Awesome reply, Charlie.  You're winning me over.

Several of my posts were probably immature and made in haste.  However, in my defense, I think those kinds of emotional posts should give us all an idea of how customers honestly feel and how they can respond in this kind of situation.  My comments may have been immature and overly direct, but probably not totally irrational.

I've had a lot of hurtful things said to me during my (not short) career.  Even though they hurt me at first, they are usually helpful to me at the end of the day.  And I know it's a cliche, but those kinds of comments usually help a lot more than all the compliments that people can pour on you.  Compliments feel good, but are seldom helpful in terms of long-term improvement....they are just good for short-term "feel good" moments.

Thanks to you & your team for working non-stop to fix this issue!  Much appreciated!  This level of dedication should give some idea to all current & potential future customers about the level of professionalism and care that BitInstant has for their customers.  Best wishes for continued success!

Like you said, let's get to back to purpose of this threed...support!

Charlie - Keep up the good work.  Running a business is not easy.  I fully understand that.

Arguing with customers is never a good idea.  Never.  I said some very inflammatory things.  Things that ticked you off, I'm sure.  Challenging your capabilities as CEO/Founder.  But believe me when I say I am among the most patient and understanding of customers you will come across.  I seldom complain....in-person or online.  But this situation set me off.  You have made promises on your website that you are (were) not keeping.  On top of that, there was simply no way to understand the status of our transactions.....your site was always saying "loading" when checking the status.....and you were sending "form" emails.  This is serious stuff.  Customers should be expected to have little-to-no patience with this.  No matter if it's New Year's or Christmas or the end of the world.  I want to respect you, but for you to be surprised by my response tells me that you might be a bit naive.  24 hours to resolve this was entirely too long.

I want to support you and you are somewhat apologetic at some points in your last post, but for some reason, you still want to argue with me (me = a customer.....someone who could refer you to others, use you again in the future, etc.....or not).  Blaming it on someone else (....mistake not made by anyone in our company.....).  Saying I am new to the scene.  Talking down to me about where I work (whether I work at a big company currently doesn't tell you whether I have tried entrepreneurial ventures in the past or will in the future.....so don't assume I don't get it).  Making excuses for not answering "thousands of emails".....guess what, Boss....you better find a way to talk with all your customers.  Real-time.  Customers expect a certain level of service.  And you are catering to ppl around the world....24/7.  Your "live chat" was a joke....just sending my "chat" to your email.  And nothing was posted on your Facebook or Twitter accts that I could find.

I suggest you focus less on arguing with customers & more on satisfying them.  Comments like "Another mistake" just totally piss ppl off.  I can get behind you if you keep doing the stuff you are doing in terms of taking care of this problem.  I think it's a great customer service initiative to give out some extra BTC for these troubles.  I think it's a horrible customer service idea to fight with me in forums.

Everything Charlie says about my transaction is true.  I just received the BTC.  And he compensated me the extra 5 BTC, as he stated.  I finally received that the BTC a few minutes ago......~24 hours after I paid the USD, but he certainly did compensate me the 5 BTC.  Much appreciated.

However, I disagree that what I have posted is "spreading negative things about" them.  It is just the facts.  I think BitInstant needs more controls and resources.  It just can't be acceptable to tell customers that things are "out of our control".  Customers simply don't care.  It's real money.  This is business.  Big whoop that you do $3M USD per month.  You are lucky to have no/few competitors right now.

I work for a global Fortune 50 company.  We would be hammered in the press if we allowed something like this to happen.  Charlie claims that he answered every email and PM.  Maybe so.  But it was a form email response (I know because he sent the same reply to two different help requests I made).  And I would contend that he & his team need to be even more responsive.  Again, I think they are understaffed.

As I researched this, I found that there are customers from the past few months that have had similar complaints.  If BitInstant can take this as a learning experience and continue to improve, it will be great.  And I might even have to recant my "will never use them again" statement.  However, they are lucky that they are first-movers and have little competition right now.  That lets them get away with more mistakes than other companies in other industries.  As mentioned above, if I made this mistake at work, I would see a big revenue/profit hit.....and a hit to my bottom line and year-end variable compensation.

@tavallyjustice:  I'm not sure if it's a scam or complete incompetence.  Neither one is cool.

I saw lots of positive references about BitInstant before I decided to try it, so if it's a scam (I doubt it), they could have just decided that it was now time to cash out & make a run for it with a somewhat small amount of short-term gain.  Sucks for us.  Bad timing.

I think the "scam" option is probably only about a 5-10% possibility, though.  I just think Charlie and his team are understaffed and unprofessional.  I'll never use them again.

Still 0 BTC for me.  But I definitely saw $403.95 of real USD cash go out of my hand to a random clerk at CVS last night.

Charlie - I hope my $400 was worth it.  This is completely unprofessional.  I don't have a ton of extra time or energy, but I'm going to put whatever extra time/energy that I have towards making sure that everyone knows that BitInstant is a complete joke.  You have failed miserably as co-founder and CEO.  Whatever money you get from scamming everyone won't last long enough to make up for your ruined reputation.

Still nothing here.  Completely ridiculous.

BitInstant is clearly not ready for prime-time.  If I was Charlie (someone who is listed as "Co-Founder and CEO"), I'd be awake 24/7 and working hard to resolve these issues & keep customers happy.  Business 101.  Not feeling like he has much entrepreneurial spirit right now.

I feel like a fool for giving $400 cash via MoneyGram to such a joker.....but I had lots of good references.....

OK, but . . .

(1) this is the internet age, not the stone age.....45 seconds for each transaction?

(2) I thought it was BitInstant??  I've been waiting almost 24 hours now.

(3) Maybe this is accepted in the BTC world, but in the "real world", this is a complete failure of the business model and customer service.  BitInstant has only one purpose in life.....and they have failed miserably over the last 1-2 days.

(4) Charlie has been polite, but hasn't offered any compensation to anyone yet.....nor have I heard of anyone who actually has been satisfied by the recovery actions.  People are still waiting.

(5) He said he would be online to see everything through......(a) he doesn't show as online on the forum, (b) he hasn't replied to my email for over an hour ago.

Very frustrating.  This is real money here, not some sort of internet "just for fun" game.

Can anyone confirm that transactions have been resolved yet?  I appreciate Charlie's support and reassuring posts, but still nothing has happening for my transaction.  In this case, BitInstant has been far from "Instant".

Thanks, Charlie.  You are restoring my faith.  Look forward to seeing my BTC soon.  Thx again!

Hi Yankee - I'm having a similar problem with my transaction.

Quote ID   ad377bee-ef27-402a-879a-f9fca7ee3b93
Event ID   67040eac-86eb-4225-8fb0-ffcd786f89bd

Thanks in advance for taking care of this!