Bitcoin Forum

The website is very confusing. Here's what I did
1. Select Pay from "MtGox Coupon", then Pay to "BitStamp". It ask for amount and notification email. The username field is OPTIONAL.
2. Clicked on the send funds button, nothing happens.
3. Tries again, still nothing happens. I didn't mess with the are you human game, since the send funds button can be pressed wtihout playing the game.
4. Played with the "Prove you are a human", passed the game. Then press send funds, still nothing happens.
5. Decide maybe I need to put something in the OPTIONAL username field. So I put it in. It is very vague here, username of what? Of BitInstant? of Mtgox? of BitStamp? Since it is optional, so I put in my MtGox username without thinking too much of it.
6. Click send funds. Now it went to the next page, it ask me to confirm my MtGox username, which is prepopulated, so I thought it picked that up from the first page.
7. Order failed.

All this time, I thought I would be getting a redeem voucher code for BitInstant.

Put in the order, and the order failed.
Contact CS, they responded that they had to manually process the order, and that it is now processed. But I never got any voucher code for BitStamp.
Went to BitInstant, enter the order id, and it still shows that the order failed.
Contact CS again, this time, was told the funds was already sent to BitInstant account. Checked BitStamp, and nothing's there. And I asked CS how do they even know which account to deposit into BitStamp? They said that I entered it when I placed the order.
I thought the username I put in to place the order is MtGox username, and NOT BitStamp. And, it specifically asked me to make sure that my MtGox username is correct. It never mention that I should put in username for BitStamp.
Now they claim the money is sent to BitStamp account. The account I put in for MtGox is alpha letters, but BitStamp only assign NUMERIC account id. So how can they possibly deposit it? Now they say I have to contact BitStamp to fix it.
I thought I'd check the order status again... and it still shows Order Failed. Now I don't even know who to believe.

If I go to BitStamp, why should they blindly transfer funds to my account? BitInstant have to contact BitStamp, and tell them that the funds were sent to the wrong account.

All this can be avoided if the website design weren't so confusing. How can it be deposited into a non-existent account? Why does the CS kept saying it is processed when the order status still show it failed?

Who at BitInstant should I contact to resolve this?
BitInstant claims that the transfer should be well, almost instant. It is now over 24hrs, and still no funds.

could you move it? not sure if i can do it.

Or a MOD can.

Hey,

Sorry for your issue, and I will do everything I can to get it resolved

Looks like you indeed did not enter your bitstamp account


That would seem obvious in a Bitstamp transaction!

We're working on a new webs design, so please bear with us while we upgrade everything

PM me your order info and Ill get it resolved asap!

Charlie

Wrong, it would be obvious that it is asking the username for MtGox. It even ask me to make sure it is the correct username where the MtGot USD funds came from.

Finally got the funds for the first order after 2 days.

Did another transfer. The order status shows completed within 1 minute. Checked my destination account, no money there.
Comon BitInstant, this is supposed to be INSTANT. This is my 2nd attempt, and I would rather not wait 2 days for it again.
I might be giving up on this service.

PM me your order info again, you probably made another error. I see no issues with your order.

Please don't blame us, your first issue was not our fault and we resolved it even for your mistake.

This thread title is not fair, and I ask your change it ASAP

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=131012.0

And this relates to this topic how?
The thread is old, we have worked it out.

Don't know about all that... but I love their "are you human" game. I am an official captha hater. Never using anything but the service I found through Bitinstant on any of my websites, ever again.

If its old, PLEASE edit the title or topic!

MOD- Please!

I didn't start the topic... can't do anything on it.

Yes you did! Please change it asap!

This specific order was resolved, after about 24-48 hr wait.

Put in another order, and this time, Yankee said I put in the wrong account number. He is stating that I have an "." at the end of the account, and that is why the order failed.
1. If the order failed, why does it say order completed?
2. I checked the order status on BitInstant website, and clearly, there is no "." at the end of the account.
3. Checked the browser, where it usually saves your past input data for the input text boxes. Checked, there's no ".".

Finally, this order was resolved by Yankee. But he kept saying it is my fault again. I don't know who's fault it is, but I am almost certain I put in the account number correctly.

Probably theirs.

How the hell do you get a refund anyway?  Guaranteed in 1 hour my ass.

Took me 6 hours because they don't make it known that when you send multiples of $500 via moneygram you have to change the amount to be unique. For example: $500, $499.75, $499.50...etc.

+1 to "1 hour my ass"

And here I thought I never cared about that autogenerated reply when you send a message to support...

Bitinstant keeps banking hours, perhaps?

ed: next time I'm going to use that Ukrainian site again, ffs

What's the Ukrainian Site?

liqpay.com

it was super quick

(ed: well, if you have money in your paypal account, it's near instant.  i think if you use bank, it might take a few days the first time, then quicker after that)

I filed a complaint with the BBB, so hopefully BitInstant will be a listed business on there sometime in the next 24hrs.

Complete with original order web page showing guaranteed delivery in 1hr, as well as correspondence (two emails to support, one 1hr15m after transaction, another 3hrs after).

If I don't receive a response in another several hours, I'll file a fraud complaint with the government (IC3).

update:  at 5:30GMT, about 12 or 13 minutes after this post, I received an email from support saying that my transaction was processed.  however, I asked for a full refund as they were unable to fulfill their one hour obligation.

5:35GMT - replied to the support letter, informing them that I had asked for a full refund.  asked how to return the amount that was issued and receive my refund for the full amt, due to their inability to meet their obligation. 

Hey, whats the deal? Why are you filing a complaint? We processed your order!

Please see my PM. This is not fair.

Charlie

Life is not fair.
If you have processed the order, just tell BBB that... nothing's gonna happen.

Not everyone is aware of the bitinstant support thread. I wasn't when I first started using.

I had a transaction delayed 4+ hours some month ago ( the deadline was 1 hour). I complained by mail but i didn't receive a reply. I didn't care very much about it, so i gave up.
If they don't want to give a refund for every transaction processed after the deadline i understand them, but at least they should change their FAQ.


"Our service aims to make most deposits happen instantly - within a matter of seconds in ideal cases, and in an absolute worst-case scenario we will still aim to have funds into your exchange account before a stated maximum deadline (on average about 60 minutes depending on various conditions). We are an agent of the exchanges. So, when you pay us, you have effectively paid the exchange. If we screw up and fail to deliver on time, we will always investigate and we will always refund our fees."
https://www.bitinstant.com/faq

@ OP,

This thread is childish.  I used BitInstant for my first time a few weeks ago and I experienced a smooth transaction with zero confusion using BitInstant's simple interface.  I used Dwolla to purchase BTC sent directly to a wallet address and received them within 5-10 minutes.

The title of this thread should be changed.  Website design is not poor; it's about as clear and simple as you can get given that every time you change your payment method or target destination, the website automatically refreshes to reflect the change.

Now, let's say you choose "BitStamp" as your destination account.  The website will show three fields:  one to enter "Account ID or Username," one for "Amount (USD) to Pay," and one for your "Notification Email."  If instead you choose something like "Mt. Gox" for your target destination, you will notice the top field has changed from "Account ID or Username" to "MtGox Account #."   This should make it extremely obvious that the account ID BitInstant was requesting for your transaction was a BitStamp ID, not a MtGox ID.

To demonstrate the point further, select any of the target destinations, but then cycle through the different funding options.  You will notice that no matter what funding option you pick, (MtGox, Dwolla, BTC-e coupon, etc.) the text fields now remain exactly the same.  This should make it even more obvious that the account ID requested will ALWAYS be that of the target destination and not the funding option.

My guess is that if the OP had taken even 5-10 more seconds to look at the site, he would have solved his own confusion.  Now, please change the title of this thread.

 

No it is not obvious. Why would I cycle through the options when I know I am going from MtGox to BitStamp? What makes me want to try out all the options?
Website design is about what the user experience, and that was my experience when I first started to use it.
You've only addressed one issue, if you look at the other issues I've stated, you'll know what I mean by poor design.
Look at all the other complaints too, it's not like I am the only one having the problem.
I haven't been really using the site since.

It's obvious to those who take an extra minute to see how the site works.  It sounds to me like you were hasty and you wanted your BTC right away, so you gambled your money and made a transaction even though you were still confused.  Why would you use a site you weren't 100% sure about how it operates, anyway?  Especially with Bitcoin?  But instead of taking that extra minute to figure it out, or even instead of contacting support for clarification, you acted out of confusion and then decided that BitInstant should take the blame for it. 

It's not fair to call BitInstant a "poor service" when it works.  It's not fair to call it "confusing" when the whole site has step-by-step instructions, an FAQ, and a live support chat to help remedy that confusion.  Anything can be confusing, but it's not fair to call it such when you didn't take any of the available steps to try to fix your confusion.  Instead, you acted out of confusion as if it were a sound financial decision, then you freaked out because you didn't know what you were doing and you blamed BitInstant for it.

I spend at least a good hour trying to figure it out.
The "live chat" have no one on it.
The "support" have no one responding. The earliest response was 2 days after I submitted it, and they only responded b/c I started this thread.

I just tried "live chat" on BitInstant and received a live operator in about 15 seconds.  Can't speak for other cases, but...

I sent 2 emails to support and didn't receive a response until 11:30am central, on a transaction that was 'guaranteed' to be completed in one hour.  You'd think they'd have someone around 24/7, throwing around guarantees like that

I tried calling the BBB to expedite (at around 3:20pm central) but they close at 4 EST, lol.

I am waiting on a refund now, for several hours.

as long as that is done, it isn't bad to be listed on BBB anyway, and there would be 1 out of 1 resolved complaints

(i've gone thru the BBB four times and only had one complaint stick.   you have to make sure to keep track of everything, record phone conversations, all emails, etc.  they are 99% for business, that is where nearly all their donations come from anyway)

(ed one last time:  it would be easy just to change this wording.  make it our guaranteed delivery time or your transaction fee back or somesuch.. dont tell me expected delivery time is in 4 minutes and guaranteed is in one hour then ignore 2 support emails for 7 hours).  i suppose in some cases it could be the fault of the exchange, but in my case it wasn't

1. They happen to be working now?
2. It has been a LONG time since my first post.

That, and the we've been having growing pains lately especially with this rally. We literlally just brought on another support member to help with the new issues.

BitInstant has never scammed or robbed anyone.


Hey, we do always return fees. If yours was not, Im sorry. Please PM me your Order ID and Ill promptly do it.


Im checking my PM's now for your info


Just for the record chungenhung, we took all your suggestions and redesigned our whole site.

I want to personally thank you for helping us our with your ideas. The new site should be live within a few weeks  :)

Your next transfer is on the house my man.

I've sent everything thru the BitInstant support email address.  I've still yet to receive a refund, approx. 28 hrs later.  I shot off an email to the NY BBB and plan on ringing them when they finally open.  10 EST til 4 EST?  The Tyler branch is open 8 hours..

Hey, you sent me a PM saying you'd rather speak thru email. I sent you two emails last night waiting for reply.

I have received the refund! Thanks for your help!

I'm looking forward to see the new site!  ;D

I sent a PM requesting all further communication occur directly from a Bitinstant email address.  

I sent this email:

From: xxxx@hotmail.com
To: xxxx@bitinstant.ladesk.com; xxxx@bitinstant.com; xxxx@hotmail.com
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:21:15 -0600

got a response here:

To: xxxx@hotmail.com
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:52:09 -0800
From: xxxx@bitinstant.ladesk.com

sent this email in reply:

From: xxxx@hotmail.com
To: xxxx@bitinstant.ladesk.com; xxxx@hotmail.com
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:13:02 -0600

several hours later, after not receiving a response, I then sent another email:

From: xxxx@hotmail.com
To: xxxx@hotmail.com; xxxx@bitinstant.ladesk.com; xxxx@bitinstant.com      (trying to cover as many bases as possible, here)
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2013 03:27:14 -0600

This morning, I got a response from you:

To: xxxx@hotmail.com
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:38:09 -0800
From: xxxx@bitinstant.ladesk.com

Indicating that you had sent me an email 15 hours ago and were still awaiting my reply.  My reply to that message is here:

From: xxxx@hotmail.com
To: xxxx@bitinstant.ladesk.com; xxxx@bitinstant.com; xxxx@hotmail.com
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2013 09:57:10 -0600

I wanted to avoid discussing it on here, but I felt a response was needed in regard to the insinuation that I was the one causing delays by ignoring your recompense offer.

From now on I won't talk about the issue here.  Again, I'd like all further correspondence to be conducted via an entity recognizeable as BitInstant rather than these forums.

One last thing to some other folks on this thread,  I spoke to the BBB mediator and she said that it usually takes a couple of complaints for a company to get listed on the BBB Website (assuming that the first few complaints are resolved in a positive manner).  I was told I was the first person to file a BBB complaint against BitInstant. 

Agreed, I sent you an two emails last night from my charlie@bitinstant.com address, please reply there so we can resolve this!

Charlie

Glad to see Yankee is out here resolving issues. Keep improving...

In defense of BitInstant, they don't have an obligation or anything on their website guaranteeing that it only takes an hour:



The hour deadline is an average estimate, and if they offer to refund your fees if it takes longer and you're unhappy with the delay.

From what I've seen on the support thread and in complaint threads on the forum, it seems like people with the longer delays tend to have them because of their resistance to supply information relating to the order or to accept the support that's given to them. You wanted Charlie to email you, which he did, and you're upset about the email address he sent it from? The reply address he used was one of the three you sent you message to in your original email. Doesn't look to me like he was the one delaying things at all.

They have 'anything' on their website guaranteeing that it takes an hour after you place an order.  I'm pretty sure that's what 'Guaranteed' means.  If guaranteed doesn't mean that it's guaranteed, then it shouldn't be guaranteed.  Make sense?  Do I need to elaborate?  Post some screenshots?

Your quotes?  That is supposed to be relevant..... how?   I placed an order.  After I placed an order, I received a guarantee.  If the funds weren't going to be ready in that typical hour, then I shouldn't have received a guarantee after placing my order.

My resistance to supply information?  Good lord, what the hell are you talking about?  I supplied all the information necessary.  I think.  Right?  If I didn't, wouldn't support mail me and ask me for some more information?   ::)

I wanted Charlie to email me?  I wanted to get a refund.  Mailing someone on these forums is not an email.  Whether or not I was "upset" is irrelevant, unless you're suggesting that it would be so difficult for him to log on to a BitInstant account that it would result in hours of delay, rather than messaging me on these forums.  Is that what you're suggesting?

He mailed me on these boards several times.  It has nothing to do with the emails.   Please, stop talking out of your ass.

And here I was going to make some speech about how we'd finally reached an agreement I was happy with and that it's nice that the head of the company took the time to email me... then I have to read this drek.   So, then, in short:  I was refunded my original purchase amount and compensated for an exchange price difference, which was generous of them to do as it wouldn't have even been something I'd request in BBB mediation.   I would advise other people that have delayed transactions not to worry about it, but I would say to be diligent about mailing support (especially if you want a refund, rather than to complete the transaction).

I was going to post some more, but the 21after2 asskissing threw me off way too much.  (and I would call you out on some of your false assumptions, except for the fact that a third party is involved and we have already come to an understanding)

... and I did update the BBB with a glowing review of how the problem was handled.    Guess that's the last edit.

I was referring to the chain of emails you posted earlier. You specifically wanted him to email you from a BitInstant.com address. He emailed you from a different email address (one that was in your original email). I didn't say a thing about the message board PMs.

The resistance to supplying information, I said, relates to most issues I see people having with BitInstant here on the forums. That goes along with not always accepting the support they're given. I didn't say that both applied to your case. I did see the second scenario applied to your case though: from what you've posted, Charlie emailed you twice from one email address before you requested (through the forum) that he email you from a BitInstant.com email address. I personally don't see why the email address he used should matter in terms of getting the issue resolved quickly (especially since it was an email address that you had included in your initial email on the 24th). I'm sure you have your reasons for it.

I will admit that I don't, of course, know all the details of your transaction: that's between you and the company. And I apologize if I made a harsh judgment on the situation based on information only seen here. But I'm only going off details from of your public complaint against BitInstant. If it was a matter you wanted to keep completely private, you didn't have to make a case before the BitCoin community about it.

As a side note, I don't think my "asskissing" threw you off as much as you believe. Your post was pretty hefty regardless. :P

You are awesome, thank you for doing so and giving us your trust back


The issue was our fault, and ZVS was rightfully frustrated. Whatever was said was said, but its all good now.

Lets all move on and look at the real enemy, the state!  ;D

I used to vote Republican  :o until they passed that vile Safe Ports Act w/ the (republican pushed) UIGEA 'hidden' inside

i think both parties are at fault for the Patriot Act (senate was 99-1?)... not sure about the house, except I know Ron Paul voted against it, without even having to check  ;D

I've tried using bitinstant too over the last couple of days - without much success. I agree with the OP, I was confused about the same things. First my test transfer from mtgox to bitstamp of 25 usd went through without problems. Then I tried some more money and kept getting an error message. Tried it again today with some money and it worked. Tried it a second time and even though bitinstant says the the transfer was okay, I don't have my money in bitstamp and moreover got this error in their confirmation email:

> APIResponse: {"error": {"amount": ["You have only $10.59 available. Check your account balance for details."]}}

Apparently bitinstant never had the funds available in bitstamp to even credit my account!
Now my mtgox code is gone, no cash in bitstamp. Very frustrating stuff.

Not a problem at all, just PM me your Order ID

The issue was resolved quickly.