Bitcoin Forum

They are taking money and then using that to buy BTC.  If BTC goes up they say "Sorry, your transaction looks like it was too risky" ... this after jumping through all the hoops, and getting your bank account attached.  Meanwhile  I not pursue other means of getting BTC, so their assholism lost me time.  That bank account, which I use for internet transactions like paypal and so on, is totally sounds and has been in existence since 1999 with  no problems.

Here is the email they sent me when the day the coins were supposed to clear... 6 DAYS after I was charged for them!

*"On Feb 21, 2013 you purchased 4.00 BTC via bank transfer for $120.99.
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.
Please understand that we do this to keep the community safe and avoid fraudulent transactions. Apologies if you are one of the good users who gets caught up in this preventitive measure - we don't get it right 100% of the time, but we need to be cautious when it comes to preventing fraud.
You may have more luck trying again in a few weeks. Best of luck and thank you for trying Coinbase.
Kind regards,
The Coinbase Team"*

F### YOU COINBASE !!!!

(And:  I'm gonna!)

Please cut and paste this message on any review boards that you know of!

Here is what these operations do:

They take your money.  If the price of BTC goes up, they decline the transaction, return your money, buying BTC at the lower rate, and effectively gamble with your money.  If the value of BTC goes down, they charge the account and let the transaction  go through.

Crap like this will hurt the BTC meme generally.  It needs to be punished. Take your money out of Coinbase!

Oh boy, here we go again.

There is no human behind the decision to not go through with the order. Kindly calm your tits and talk to coinbase support. Your account will be white listed and you should be able to go through with your orders with little to no hassle.

If I were supposed to cal them,  I guess that would have been part of the original sign up. 
Or they could have indicated as much.

If it is all done by computer, they need to say that.
And they need to say that decisions made their programs are discussable.

You do NOT send an email that says "Ehn, we renigged on the deal.  Too bad.  Piss off.  Good Luck.

This method of doing business, if it IS a business and not an ongoing scam is half-assed in the extreme.

"Calm your tits?"

BTC will never gain credibility if its operators are scammers, and its supporters are derisive of consumer concerns.

Coinbase is a problem, not a solution.

Every financial institution has these algorithms to determine transaction risk. All of them. It's common knowledge.

Don't care.

I've never had a problem before.  Never seen anything LIKE that before. 
Banks that do this would have a lot of pissed customers.
Neither as a private consumer or a business owner have I seen anything like that.

If you have a problem with a transaction, you say so up front and you say why.

You don't wait a GD week and then point your wrist in the air and say "Oh!  I changed my mind!"

If this is the world of BTC it is doomed.  It's reputation simply cannot tolerate constant association with hooliganish activity.

And google any service provider in the industry along with the terms complaint, gripe, scam'.
They all have long lists.

Coinbase is another.

I'm guessing your account @ Coinbase is relatively new......

Also, you don't post a crazy, emotional "These people are scammers!" message when you haven't even talked to a human in the support department to see if things can be cleared up.

Exactly.  So you should have gone to coinbase first with your problem and said what the problem was and why it is a problem, before coming here crying "fraud" and "scammer"!

You should probably read this blog post by Brian Armstrong

http://blog.coinbase.com/post/44046687068/high-risk-transactions

Totally disagree.

If I order a product or service from any legit operation, they either agree or don't agree.

You do NOT agree and then at the time of delivery, throw your wrists in the air and say "I changed my mind."

"We've changed our minds.  You can fly on that flight.  We've changed our minds, the chef will not prepare this meal.  We've changed our minds, you can put the groceries back now.  We've changed our minds, we will not perform the surgery."

If there's a problem, then maybe, you know, email and say, "We have some questions on your account, could you give us a call?"

You DON'T say "Sorry, we cancelled your transaction.  Good Luck!" to your customers

... and then expect them to call pleading or something?  

Utterly dismal business sense, if that is what it is.  They contracted at one price, when the price rose, they welched on it.  They thus stole just a few bucks from me, but multiply that by thousands of dubious transactions a day and it adds up, I'm sure.

Posters actually defending that sort of behavior continue to cast doubt on the credibility of BTC in general,
and this suggests that it will remain a currency of hucksters and shysters.

Maybe Armstrong should consider having a human inspect the transaction AHEAD of any decision-making to send out letters like I got eh?

If his business sense is no better than that, then the hell with it. 
If he can do a stupid and offensive thing like that, what else is he capable of?


He can blow it out his butt with his "wait six days and then reject with a dissy email" strategy.

Trust = Zero.  Contempt = 100.

I don't know if Coinbase is a scam or not but I do know there is too many problems associated with their exchange for me to be interested in using it. After a certain point I stop trying to draw the line between malicious and stupid. Best of luck to Coinbase, but too many people I know personally have had some really lame deals and I've seen people upset for whatever reason.

The algorithm should be giving a go / no go decision at the time the order is place or the results communicated within a few hours.   Not right before the expected delivery time [Edit: six days later].

Coinbase is a private company and can provide whatever approach to the service they want, but implementing a system that essentially could be a "heads we win, tails you lose" will not yield favorable reviews.   Just because it is an algorithm screwing you doesn't mean you should put up with it.

But HappyScam, if you contact CoinBase they may be willing to figure something out for you.
 - http://blog.coinbase.com/post/44046687068/high-risk-transactions

Thanks, Stephan,

I guess I have more or less loss interest in the face of further potential grief dealing with BTC operators.
There's just too much non-sense.

Certainly, with this one, there is a cloud: If they will do this, what else is in the offing?

And, just to keep things clear, they actually sent the email of cancellation AFTER the supposed closure of the transaction.  For 6 days it was listed as pending, then it was listed as completed, and then it was deleted totally, with no record of the event.

It is so garrish an example of how NOT to do business that no text book would use it.
It's beyond belief.

The site is also BETA.....

Relax.  I had the same issue.  Just contact support.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=146162.msg1564286#msg1564286 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=146162.msg1564286#msg1564286)

No.

I will not contact support.

They already blew it.

Don't be so stubborn.  They can't blow anything they're not even aware of.  Bitcointalk.org is NOT the Coinbase support forum.

All it took me was 30 seconds of my time to write one email which cleared up everything.  If you had done the same, maybe you would've been able to sneak in before this little rally. 

They reversed my cancelled order and credited my account with the amount of BTC I had originally purchased, and at the original price I was quoted.  Now, since the reversal, my account is in good standing and I can now make simultaneous purchases.

Telling people no and expecting them to come and beg is not a way of doing business.

Period.

I'm not going to go sniveling after some thoroughly half-assed operation for a few bucks.

Period.

They haven't even answered my original complaint yet.

What quality customer service! 

I still don't rule out that they are running a scam.

And, when/how did they do that exactly?  Examples? 


Well, clearly you're emotionally upset about it, even if the few bucks aren't the reason you're upset.  You certainly made it a point to come here and let us all know what you think.


What original complaint?  As far as I can tell, your "original complaint" is this thread.  And, you stated that you refuse to contact support.  You don't expect them to come onto this forum to address your complaint, do you?  I certainly hope not.




Well, did they take your money or didn't they?  In your OP, you stated that Coinbase is "taking money" from its users and using it to "buy BTC".  However, in the (automated) email that they sent to you, it clearly indicated that they did not withdraw the money from your bank account.  You didn't lose anything, did you?  And if so, proof?

An open order backed by a connected bank account is as good as cash on the market. Coinbase isn't running a scam but it's close. If the customer's money is tied up after placing the order and Coinbase cancels the order after using the customer's order as a chit for a few days, then it's closer to a scam than not.

Plonk.

Joint read the thread with some attention.  Most all your questions are answered there.

I wrote to them three separate times.

And they DID take my money in the sense that it was by contract tied up and so not useable elsewhere.

They BROKE a contract.... in the strictest legal business sense.   

No acknowledgment.  No apology.  No response.

With that kind of behavior, expect them to be closed down within 6 months.

Maybe sooner.  there is some suggestion that they are based or have an operation in San Fransisco.
Maybe the California State Attorney General needs to be having a look at this eh?

I know I did, thanks.  However, I believe I also asked for proof of your claim.  Besides, the site is beta, as in, "You beta not put any money here you can't afford to lose (or have tied up)."

Here's what I do know - I was in virtually the same situation as you, and now it's resolved after one email to support.  You said you contacted them three times.  When was the initial contact?  My initial contact was on Friday soon after my transaction was declared cancelled.  I received an email yesterday (Tuesday) from them, so it took about 2 business days.

Wouldn't know how to "prove" it to you.  It is as I say.  they canceled the transaction AFTER it had been declared completed.  I get the email many hours later.  Sent several, "Hey what's up?" type emails.

Still not one GDF response other than what was above.

Pile of GD garbage is what they are.

I am thinking more and more of putting the government after them.

Have your money there if you like. 

I have had legitimate activity blocked by Chase so often that I avoid doing business with Chase as much as I can for exactly one reason, no more, no less: because I'm afraid my transaction will be blocked.

It's embarrassing to go out for a late night 1:00 am taco, and be declined for $1.91 because Chase wanted to temporarily block my card just to verify that the $1000 payment I made the day prior - a payment I've made in the same amount to the same company every month for the past year and a half mind you - was really authorized by me.

And don't get me started on the numerous transactions Chase has REVERSED incoming funds and required the sender to re-send on their own free will, just because Chase wanted to be prudent and help me save myself from myself "for my own protection".  (That's QuickPay for ya)

Exactly where was it indicated that the transaction was "declared completed?"  Mine was "pending" until cancelled; it was never "declared completed."


Yeah, good luck with that.  If you "wouldn't know how to 'prove' it" to me, how do you expect to convince law enforcement to do anything?  I'm guessing the "it's as I say" thing works in Coinbase's favor, too.

It said "completed" on the coinbase transaction record.
It was brief, but it WAS there.

Getting an investigation going would be easy.  There are piles of complaints all over the web now.

Still no email from this 'coinbase' operation.  36 hours later.

You: They stole my money.
Police:  How much did they take?
You:  Well, their website told me it took amount x.
Police:  What website?
You:  Well, the information isn't up there anymore.
Police:  What?
You:  It briefly said it took my money, but it doesn't say that anymore.
Police:  Right...yet you're saying they stole amount x?
You:  No.
Police:  What?
You:  I still have x in my bank account.
Police:  But you said they stole your money.
You:  Well, they did.
Police:  What?
You:  My money was locked up for 6 days!
Police:  But you said you still have x in your bank account.
You:  I do.
Police:  So what's the problem?
You:  They're "GD garbage!"


After a conversation like that, I'm sure it would.  I've seen a few complaints on this forum, too.  It seems that taking the support route has been working to resolve those complaints.  I'll keep my eye out for outstanding cases, though.


I waited 2 business days for a response from support, but because the span included a weekend it was longer than 96 hours.  But, they got back to me, and the whole thing was resolved quickly once they did.

4 BTC transaction called risky ?  I gamble more than than in one night sometimes.. 4 BTC.. no so much to be called risky !  I'm mystified !

If coinbase is not classified as a scam it's purely for semantic reasons. Functionally they're as shady as it gets (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=140484.msg1495321#msg1495321).

LOL

Then please dont whine here !

I haven't even got an email back yet.

It's not whining bud, it is keeping it in the pubic awareness so that others don't get ripped off.

Maybe you're right... rather than isolatedly try to warn others, I need to put the law on their scamming butts.



Let's see, so far I have identified two bases of operations:

1 Bluxome St.
San Francisco, CA 94107

Coinbase, Inc. 14525 SW Millikan Way #26680 Beaverton, OR 97005-2343.



Oregon Attorney General:
http://www.doj.state.or.us/Pages/index.aspx

California Attorney General:
http://oag.ca.gov/

If you don't contact support, there is absolutely nothing they can do for you.
Also: I don't understand what the problem is here.  You didn't ever lose any money, so why are you making a big deal about this?

"Also: I don't understand what the problem is here.  You didn't ever lose any money, so why are you making a big deal about this?"


BECAUSE THEY BROKE A F###ING CONTRACT!!!

Real businesses don't do that.

Thanks for goading me.  It inspired me to start taking action.

I just filed this complaint with the California Dept of Justice.



Coinbase (https://coinbase.com/) is an internet business, ostensibly, that converts dollars to Bitcoins (bitcoins is an internet currency, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin)

How coinbase works is you open an account, then hook your bank account to it by sending them the routing and account numbers, and then they send you two microdeposits.  Once that is done you then go to their site and purchase bitcoins for the current rate, which fluctuates quite a bit.

They accepted a contract to buy 4 BTC for $120.99, and it became apparent that I would have to wait 5 days for this to "clear".  The transaction showed on my account the whole time as pending, with the clearing time set at 6 PM PST Feb 26.   Briefly, just after the appointed time, the account showed the transaction as "completed".  I then tried to transfer this product to another site, and the Bitcoin simply disappeared, along with all record that I could see of the transaction.

Hours later I received this email from them:

On Feb 21, 2013 you purchased 4.00 BTC via bank transfer for $120.99.

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.

Please understand that we do this to keep the community safe and avoid fraudulent transactions. Apologies if you are one of the good users who gets caught up in this preventitive measure - we don't get it right 100% of the time, but we need to be cautious when it comes to preventing fraud.

You may have more luck trying again in a few weeks. Best of luck and thank you for trying Coinbase.

Kind regards,
The Coinbase Team

It is to be noted that the value of BTC relative to the dollar was significantly higher at the time of cancellation.  In other words, when it becomes clearing time, they keep the currency of their choice, the consumer can go to hell. 

I am personally only mildly inconvenienced, and, I suppose you could say, out a few dollars.  But they are doing this sort of thing with lots and lots of people.

Here is a link to my complaint about it on a BTC related forum:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=147341.0

and as you read down, others have noted lots of similar problems. 

If you google "coinbase complaint" or "Coinbase Scam" you will find pages and pages of material.

So clearly, there is enough going on here to merit a thorough investigation... lots of people are upset with them.  If they are a legit operation with perhaps some short sighted management, the problem can maybe corrected.  If else, then it is good that they receive some attention.

Thanks,

There, and now the State of Oregon Attorney General as well.

So, presently, Coinbase should either be cleaning up its act, or, if the authorities find sufficient problem, will be closing its act.

I haven't lol'd that hard in a while on these boards. Are you familiar with Trendon Shavers and the SEC fiasco? The law is either unwilling or incapable of helping, neither of which surprise me. Your time wasted typing at the state employee that will read your inquiry, give some tripe response to appease you or remind you they are protecting you, and you'll never hear back about it again.

Really I don't know if they are a scam or not but either way I can find a ton of places to swap BTC and USD without their problems.

Holy shit this thread is hilarious! It's nice to get a good laugh in every once and a while.


I concur, real businesses don't break contracts (at least not intentionally of course).

Hey, I can't seem to find the Coinbase contract. Can you post it here so we can review the terms together and find where they broke their own rules?

Here in the states it is a bit of a challenge to find USD -> BTC exchange.  And with so many scammers out there... it becomes almost too much to be bothered with.

Yes, state Attorney Generals do put their staff on to things like this.

The one in MY state certainly does.

With a physical address and suspicious things with money going down, they will certainly have a look.

Legally, they entered into what is called "a contract", specifically, a commitment to do one thing in consideration for another, generally money.

They agreed to take my money and tied it up, then did not deliver.

They WILL be getting attention, trust me.
Laugh all you like, they will be answering some questions to people authorized to shut them down on the spot and seize everything in the place.

Hmm, a "contract" you say? I can't say I've ever heard of such a thing. Could explain in excruciating detail what one is and the "clauses" (oops, sorry for the big word) that it can contain? Then, with that knowledge, apply it to the contract you entered into with Coinbase? Only then can we properly assess the situation at hand.

Ya I live in Oregon too, and I lived in California too - that's why I decided to respond to your post. Would you be willing to make a public wager about the results of your AG inquiry and my claim it will yield nothing beneficial?

I have a lot of experience with the AG. I live in a small county that has done all kinds of illegal things. We're stuck in a standstill because they've found ways to do the illegal things in a nature that is extremely cost prohibitive for us to manage. In short they move money between accounts in municipal resources very wrongly and against their own charter in many many ways. I would care less, but we pay about 80% more and have high minimum payments for resources we do not use. It typically costs at least a $1,400 to even start the process of calling them out on just one of their mishaps, but they've spread it out so that we cannot do anything without bringing them up individually unless we get the AG to help us.

So we went to the AG. Many times. I think this has been going back for about 3 years now.

The AG responded and never disagreed with us, and at times has said they are in motions to help us and will be doing X or Y soon. It never happens, and it never will. The AG resources are spent getting money for Oregon via punishing businesses with big pockets to payout. For them to spend the time on this would cost them revenue they are earning.

Can you prove they are actually buying the bitcoins with your money ?

If they simply refund the USD its not an issue, you just get screwed by the exchange rate.

However if your money goes through, they buy btc and sit on it while the exchange shoots up then sell some of the loot to return your usd its a problem. Would be hard to prove without a forensic accountant.

To solve things they shouldnt let you buy any coins untill they have cleared the funds to do so.

an option clause is a perfectly legitimate part of a contract

I opened an account and got verified thought it was pretty cool till I go to the last page. It was the 13th or so and it said the coins would be delivered the 21 st ! WTF? Havent been back what a shitty way to get coins.

So it should be pretty easy to determine if these cancellations are genuine.  Has anyone had a contract cancelled where the spot price at cancellation time was lower than at trade time?

The fact we've had a sustained rally makes this difficult to assess, but still there should be at least 2 or 3 people in that situation if the cancellations are legit.  And if the price stabilizes or goes down for 48-72 hours there should be plenty of such examples.

Are there any?

This is what I'd like to know. Has a large amount of people had their orders cancelled when the price went down?

who knows the price doesn't go down!

Have you read their ToS?  Ya know, the actual CONTRACT THAT YOU WENT INTO WITH THEM?

I'm sure they disclaim responsibility for this sort of thing, since, you know, they don't want HIGH RISK PURCHASES?

And, do you know that every financial services provider ever does this?

EDIT: Yup, they do!
3.1 Coinbase may cancel or reverse potentially high-risk purchases made using reversible payment methods.
https://coinbase.com/legal/user_agreement

There is no legal basis for this thread whatsoever.  Coinbase wins.  Sorry!

Aww, this was the conclusion that the OP was supposed to draw after digging up the contract that they agreed to.

He was too stubborn.

The fact this thread reached page 3 means the ATTENTION WHORE has been fed.

My purchase from Feb 23rd was canceled in the same manner:

"On Feb 23, 2013 you purchased 10.00 BTC via bank transfer for $286.69.

Unfortunately, we have decided to cancel this order because it appears to be high risk."

After several emails and tweets I received this:
"Hi,

Sorry about that! After manually reviewing your account I've whitelisted it so you shouldn't experience any additional issues going forward. I've also pushed through the transaction that was canceled previously (at the original exchange rate you locked in), so you should have those coins by the end of tomorrow. In addition, we recently wrote a blog post about this you might find interesting: http://blog.coinbase.com/post/44046687068/high-risk-transactions

Hope it helps and sorry again for the trouble!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 "

Its been three days and there is no evidence of the transaction at all in my coinbase account or bank account. I emailed them yesterday and today and there has been no response. Judging by the amount of people and foum topics that have popped up in the past week with the jump in BTC something shady is going down.

I bought my 10 btc at $28.20.... the price is now $36 something. I want my BTC lol!

When coinbase opened they said they wanted to become the paypal of bitcoin. It looks like they are succeeding.

Are you guys stupid?  They have fraud management.  They are using reversible payment methods, and therefore NEED this fraud management!

If you ran coinbase you would do the exact same thing.

So why cancel the order a week later right before the BTC are supposed to be deposited? Wouldnt it make more sense to flag the order right away and cancel it then? And not a week later?

Does it matter what makes sense, or what you agreed to in the contract?

HappyScamp, even if what you're saying is legitimately Coinbase's wrongdoing, you're making a complete fool out of yourself. You need to calm down and contact their support and act like a real person. Sort this out with the people you feel wronged you. Stop complaining about it here until you've found they really won't help you, explain how they do business, and make no effort to correct the (supposed) problem.

Coinbase has always worked fine for me. I don't keep the majority of my coins there, but for wait-a-week coin buying and the odd transaction, they work pretty well. I honestly think that on the whole, they are best deal in simplicity/markup for buying coins. MTGox is slightly cheaper and a better option in the long run, but it's a lengthy process getting on with them.

No where in their "contract" did I agree to having funds in my bank account frozen indefinitely. I.e my order was completely deleted from their system and no longer shows up on my account info page. Yet the last contact I had with their support after several attempts to contact them said the order was supposed to go through two days ago.

So I have $286 in my account and no idea if, when, or even if at all the funds will be withdrawn. If I move that $286 to Dwolla-Gox and then all of the sudden the transaction occurs I just spent twice as much on BTC as I originally planned on. :) (Not really a problem in the long run I suppose. lol)

Yes they are a new company in the "beta" phase. But if they are going to withdraw funds from my bank account without any indication within my Coinbase account then they have some real issues to overcome. Regardless, looks like I will not be using Coinbase again after this much hassle.

Well that's good, because your funds weren't frozen indefinitely.  Actually, they were probably never frozen at all.


This isn't what indefinitely means.


You're obviously not the first person to be in this situation, and it requires a manual fix.  This means they need the time to manually respond to every single instance of this sort of claim (e.g. to clear transactions, to whitelist accounts, etc.).  However, it seems as though you still haven't keyed into the fact that the "support" responses you're receiving are likely auto-generated.



Yes, you have no idea when (or if) the funds will be withdrawn.  But no, if you move that $286 to Dwolla-Gox and then buy BTC with it, you didn't spend twice what you originally intended.  Now, assuming you still had money in your bank account after transferring to Dwolla-Gox, then you would spend exactly the amount you originally intended.  If not, then Coinbase wouldn't be able to withdraw the necessary funds to complete your purchase because, well, you moved them.


So you 'beta' be responsible and read before you register.


When did they ever withdraw funds from your bank account?  Every indication suggested you were never charged.  


Lol, if you thought this experience was bad, have fun with the other exchanges.

Update:

Okay, at least they are now making a serious effort at responding to their customers.

It's been a month or so since I made plenty of stink for them for canceling a transaction after it had shown up as cleared.

This morning, however, I received this email from them:

Coinbase just sent you 0.2496 BTC (worth $14.61 USD) using Coinbase.

Attached message:

    I'm sorry you had a poor experience and would have been happy to rectify had you contacted us directly. I've made sure it won't happen again and send this for the lost profit over the window you were waiting for your order to arrive.

So, their having done that, I want to acknowledge it, and suggest that people (cautiously) reconsider their service.

I agree. They also sent me enough BTC to cover an overdraft fee for an order that came through three weeks later that it was supposed to. I have since made another order for 10 BTC and it came through right away.

Renaming the thread may be in order, perhaps using the word resolved for starters.

Glad it all worked all, bud.

~Bruno K~

Good suggestion Bruno, implemented.

I had forgot that threads can be renamed.

Must be a highly complex algorithm since it takes six days to generate results.  ???

I don't understand why it is so hard for these companies to just deliver the service they promise.  Bitinstant's gone to hell, and Coinbase, which has actual VC funding, seems to be hot on their trail.  How these companies can mess up such a giant opportunity I have no idea. 

1) DON'T ENTER THE BUSINESS IF YOU DON'T HAVE FUNDS/COINS TO FLOAT.
2) If selling BTC, either make sure you have them already, or that you buy them automatically at a price lower than you are selling them for.  Mt. Gox has an API.  Learn it.  Use it.  Love it.

It's really that simple, but both of these companies have run afoul of this.  This business is essentially impossible to screw up, but these major players are literally inventing ways to screw up.  Enough of the BS.

Hmm..you do realize this causes bankruptcy, right? I'm not sure you're aware of this, but most businesses get into..well..business..to make some sort of profit...

They could, of course, use options to secure themselves. Those that have a modicum of competence already do. Those that don't won't survive, simply because basic hedging is required, not optional.

For once I think we actually agree on something :D ..hedging should be necessary, especially in the kind of volatile market that these companies work in.

Learn to read please.  Coinbase wants to make a profit on selling coins.  Therefore, they want to buy the coins at a price lower than what they sell them for.

Fuck no, this is the internet. I reject your reality and substitute my own.

I had some trouble authentication a coinbase account and was not willing to jump through the hoops if you will. I was interested in using one of their widgets on my blog and all the information they required for receiving payment or cashing out just seemed sketchy from the beginning so I stayed away. One trading site we like a lot is Vircurex: https://.com/welcome/index?referral_id=965-5327

Good Luck!

They have had the wrong account balance for me for several days.

They have deducted coins from my account, but never sent the transaction.

I don't know they are a scam, but they are at least incompetent. I'm hoping the coins show up soon.

I had a transaction cancelled today after waiting the 4 business days for funds to clear.

Strange thing is I have had several successful transaction with Coinbase both buying and selling, so why would an account with several successful transactions be deemed "Risky" all of a sudden? Might the fact that the BTC value had increased since the time of my order have anything to do with it?

It shouldn't take till the last minute to decide the transaction is "risky"

My April 19th order for 2 BTC was supposed to deliver today but checking on status by logging in I now find it cancelled. Never got an email from this about cancelling my order. No reason yet. I emailed them and awaiting an answer. This is first transaction after being verified.

UPDATE: Like others reported here, I emailed them and got them to reverse the cancellation... and I got my bitcoin!

here is there phone number 415-843-1515 had to call them myself and i get the same crappy answer sorry our fault and thats it. They sounded like they didnt care or try to offer any compensation for the lost time of not having my money credited to my account 89 days just for $75 i will never use them again its bad enough having to wait a week to transfer btc to usd.

Agree.  I planned to sell just now through my coinbase account, but the funds won's get credited to my
bank account until FRIDAY JUNE 7????

WTF????

I've had no problems with them cancelling my purchases except for one incident back in February.

Now in the last 24 hours I've had two purchases cancelled, one initiated on the 4th and another from the 8th. The average purchase price for those two buys was $80.01, and at the time of cancellation the price they were quoting for buys was in the mid-$90s.

totally screwed me too.  I bought 6 bitcoins they deducted the money from my bank account right away.  8 days later when I was supposed to get them i get an email that they cancelled my order:

On Jul 5, 2013 you purchased 6.00 BTC via bank transfer for $419.99.

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 you will receive a refund to your bank account in 3-4 business days.

Of course they had gone way up in price which was the whole reason I bought when I did.  I had made a transaction for 1 bitcoin in the past and it went through no problems.

I finally got a reply after many emails:
 
Olaf replied:
Hi,

I'm sorry for the trouble! I can appreciate how frustrating that must be. I've whitelisted your account - this means your transactions will no longer be flagged as high risk. You shouldn't have any problems going forward - let me know if you want me to push through the cancelled transaction at the original exchange rate.

Again, my apologies for any undue stress this has caused you!

So I immediately replied YES, push through the transaction at the original exchange rate and do not refund my $ to my bank account I want my 6 bitcoins. 
Never heard back, have written emails everyday asking the status and when will i receive my bitcoins...in the mean time they refunded my $419.99 back to my banking account.

VERY UNSCRUPULOUS BIZ...I am still waiting on a reply from the the last one from Olaf days ago.  I sure hope they honor their word and "push through" my cancelled order at the original exchange rate...otherwise...These guys are just complete scammers

To be fair to coinbase.  They did finally straighten out my order and sent me my order

I will never understand people who go to a public forum to air their complaints before contacting the person/company they are having issues with...

Coinbase has forced me to file a complaint against them with the SEC. The $679 they owe me never showed up in my bank account and they have been completely unresponsive to my inquiries. I advise anyone reading this not to do business with them.  

Well they refunded the BTC. In order to get a response, all I had to do was post on several BTC related forums and chat, contact the founders on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, and file a complaint with the government. 

What a company. Now hopefully I am able to successfully transfer the coins out (doubtful).
 

Ive used coinbase for about 3 months without any issues. weird lol. ive put around 3,000 USD through my account to lol

used coinbase for a month, spotless, very quick buy and sell. But last 2 weeks my sell orders get canceled. I'am able to sell and see in history when usd will show up in my account but after few hours sell order dissapears and i get coins back. They claim they cant synchronize with blockchain.
I could be wrong but when i sell to coinbase they have to resell it.. right? If they can resell it what happens? they cancel order.

been going on for 10 days now. CANT GET coins out of account. Olaf replied over a week ago, there was issue with blockchain than should be fixed it was 10 days ago, still nothing. Something to consider when opening account with coinbase.

I've done a small amount of business with coinbase without any problems so far.  I've seen a few others complaints in various threads, and it seems like they need to improve their customer support a bit.

its been one month i cant get 6 coins out of my account. Coinbase claims there is bug with my account they cant fix. They keep giving me run around how they dont have enough help or whatever they say I dont care. Very stupid organisation. Have no choice but to complain to higher instances.