868.91. Again, they locked in a price and didn&amp;#x27;t give me coins on the day they told me they would deliver the coins.Ever since the 13th, my transaction page has been showing the following:&lt;p&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;R2qEn8E.png&lt;p&gt;As you can tell, the funds cleared their end on the 11th. BUT... it still says pending for crediting the coins.&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;This is how the history page looks like:&lt;p&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;BQ4fUwZ.png&lt;p&gt;Just take a look at that...it actually says that the transaction has been completed here.&lt;p&gt;Let us now look at the email conversation:&lt;p&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;6SQht98.png&lt;p&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;eNlIS0V.png&lt;p&gt;I gave their team eight hours to get back to me and settle the issue. They have now missed that deadline so I am taking this matter a bit public. Further avoidance by them will lead me to make a few calls to news stations. I have the right contacts to easily put myself in the media.&lt;p&gt;Now the real dilemma for me here is the fact that while CoinBase.com has locked in a price for me, because they have failed to deliver I cannot sell my coins at any rate. Bitcoins could drop down to $200, and only then might they deliver the coins. The issue at that point is that I would be down a crazy percent already. If they had delivered the coins on the 13th as they had initially promised to, there would not be this issue.&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Give me a break, the company just secured $25m in VC and this is how they are treating their clientele.&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>PeterisP</author><text>To all of you who say that Bitcoin shouldn&amp;#x27;t be regulated - this is what it results in.&lt;p&gt;If it was any regulated financial deal - say, purchase of stock or Yen - then there are clear rules on how to handle that, namely, you&amp;#x27;d be entitled to at least compensation for any decrease between the &amp;#x27;locked&amp;#x27; price at the agreed settlement date and the real settlement, whenever it may happen, and the interest for the period. Repeated such situations would result in a rapid audit to verify if they really have enough assets to pay out all their debts, and if not, shut them down immediately.&lt;p&gt;Now you&amp;#x27;re quite screwed, while coinbase has taken a profit on this (and probably other) deals by delaying these settlements. And what are you going to do if you don&amp;#x27;t get all the losses covered? Your options are quite limited.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jnbiche</author><text>No, wrong.  The reason people have to put up with Coinbase&amp;#x27;s shenanigans^, is because of the super intense regulations in this sector.  Those of us who would take customer money more seriously (and who would have refused additional customers much earlier) &lt;i&gt;also&lt;/i&gt; take legal liabilities more seriously, particularly the legal liabilities of running an unlicensed money transmission business.&lt;p&gt;If these regulations weren&amp;#x27;t so onerous, a dozen more of us would have jumped into the arena, and the one of us who gave the best customer service would be the market leader.&lt;p&gt;Instead, buyers are stuck with Coinbase.&lt;p&gt;^ Not suggesting anything purposely illegal -- just incompetence combined with too much business.  Yet another reason regulation is hurting everyone here: less regulation would have left Coinbase left overwhelmed with so much business (since there would be more competing businesses).</text></comment>
<story><title>Sent $35,104.11 USD to CoinBase. Never received Bitcoins</title><text>This story dates back to December 8th when I initiated an ACH transfer with CoinBase.com for a total sum of $35,104.11. On that very same day, the system informed me that I would be credited with the bitcoins come December 13th.&lt;p&gt;December 13th came by and it was this past Friday. No coins ever came in, the only thing CoinBase did was lock in a price for me @ $868.91. Again, they locked in a price and didn&amp;#x27;t give me coins on the day they told me they would deliver the coins.Ever since the 13th, my transaction page has been showing the following:&lt;p&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;R2qEn8E.png&lt;p&gt;As you can tell, the funds cleared their end on the 11th. BUT... it still says pending for crediting the coins.&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;This is how the history page looks like:&lt;p&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;BQ4fUwZ.png&lt;p&gt;Just take a look at that...it actually says that the transaction has been completed here.&lt;p&gt;Let us now look at the email conversation:&lt;p&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;6SQht98.png&lt;p&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;eNlIS0V.png&lt;p&gt;I gave their team eight hours to get back to me and settle the issue. They have now missed that deadline so I am taking this matter a bit public. Further avoidance by them will lead me to make a few calls to news stations. I have the right contacts to easily put myself in the media.&lt;p&gt;Now the real dilemma for me here is the fact that while CoinBase.com has locked in a price for me, because they have failed to deliver I cannot sell my coins at any rate. Bitcoins could drop down to $200, and only then might they deliver the coins. The issue at that point is that I would be down a crazy percent already. If they had delivered the coins on the 13th as they had initially promised to, there would not be this issue.&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Give me a break, the company just secured $25m in VC and this is how they are treating their clientele.&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>PeterisP</author><text>To all of you who say that Bitcoin shouldn&amp;#x27;t be regulated - this is what it results in.&lt;p&gt;If it was any regulated financial deal - say, purchase of stock or Yen - then there are clear rules on how to handle that, namely, you&amp;#x27;d be entitled to at least compensation for any decrease between the &amp;#x27;locked&amp;#x27; price at the agreed settlement date and the real settlement, whenever it may happen, and the interest for the period. Repeated such situations would result in a rapid audit to verify if they really have enough assets to pay out all their debts, and if not, shut them down immediately.&lt;p&gt;Now you&amp;#x27;re quite screwed, while coinbase has taken a profit on this (and probably other) deals by delaying these settlements. And what are you going to do if you don&amp;#x27;t get all the losses covered? Your options are quite limited.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>baddox</author><text>&amp;gt; To all of you who say that Bitcoin shouldn&amp;#x27;t be regulated - this is what it results in.&lt;p&gt;My interpretation is precisely the opposite of yours. Every other method to exchange bitcoins and USD has been shut down (or at least had its US presence shut down). Coinbase nearly has a monopoly in the United States (I say nearly, because there are certainly still ways to get on other exchanges based in other countries, they&amp;#x27;re just much more difficult). Coinbase, from what I can tell, must have some political advantage that allows them to stay in service.</text></comment>