Well, ok, but so what?  If I go to a hardware store and tell the clerk that I'm buying this drill bit so that I can drill holes in my neighbor's tires, is the clerk somehow criminally responsible for selling me the drill bit?  The clerk sold me a tool, and how I use it is my responsibility, not his.

I'm going to love watching how the State of Florida tries to base a prosecution on this nonsense.

But yes, I know...we're talking about Florida...Nick Navarro still working there?  ;o)

Danny, that is the post of the year.  Very well put.

Actually, it's "less THAN the shit I just took."

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Actually the https://www does load, and this is the current update...

Statement Regarding BTC Withdrawal Delays

Tokyo - JAPAN - February 07, 2014

Dear MtGox Customers,

In our efforts to resolve the issue being encountered by various bitcoin withdrawals, it was determined that the increase in the flow of withdrawal requests has hindered our efforts on a technical level. To understand the issue thoroughly, the system needs to be in a static state.

In order for our team to resolve the withdrawal issue it is necessary for a temporarily pause on all withdrawal requests to obtain a clear technical view of the current processes.

We apologize for the sudden short notice. All bitcoin withdrawal requests will be on pause, and the withdrawals in the system will be returned to your MtGox wallet and can be reinitiated once the issue is resolved. The trading platform will perform as usual for the needs of our customers. 



Our team will resolve this problem as soon as possible and will provide an update on Monday, February 10, 2014 (JST).



We deeply apologize for the inconvenience caused, and thank you for your kind support and considerations. 


Sincerely,

The MtGox Team

Even if they do come back, I wonder how many account holders will just get their coins out and leave...

Probably, although BitFinex is listed on their source list, and the prices from it are "normal".

bitfinex 804.29 804.04 803.99 804.01 6,850 14.4% 5,507,503

It looks like this kind of spike happened yesterday at about the same time.

Does anyone use the Kitco Bitcoin page, and why the heck is it showing these huge dollar rates?

http://www.kitco.com/finance/bitcoin/

I don't believe the question can be intelligently answered, or at least addressed, until we get a handle on what, specifically, drives the price of a Bitcoin.  This is the component of it that drives me crazy.  Why do we think that more widespread acceptance will make the price go up, or this or that government taking a benign position on it, or whatever? 

Let me put it this way...a dollar has the same "price", the same buying power, the same "value", whether a hundred thousand merchants accept it or a hundred million merchants accept it.  The relative general acceptance of the dollar has nothing to do with its price or value.  It certainly is a stablizing force, but not a price mover.  I can't wrap my head around what, precisely, is driving the price of Bitcoin, up or down, other than the actions of a few wealthy Chinese speculators at this point.

Please, if I'm missing something damn simple, explain it to me.  I would love to comprehend a connection between some market fundamental and the Bitcoin price.

Actually that's "too"...

I've never considered it a valid excuse for poor customer service that a company has too few employees.  Whose fault is that, exactly?  The result is exactly identical; lousy service.  If a company can't handle their customer base, either the company is cheap, short-sighted or has a suspect business model...and none of those things are my fault.

...responds the Coinbase employee.  And how the hell do you know how many employees they have?  But I do appreciate your change from stupid to minor, so that's something.

If you read posts in this forum about Coinbase you'll soon see that the exception to the rule is decent service from them...mostly their service sucks.  They almost never respond to questions posted on their site, through e-mail or coindesk support tickets.  What you'll find is that, even if eventually you do get verified, when you attempt to actually make a purchase, it will be cancelled six days later...and for no reason, and you'll never be able to get an answer from them to find out why.

Just an update with my fiasco...I never did hear anything back from Coinbase regarding my situation, so today I started opening dozens of cases, actually over 100, just to see if anyone would respond, and what do you know, someone calling himself Rees finally responds and asks me to stop opening all those cases.  Again, to all you Coinbase apologists, don't you think it's pretty dern ridiculous that I had to resort to such a juvenile move as flooding them with cases just to get a friggin' response??  If you were in my position at this point, wouldn't you be forced to conclude that Coinbase sucks?

Coinbase characterizes bank transfers to purchase bitcoins as "reversible" and therefore "high risk".

Since reversable transactions are considered "high risk", doesn't that mean all transactions apart from handing cash over to someone would be considered high risk?  Aren't all transactions reversable? 

I'd agree with pungo on this one, bit wager, as in my case, I purchased Bitcoin at about $905 and, at the time of the transaction cancellation, it was down to about $750, but I received a full refund.  So in my case it worked out to my advantage that the transaction was cancelled, but of course, my intention was not to try to make a quick tiny profit but to purchase some bitcoin...;o)

An update--I did finally get my money back after following your advice and dealing with my bank.  But of course, wouldn't you consider it quite ridiculous that Coinbase requires one to bring their bank into the equation just to get one's own money back?

Not one response to any e-mail I sent them, not one response to attempts made through their website, and not one response to any of the four cases I opened with Coinbase "support" (support, now that is the biggest joke ever).

So Pungo, what we have here is your conclusion (about Coinbase being reputable) being in direct conflict with the facts.  Coinbase is not reputable, and that is the fact.

Now, let's say I was insane and wanted to try another transaction with them...how would I do that, when they won't respond to me and I need to know if my next attempt to purchase bitcoins through Coinbase will meet with the same "high risk" transaction nonsense and that purchase attempt failing also?  Any Coinbase apologists want to opine on this?

Very nice work, thanks to OP!

Don't say I didn't warn you.

So they are busy, and that's an excuse for providing lousy service??  And, eh...where's my money, again???  Come on, man...

I felt I needed to add my .02btc to this topic, and relate my experience with Coinbase.

On Dec. 10th I placed an order with them for .30btc, after following all their procedures to the letter and linking my bank account.  The order became "pending" on Dec. 12th, and on Dec. 16th the order was cancelled.  The reason given was that the transaction was cancelled because it was "high risk", meaning, according to their definitions, a reversable transaction because the funds came from a bank withdrawal.  Now, according to that definition, since any bank-withdrawal-based transaction is by their thinking "reversable", that would mean all bank-linked transactions would be "high-risk" and therefore Coinbase shouldn't even allow that option.

Of course, it doesn't end there.  ALL attempts at communication, through their site and through e-mail support are ignored.  You can open a case on their site, but of course the case is also ignored.  So I spent $291, Coinbase took it, cancelled the transaction, has my money and will not respond to any attempt at contact.

I've read lot of excuses for the lousy service by some Coinbase apologists here, but really, I'm a customer, Coinbase is (ostensibly) performing a paid service, so if their performance is this crappy, maybe they should find something else to (not) sell.