Exactly.

Please do not deposit any funds into Mt. Gox. Puurmaa, they've kind of taken my 1BTC hostage while they decide if they respond to my requests for verification, I couldn't imagine losing 20. I finally received a response on January 24th after nearly a month of waiting. And this is after they decided to increase the wait time to 20 days from my original 10 day wait time. I can't wait to see what their withdrawal time is LOL. I'm looking at it as, if I get my money withdrawn at any point in time I'll consider myself on of the lucky few. This is a very bad public perception you have going on Mt. Gox and it's pretty much your own damn fault as a company.

My opinion is to steer clear from making any transactions with them.

So many people intelligent enough to work out bitcoin mining, but can't understand how to legitimize their product to interested potential buyers.

BitCoin seems the most tried and true, as well as standardized and accepted. But litecoin seems interesting enough to keep at hand as a back up currency.

A came to respond to a technical ad & a post in the classifieds..and ended up here, yay!

I feel your pain.

I was at least able to verify my BitStamp account and received a response 2 separate times ( scans not clear enough ) and on the second verification of residency was not within date & still managed to have all this done since my last post. It took my verification submission just two days for the final approval.

I will never use Mt Gox again.

I was able to deposit my 1BTC and trade it on MtGox.com which at the time appeared to be the most known and trusted. Until it came time to withdrawal my earnings $700US. Then came the reality of what a joke their "efforts" appear to be. I submitted my verification documents and was given a 10 day window for account verification in the header announcement. I've been logging in from time to time since late December and now that 10 day wait has gone to 20 days minimum. I contacted them regarding this issue and was sent a cut and paste apology regarding and thanking me for being patient.

The only thing I know is that I'll never trust this website again to trade BTC. I've since opened an a count with BitStamp and am waiting to see how quickly they handle my transaction in comparison. While looking at their account creation I now see how hypocritical MtGox is with regards to their verification practices. BitStamp at least requires you to verify prior to depositing your $/BTC where as MtGox is more than happy to take your cash and BTC then hold it ransom until they get around to handling their end of the bargain and transferring your time/effort's worth of currency to your account.