Bitcoin Forum

My experience with trying to buy BTC from Coinbase.

Day 1: Sign up and buy 1 BTC.
Day 2: Money gets taken from bank account.
Day 2: Buy 9 more BTC.
Day 3: 9 BTC order gets cancelled.
Day 7: 1 BTC order gets cancelled.

That is unfortunate indeed.  I am still using them (new user here) but the fact they are based in the United States and report to the IRS and other authorities is what worries me the most about them.

Any reason for why it for cancelled?  Coinbase isn't the same wallet/exchange it was before all the updates. A few years ago.

Have you confirmed your identity to them and followed the step to verify? I know that they have canceled orders in the past when the prices have moved wildly. I have been using them for several months and never had orders canceled.

According to them it was for, "After an assessment of your account activity."

The only account activity was the 2 purchases listed above.



All the requested banking information was provided and confirmed.

They're about as anal as can be. Considering they're trying to be legit in a very sketchy area, I'm surprised they don't ravage more people. Similar to Bitstamp, they're trying to please the people watching them by getting on their customers' tits with ludicrous paranoia.

Unfortunately unless you.have been long standing with them they can be a pain. My account is over a year old and I never get a rejected order for a long time now

Their fees for newbies are over the top. Do they charge lower fees for longstanding customers?

Coinbase using many methods to know users and identify them , This shouldn't be a bitcoin plateform ,
Bitcoin is a symbole of Freedom , privacy ,,, in coinbase this isn't the case , they may have the right to
identify users when buying bitcoin for securities reason but not annoying our privacy ,,,,

yup. Cancelled my account. Coinbase suks:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=979433.0

heard this issue like this before, it was cancelled due to the rise of the price, although it could be due to another factor but it seems suspicious just to cancel it like that due to account activity

happened that he won't allow you to buy that time  :D ( coinbase always like this )

This is why you use their instant buy option. At the base level it is $1,000 a week and it reloads every day.

That's not the point.

Yeah.. Irrelevant,. 8)

So whats the verdict ? Why did they cancel the orders and don't allow buying BTC ?  I still don't get it, didn't they provide an explanation on how to fix this ?

I doubt they provide reasons, but its really unfair that they do this. It makes coinbase at the end of my list to ever approach for buying or selling BTC

I guess a reddit post should spark things up..

The only explanation they gave me are those screenshots I just posted above. That's after a week and a half of me emailing them asking why this happened and how to resolve it - I offered any and all (above and beyond what is required) proof they needed to legitimize the purchase (they already had my drivers license, bank account info which had cleared).

The only explanation/correspondance I got from them was what I showed above.

That's it.

The verdict is that they cancelled the orders for no reason and refunded the money after holding it for a week.

Exchange rates went up. They freeroll the market on your penny for 4 days and if it goes against them they cancel the trade.

Sold $1000 of BTC and they canceled my sell a week later after BTC dropped 30% saying I provided wrong banking info however those same bank accounts were used the week prior to sell BTC with NO ISSUE. Filed a BEtter business bureau complaint and they still wouldn't do anything.

They are thieves, avoid COINBASE.

I am pretty sure they didn't cancel those orders to profit from the exchange rate difference. There must be some kind of deeper reason behind this?

I can't say why they cancelled the order, but I can say that every verification was completed and I don't think anything could have been done differently that would have made this order successful.

OG, you gotta call them. Their office is in San Francisco in the US, call them and figure out what happened.

Out of curiosity, when you verified your bank account did you elect to allow them to check your online banking credentials or did you provide the deposit amounts they made to your account?

How long prior to buying the bitcoin did your bank account have funds available to fund the transaction? In theory coinbase could have contacted your bank who could have said that there was a recent deposit that may or may not actually clear (e.g. a check deposit that could be retuned unpaid, among other things).

None of that matters. They don't care. I've been through all that, I had all the verifications they asked for (and I offered more to them), plenty of funds in bank account.

Plain and simple: I bought low, they took my money, price had risen significantly during the 4 day ACH wait, and on the last day - WHEN THE ACH WAIT TIME WAS OVER - THEY CANCELLED THE PURCHASE WITH A SOME VAGUE, CANNED EMAIL. Attempts at trying to resolve it by contacting CB LEADS NOWHERE.

Plenty of examples of this all over the web. Buy low, price rises, they cancel. Sell high, price declines, they cancel. They do it under the guise of "security concerns".  All in all, your money gets tied up for AT LEAST a week and a half. They are most likely leveraging your money between the time you buy and the time they cancel and refund it.

Fuck Coinbase and their Goldman Sachs/Big Brother scamming bullshit.

This is insane, maybe try to use circle.com  ( I have never used it because I don't have a US bank account) but maybe it is better than coinbase.

yup. I signed up with Circle and Kraken and everythings peachy with them.

By the way, if CB cancels your transaction and you are persistant with contacting them to resolve it (which won't work) and then escalating it to the point of informing them that you "will take appropriate action if this is not resolved" YOU WILL GET THIS:

https://i.imgur.com/MrGfQlj.png

The problem here will be that they work with a "zero mistake" policy. So even if they canceled it on accident and it was indeed a legit order (which it looks to be), they will never admit that.

I think it would matter. If you had verified your bank account via online banking then they may be able to more easily verify if funds are going to be available or not.

If there was a recent check deposit that would be required to clear in order to cover the transaction then there would be a higher risk that ACH transaction would be reversed. There is no ACH wait time, a deposit (ACH or check) can be reversed by your bank for long after the transaction posts to your account depending on the reason. The "wait time" that you probably normally see is the bank putting a hold on the deposit for the amount of time that a deposit will normally be returned by if it is in fact going to be returned.

I don't think they are trading against you. They have started offering the USD wallet with USD deposits so people could just make a USD deposit and would still have the deposit cancelled under the same circumstances

...

I have not used Coinbase so cannot offer a good comment on them.

I HAVE used trucoin.com (http://trucoin.com), and yes they are expensive (9% total by my calculations, not their's!), but they have always come through.  But, trucoin is easy to use (after set-up), and has not failed me.

My city does not offer many who I can meet via localbitcoins (I've tried).  THAT option would be great because it leaves much less of a trail...

Yes I am agree with you, as I said before the OP may try to buy bitcoin using the circle.com service, maybe he will not have the coinbase problem. I want to use them but I am fine with the various online exchange.

i still dont know why you buy btc from coinbase,better buy them from some exchange
and send them to blockchain.info and you wouldent have much problems!

Companies like Coinbase only charge a very low fee -  it's definitely annoying for a few people, but they need to have a very high rate of legitimate users (I guess >99%) to be profitable.

This is only one reason. A high rate of fraud will really put a damper on the relationships they have with banks.

A high rate of fraud false positives and repeated last-minute cancellations of customer's legitimate transactions - especially instances where customers bought or sold at fortunate prices, have monies tied up with Coinbase for 4 days while ACH clears and price moves against Coinbase in that period - will really put a damper on the trust and relationships with with their customer base and prospective new ones.

Coinbase sucks. Plus they are Goldman Sachs which makes them suck even more.

Wow, thanks! After reading this topic, coinbase won't get any business from me anytime soon. Localbitcoins it is!  ;D On a similar note, does anyone know if Dutch banks are permissive about bitcoin?

I don't suggest blockchain.info as wallet, electrum (desktop wallet) is better than other one. You can also use armory or multibit.

there safety is a the top best

in most chances you cant get hacked

well i like better online wallets then desktop wallets!

I would think they operate on a partial reserve system, similar to the way banks do. You have a balance that they essentially take liberties with.  When you buy low, they bank on others selling, but nobody sells then the price rises. They don't have the bitcoins to actually deliver to you so they cancel your order and refund your purchase price because it's cheaper than buying at the higher price to cover your order.

If this is really what's happening it will take a while, but they'll get nailed for doing this and folks who had orders canceled as a result of unscrupulous business practices will have a claim against them. Unless of course they have covered their bases with solid legal terms and conditions, which allow them to cancel an order for any reason, and they likely do. Even so, this would not be enough to protect them in the court of public opinion, and folks like the OP may be able to seek compensation for losses.

I've heard about this several times, and it's happened to me too, but I've never heard it happen when someone bought at a high price, then breathed a sigh of relief because the price fell and their order was canceled, allowing them to buy lower.

TT

There is no reason to do this. They have very good connections to get and sell BTC too. Also why would they have periods where they stop selling or buying if it was like you are saying? Doesn't make any sense...

Back when I first created a coinbase account about 2 years ago they cancelled one of my orders. Since then I never bought more than my instant buy allowed in a week ($1k) and its never been cancelled. I think they have a strict high risk order algorithm that could be more laxed. But for long time customers I doubt they are having any of these problems and if so should call coinbase. I called a long time ago and they "whitelisted" my account to prevent this from ever happening again. Whether they still do this I am not sure since this was back when they were in the infant stages.

yeah i use coinbase as well, and they do seem to try to fuck you over or try not to be fucked over if there are sudden price increases and sales... you are better off looking for a faster bitcoin exchange.

would it be faster if you used money in your coinbase's USD wallet?

Yeah, this is done on new accounts.  Never had a problem in over a year.   Not a big problem at all.  Can you guys imagine the amount of fraud trying to be pulled on them every second of the day?    Morons will work a week to scam someone out of .02 btc. 

Add to this, that many of those scammers will scream the loudest once they are getting an order rejected.

I have been using coinbase for over 2 years now. My only mistake is buying Bitcoin at 800 bucks with a huge fee. Have you totally verified your account to be able to make these purchases?

did they cancel all the transactions since they feel like its led to illegal activities? or is it cause you bought bitcoin way too fast?

i think the cancellation is a bit retarded though..

wait, so pretty much every newbie who registers with them will encounter this or no?

No, and they have an algorithm that will do that to some accounts. They are not out to stick it to newbs..

Coinbase is the best BTC exchange I've ever came across. However, I only use instant buy and at that I don't buy in large amounts. Of course you're going to hit their fraud detection if you're trying to do some sketchy ass shit. They've even been known to ban people for depositing to BTC gambling sites because those don't do any taxes. So sorry your were caught on the wrong end of the best exchange. Maybe try not to act like a drug seller/buyer/fraudster/money launderer next time you're trying to buy or sell huge amounts of something you probably won't report to the IRS  ;D

I don't suggest any of them they all have some `default` first blockchain can be hacked
and there's a lot of reports ,,, the last time a hacker stole wallets , about multibit and electrum ,,, fee
may not be costumable ,,, but more safe , I just prefer the bitcoind its little had a big size but
the best at all.

using coinbase USD wallet to buy bitcoins is instant. I have used it back and forth and it does not count toward my instant buy limit. Coinbase is pretty good at detecting accounts that are linked to illegal activities. I know a lot of people complained when coinbase constantly rejected their orders and it turned out a lot of them were former silkroad customers. If your account was ever linked to silkroad your automatically a high risk (creating a new account will not solve this).

I am absolutely not saying this is happening. I mean all this as a possible motive for buys to get canceled In fact, after reading my post again, I did write If this is really what's happening... But really should have started the whole thing with hypothetically speaking or something.

I use coinbase and I like coinbase and although anything is possible, I do trust coinbase with my money.

TT

Id restrain on using gebbit for bitcoin transaction, they have a scam accusation from their previous marketing in this thread
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=986461.0

Sketchy ass shit?  I tried to buy a BTC.  What is sketchy about that?  They had all my info and it was verified.  The only sketchy thing was them reversing the sale when the BTC price rose.

well that kinda sucks .. they should atleast give a proper reason why you cant use they platforum what soever ... i mean being a major name in bitcoin industry they ought to explain themselves better