Bitcoin Forum

I'm interested to get people's opinions on Coinbase.com. I've seen varying reviews regarding Coinbase, but thought I would give it a try because of its "simplicity" and options for merchants. After waiting 5 days for my order to be processed, I got an email saying that my order had been canceled, which is apparently an old problem that hasn't been fixed. Other old problems seem to be not responding to emails or refunding canceled orders in a timely manner, but I cannot confirm or deny that since my order was only canceled this morning. They say they've raised over $6 million from investors, but apparently they haven't spent any of that on order processing or customer service.

You waited for 5 days for a bitcoin purchase? Well, I just started bitcoin recently, so I am not too familiar with coinbase. However, I find localbitcoin.com is fairly nice. I went to bank of America, deposited money at this person's account, and within a minute, escrow released coins into my wallet. Seems straight forward enough.

Yeah, it seems a little weird that it takes so long on your first deposit. They say it is to verify your information and reduce fraud, and you'll receive instant deposits after that. No clue if that is true or not, or if they just steal your money for a couple of days to buy and sell more bitcoins. Thanks for the information on Local Bitcoins. I will check it out. 

Olaf from Coinbase here.

Sorry for the trouble with the cancelled transaction! We use machine learning algorithms to determine risk, and sometimes normal users are falsely flagged. Email support [at] coinbase.com and I'll review your account.

I think coinbase works well. In addition, they are a YCombinator company. Good luck!

Thanks. I actually emailed that 5 days ago and finally got a response last night saying "... we have received your request and are working on responding to you as soon as possible ...." I like what you guys are building and hope to use your merchant tools, but I'm wondering if you are also going to hire more customer support soon? I'm trying to be as patient as possible, and I'm sure you're receiving 100's of emails, but the slow response time is definitely frustrating.

It should also be noted to anyone reading this that they did refund my canceled order extremely quickly. Coinbase is one of the better options out there IMO and are backed by major investors and experienced/respected people, but they just need to improve their verification process and customer support.

Coinbase is a legit service. Still needs a little improvement here and there (mentioned above already) but overall a great service.

I used Coinbase once back in early July. As mentioned above, it took a few days to process, but they indicated that would be the case before I purchased my BTC. So, I did not have any issues otherwise.

i think bitbargain is one of the best out there, check my profile out bitbargain.co.uk/profile/keptitlow

Coinbase is GREAT once you have a Tier II account that does instant transactions. Don't have to worry about wire transfer fees or Dwolla delays or BitInstant being offline, etc.

The cancelled thing never happened to me but did happen to someone I know and it really sucked because the price of BTC was 15% higher 5 days later than when he bought. Once you get to Tier II that shouldn't happen though, and if it does you'll know instantly.

I've used Coinbase since I started... but last friday I've had my transaction cancelled because I was high risk.  I've emailed their support but haven't gotten an answer yet.  I think they do what everyone else says... when the price increases they just cancel your transaction, refund what you paid so now you have to pay more for the same bitcoin. I have four more transactions pending right now and they're due to finalize in the next few days.  I don't have long until I'm fully verified either, so the "High risk transaction" I really don't believe as it happened right when the transaction was supposed to finalize and haven't heard back from their support.  I've  also searched the forum for other posts regarding this issue and I've seen many others in the same situation.  I've tried localbitcoins.com and had my bitcoins in record time, although at a higher price.  In the end, I don't think coinbase isn't very trustworthy for newbies, probably better to make a purchase, wait until fully verified and just use another exchanger until the 30 days lapse.  If it takes 30 days for them to trust you, why shouldn't it take the same for you?

I think that they buy your coins for you immediately upon request, but just don't put them into your wallet until the ACH transfer has fully cleared. When I made my first payment for coins as a Tier 1 user, I bought 5 coins for $450 on a Friday evening. When I got them the next Friday, they were worth substantially more, maybe $95-$97 each. This transaction did not get cancelled. So while I don't know what factors go into the transaction cancellations, I don't think that price increase is a factor, or at least it's not the only factor.

It's a lot of fun when the price rises and in the exact second you're supposed to receive the bitcoins your transaction gets cancelled.  It's just like going back on your deal.  If I make a deal with someone, for example I promise to give them some cake next friday and take some money in return.  I take the money, and when friday rolls around I give him back his money because I think he's a high risk customer, although the price of cake has risen in the meantime.  The guy I made my deal with has a house full of guests that will not get cake that day.  I also offer a help-line for him to call but there's no one to answer until some unspecified time in the future.

If Coinbase were honest, they wouldn't cancel transactions in the last moment and refund the money.  The last ebayer that did this because I order from him from a "high-risk" country got a NEGATIVE feedback from me.  If a transaction is high-risk DON'T ACCEPT IT TO BEGIN WITH!  That would at least be honest!

Yes they canceled one of my transactions a couple of days ago right after BTC spiked upwards.  They said that it was a "suspicious" transaction but was exactly how I had done the others for the last two months.  And they accepted one right before that and then canceled the 2nd.

And in the email they send out it says, "Try again in a few weeks".   They are just playing games and it is not appreciated.

Exactly what happend to me.  Another transaction I made in exactly the same conditions went through right before.

Huh, well that's just ridiculous. I would never think they could do that. And seems like you are not the only one this has happened to. Now I wonder what is their reason for doing it..  Indeed, playing such games is unacceptable. Other users need to be aware of that.

Olaf from Coinbase here

I'm sorry for the trouble with this cancelled transaction! We're actively hiring additional support staff so we can respond more quickly to these types of situations:

http://blog.coinbase.com/post/58733449732/we-are-looking-to-grow-our-customer-support-team

The price is not a factor whatsoever when determining high risk status. We use machine learning algorithms - the process is fully automated and no human has a say. Fraud is a huge problem when selling bitcoin so we have to be careful - unfortunately some legitimate users get falsely flagged. If you email support I will review your account and upon your request can push through the cancelled transaction at the purchase price. Again, apologies for the trouble with this!

yes

I had this exact same thing happen to me after waiting a week (second purchase) today for a bitcoin. Cancelled twenty minutes before my bitcoin was to be delivered. I am heavily mad and have wrote them a nasty email. **** coinbase

Do not use coin base unless you want the same thing that happened in the above post to happen to you.BTC

Place order again. My second one got cancelled. I think it was just working out glitch with availability of BTC, and them calling it a security issue. In the meantime while you await thirty day verification, make a few smaller orders assuming one might not go through. That's basically how I handled it.

I just hit 30 day verification and the instant BTC is really instant. its really effing great actually.

I've been using them for quite a while. Nothing but good things to say. I think their customer service is pretty good too.

Have they solved the problem since you've posted this?

Hi. I use coinbase. I haven't had any issues with them. Their support is amazing. Although due to high influx of support emails it can take a while to receive a response but they are generally good. Its great to see them expanding.

I for one think that Coinbase is gonna be going places and doing a lot of good things for merchants. I definitely have an account and certainly enjoy having instant access to btc. It took 5 days to get my first 0.2468 bitcoin, but the recent rise in price has been sweet. Looking forward to the coming months and watching the difficulty explosion. First post here, btw. Hello community!

This is a very paypal-esque statement quoted below.  If coinbase is subject to that kind of deposit risk ( ACH chargebacks? ), then I question the business model and funding process.  I, for one, choose not to do business with companies that treat their customers as guilty until proven innocent.

Perhaps instead of relying on, and being corrupted by the old banking system's stifling practices, coinbase and others in the space should be actively encouraging, organizing, promoting, funding, and marketing a worldwide person2person exchange model based on the buttonwood, where buyers and sellers meet up physically once a week to exchange in person and in safety.

This is a model that can be scaled globally to every city, town, village, campus and 100% routes around the legacy banking system.  We will not break free of it until we no longer depend on it.

Olaf, I understand you're not personally at fault for this, but Coinbase's policy is really hard on new customers from this point of view.  I don't know if the algorithms used by the automated process are a very good way to handle this, seeing as so many people have this problem.  I think there should be at least one human person making the decision.  As of this moment I'm still waiting for a reply in my email....  

Also in the meantime, could you please propose a change to the wording in the email Coinbase sends to people who receive this email, specifically "You may have more luck trying again in a few weeks. Best of luck and thank you for trying Coinbase."  because it feels like a slap in the face when you read it (in that specific moment), and I'm not sure that's the message Coinbase is trying to send.

And more fun! Another order cancelled! :)

Unfortunately, we have decided to cancel this order because it appears to be high risk. We do not send out any bitcoins on high risk transactions, and your bank account will not be charged.

I've been buying and selling alot there lately without a hitch.

but I'm poor and only deal in really small amounts. 20 or 30 bucks at a time usually. sometimes if I feel like attempting to save, Ill convert a hundred into a bitcoin, and try to cash out as little at possible. so up to a bitcoin, for as tiny as that is, works just fine.

I have no ideea what I do to be high risk... maybe it's the way I click!

And another transaction went through!! Same conditions and same amount!! Horrible algorithms Coinbase!

No, I'm still waiting to hear back from them. I just received a generic automated response saying "Thank you for submitting your request. We have received your request and are working on responding to you as soon as possible. If you have any additional information to add to this case, please reply to this email."

I emailed them on the 22nd, so they are at least a week behind in responding to customer complaints.

Thanks for the feedback with this. I agree that it's a horrible first user experience to have an order cancelled. The difficulty is that without these flagging algorithms we would be completely inundated with fraud. We try to be vigilant about manually checking accounts and pushing through cancelled transactions if it turns out to be a legitimate user. If you want PM me your email and I'll check your account.

Thanks to Olaf, my order was processed tonight at my original purchase price of $100.28/BTC. I think they are an honest company and are trying to correct their errors, it's just currently taking longer than most of us would like. Improving customer service and response times seem to be a priority though, so I think they're a good wallet option and seem to have quality merchant options.

I haven't had an order cancelled with Coinbase, but then I only made one, so it's not a very large sample size.  I'm not all that impressed with their new site design, however, it seems like things are harder to find than they used to be.

Ok, Olaf has taken care of my problem as well.  I hope other people won't have this problem and once enough support staff are hired problems such as these will be forgotten.  It's good to know that even with that Coinbase still looks after its customers!

I tried Coinbase yesterday and I broke it  ??? :P

I used a complicated password to ensure security and it just broke. Sorry... it was me!

The wait is painstaking! I like to get my BTC when I buy them. That's why I'm here now.

Give it 30 days and get to Verified, Level 2. The convenience of ACH and Instant BTC (after verification) makes Coinbase the most appealing service to U.S. users who don't want to deal with exchanges/OTC.

I use it and I'm a happy camper.
I even gave them my password and user for my bank account for fast verification.
Sure It takes a long time to buy them, but im in no hurry.
Now if you would, please click on the link so I can earn some free bitcoins for referral *ehem*  ;D
https://coinbase.com/?r=520a6c920801f4a35d000057

My experience with Coinbase has been so-so.  My first transaction was cancelled, which seems to be a pretty common issue, unfortunately.  I was frustrated because I was not notified until the end of the 4 day waiting period.  If I was flagged as potentially fraudulent, there's no reason not to have just rejected me outright from the start.  If that had been the end of it, I would say to stay away, but Coinbase took care of me eventually.

I emailed support and Olaf after reading a couple of posts here and on reddit where he'd helped people with the same issue.  A week later, he whitelisted me and pushed my original transaction through with no waiting period.  Better still, though, he pushed the transaction through at the rate I originally purchased at, despite the fact that the cost in USD had gone up ~$20/BTC since then.  I'm supposedly whitelisted now so I won't have any issues going forward.  All in all, the customer service was good, though it took a week to get a response.

Given the convenience and relatively low fees, I see Coinbase being my go-to exchange for the foreseeable future.  Plus, they're doing a lot to support bitcoin generally and for merchants specifically.

I am so upset with coinbase at the moment. After waiting five days for the bitcoins to get processed, with 1 hour to go, I get an email that the transaction was cancelled due to high risk. It just so happens that bitcoin price surged $8. This is unacceptable in my opinion, I have also emailed about this and am still awaiting response. Now I am forced to place a new order at a higher price and hoping this one does not get cancelled too. I would think twice before using this service. My cancelled transaction # was A0WYIHD9

Edit: Olaf and the coinbase team completely resolved my issues above. They even pushed through my cancelled transaction at the price when placed. Coinbase is amazing and customer service is top notch. They will see more of my business. A++++++

Send them a support request and complain.  That definitely sucks, but they've freely admitted that it's an automated system and it makes mistakes.  That's not excusing them for it, just saying that it happens. 

Also, when I bought my bitcoins from Coinbase, the price went up at least $10 from when I placed the order and when it came through, and they still honored the order.  Just FYI - there is more going up than just the price going up, although that may well be part of it.

Here's what I don't get.

What if someone buys like .5 btc, then waits 30 days, and dies an instant buy of 50 btc and diesnt pay?

Seems open for people to kill the company.

Yeah, hopefully you didn't place a new order at a higher price as they will honor the original price. BTC was up a little over $20 when they corrected my original canceled order. Also don't expect a quick response to your email. They are working to improve customer service, but it is currently pretty slow.

You have to link your bank account, so I think the instant buy would get declined if there aren't enough funds in your account to complete the transaction. They aren't going to give you BTC before they get their money. 

The instant buy goes through immediately, and the funds dont get deducted until like 3 days later from all reports I've seen.

Yes and their customer service is very slow it takes them forever to respond!

The wallet seems nice enough, used that and might store a few coins in there.

Do they offer funding via UK banks or just USA?

Howdy!

My 0.02Btc worth; sorry if this thread is dead and I missed the boat. I have used Coinbase for six months or so, with no problems, the five-six day wait was slightly annoying until I passed the level 2 verification, and instant is very nice and worth it. I had some problems a few months ago, and the coinbase guys worked it out to /more/ than my satisfaction, in a timely manner no less. Just in case my opinion is worth anything, I'll say that I believe them (Coinbase) to be honest and sincere, their prices are fair, and I plan on using them for all my buying/selling needs.

russell

When u buy instantly, how long does it take them to debit your checking account?

Just bought a Bitcoin via Coinbase just the other day. No problems or issues on this. Then again, I'm well past the 30 day vetting/waiting period & my buys are instant.

However, I may end up owing that Bitcoin(and a matching one) to another user because of this bet:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=285659.msg3067391#msg3067391

I hardly make bets but if I win this one, it'll be the easiest 2 BTC I ever make.  ;D

Coinbase is about as easy as it gets, I am a big fan of using it and I started out buying my bitcoins for cash. 

> When u buy instantly, how long does it take them to debit your checking account?

Well, now that... Usually a day or so, /that/ is not instant. It's not a problem though, it's to my advantage if anybodies, I've already got the coin, they can yank their money whenever they feel like it. I suppose I just need to remember not to let my bank balance get lower than the cost of the bitcoin. I really don't see a disadvantage. I mean, I spent the last coin I bought long before they took their money, it's not like there's a hold or anything on it.

russell

5 days is long for the first 30 days. Even BTC-e takes 3 days to wait on the first transaction, then it's instant after that.

Thanks for the support guys. I've emailed them twice and also sent a pm to Olaf as well. Now waiting for a response. Hopefully I can update this thread positively if they make it right. If they are reading this I apologize for being so angry in my initial email, it was written moments after the cancellation, after waiting five days.

Edit: Olaf and the coinbase team completely resolved my issues above. They even pushed through my cancelled transaction at the price when placed. Coinbase is amazing and customer service is top notch. They will see more of my business. A++++++

Just seems like more of an issue with buying, understandable for the possible fraud. Has anyone had a issue of selling there? I just recently signed up and was originally going to use BTC-e, then use OKpay or PerfectMoney to cash out. Is Coinbase the only US company selling and buying?

Replying to get olaf's help