LocalBitcoins - one big scam in fees?

[coinsgod]

Anyone else here thinks the fees on LocalBitcoins are absolutely huge? I bought $1,000 worth of BTC on LocalBitcoins then sent them out to my local wallet. The amount they allowed to be sent out was about $970, therefore they are hitting me up with a $30 fee to send it out, that's a 3% fee.

LocalBitcoins support has said this about their fees:

Current outgoing bitcoin network fee: 0.00029576 BTC (Withdrawals)
Current incoming bitcoin network fee: 0.00086688 BTC (Deposits)

By my calculations for a withdrawal, based on that I should only get charged between $1.50 to $2 in fees. How in the hell would that equal to about $30 in fees? Do they have hidden fees somewhere?

[OmegaStarScream]

What do you mean by 'Local wallet' exactly? Localbitcoins wallet or another wallet you control?  The fees are clearly ridiculous and there is nothing in their fees page that state 3%: https://localbitcoins.com/fees
If you check the transaction in a blockexplorer, how much network fee do you see? because If you see 30$ there, It means that their algorithm is not working properly otherwise, they took fees for simply providing the service. The support answer make no sense anyway, you had to ask why you got 30$ fee for a 1000$ withdrawal.

[coinsgod]

What do you mean by 'Local wallet' exactly? Localbitcoins wallet or another wallet you control?  The fees are clearly ridiculous and there is nothing in their fees page that state 3%: https://localbitcoins.com/fees
If you check the transaction in a blockexplorer, how much network fee do you see? because If you see 30$ there, It means that their algorithm is not working properly otherwise, they took fees for simply providing the service. The support answer make no sense anyway, you had to ask why you got 30$ fee for a 1000$ withdrawal.

I meant LocalBitcoin wallet. Ok I checked that site and it says my fee was 0.00435292 BTC.

Anyway, when I asked LocalBitcoin why my fee wasn't about $1.50 and was $30, all they said was "The fee is automatically calculated in an optimal way. If you do not like the fee, you can choose other wallet service."

Wow, great response from LocalBitoins!  


Anyway, if their site says "Current outgoing bitcoin network fee: 0.00029576 BTC (Withdrawals)" then how does my fee charged end up being 0.00435292 BTC? That's an absolutely huge difference between and $1.40 quoted on their site and the $20 actually charged!!

[oldloco]

Localbitcoins.com is A BIG scam! In my OWN personal opinion.

I rather use decent exchanges and will spend 48h+ on international wiring than ever use Localbitcoins again. Here's quick story:
I using theirs service for almost 4 years, 100% positive feedback, trade volume 50-100BTC and there never was a problem until now. On Friday evening I bought 0.23 BTC from the trader with whom I've traded 5 BTC+ in the past. Now since I was trading with him before I din not care to read his terms&conditions (my bad really) and eventually this trader added 7 rules in order to buy BTC from him. Ofc I missed them and than the shit hit's the fan. For starters was him saying that he will withhold my BTC locked for extra 24-48hours after it received. Than Tuesday (~after 36 hours of payment received) he sends me message that I have to do ID check with Localbtc because I did not followed his rules and I've paid from my wife's account. He agrees that he have the money, but now he plays smart ass and keeps holding my BTC because "I could be a scammer who paid it from stolen account).
So opening a claim with support. Now support just sending me automated replies until tonight I've receiving this email:

no-reply@localbitcoins.com
01:36 (7 hours ago)

to me
xx, do the following in 8 hours or the dispute will resolve to the seller:
1.  verify your ID here: https://localbitcoins.com.........................
2.  attach a picture of your ID held next to the laptop or phone screen showing the online payment (with the full screen and browser address bar visible).
3.  attach a picture of your ID held next to the laptop or phone screen showing this trade page (with the full screen and browser address bar visible).

They giving me 8 hours to fix all they asking for. And email received at 01:36 in the night. Means that if I were working today I would be done (as I don't have access to such websites from work PC), if I was sleeping longer than usually I would be done again, because 09:36 am was the deadline.

Seems that support of this website always leans towards the one who have bigger trade volume. And localbitcoin dying to get your ID uploaded to theirs website!

Update:

Now when I completed steps above, I got this email:

D.King: s2, Please also provide the following documents with your wife's ID in 8 hours
1. attach a picture of you and your wife hold your ID together with a note " I am xxx and I am aware my husband is buying bitcoin with account s2 on localbitcoins paid with my bank account"
2. attach a picture of your wife's ID held next to the laptop or phone screen showing the online payment (with the full screen and browser address bar visible).
3. attach a picture of your wife's ID held next to the laptop or phone screen showing this trade page (with the full screen and browser address bar visible).

Next request will be: Stand naked in the terrace with D.trump photo and say you will worship no one but him and only him???

Update:

After sending message with request to refund money, or other wise we will initiate charge back.Seller have agreed to refund to my  payment. What is strange that, after leaving negative feedback for seller and seeing him blocked by 6 person's he still have Feedback score 100 % Huh  Huh Huh Huh

Now Q is: Why Localbitcoins blackmailed me to upload my passport ID and verify account and in the same time send my ID next to screen with Localbtc account and banking page account. If they knew that it will not help  to resolve the case and they will ask more and more pictures with my wife and such? I've asked them to delete all identification pictures I've sent them and also remove "Id verified" from my account. If they fail to confirm that they did so, I will raise complain with local authorities. Because I believe I was blackmailed to upload my sensitive personal data without legit reason and I'm not sure that Localbtc will not misuse it in the future, or will not get hacked and all my private data will be out in the open?

[trythrow]

It really pisses me off to pay transaction fee and then again deposit fee at Local Bitcoin, wtf!

[Bigpiggy01]

I dunno if remitano works where you are in the world but in Malaysia it works nicely.

0.005 in network fees each way or 5$ each way if selling USDT for local cash.

BTC, Ether and USDT are all held in escrow on the exchange. I've never had to wait more than half an hour for the counterparty to react.

[chuckblocker]

Deposit fee is so lol. If they go out of business it couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of cunts is all that I can say about localbitcoins.