Blockchain Shared Coin - Coins Lost in Limbo... PLEASE HELP

[LostNewbee]

Hi - Please excuse my ignorance and help me find my coins!

I seem to have misplaced ~3.6 Bitcoins during my very first BC transaction. 
Five days ago (30 Jan) I sent ~5.2 BTC to a vender via BitPay using Shared Coin in Blockchain. 
BitPay credited the vendors account only 1.6 BTC and claims to have only received partial payment. 

-Blockchains help desk has been responsive stating "....I can also see the funds did arrive at the destination address you indicated"
-I have't yet heard back from BitPay but emailed them stating, " ... I am assuming only partial payment was received before the invoice expired.  Where was the remaining payment deposited? "
-Shared coin is open source with no POC's or help desk.

This is BIG money to me - I can't believe I've done this in the blind.  How do I recover and avavoid this in the future?

Please advise.
Thank you.

[piuk]

When you made the transaction were any errors displayed? Please link the shared coin transaction and the bitcoin address the coins were supposed to be sent to.

Edit: Found your ticket on Zendesk the destination address did receive the correct amount of bitcoins and they are fully confirmed. The problem is at bitpays end.

[LostNewbee]

Yes Thank you piuk!  BTW Mandrik has been both helpful & responsive -

I just received confirmation from BitPay that the coins actually are in limbo.  Here's what happened...

The Shared Coin transaction took longer than the Vendors invoice was left open.  The invoice timed out after partial payment had posted to the account.  The remaining coins were not identified to that invoice/address since it had timed out & closed.

We're rectifying it all now.

piuk & Mandrik THANKS

BTC r cool BTC   I love the concept,  Wish I can learn more faster!

[seriouscoin]

Advice for you or any noobs out there,

If you're dealing with an online vendor that has your info, there will be no anonymity with bitcoin transaction. The best you want is privacy and its important.

So do your mixing B4 spending it. (send coins thro a mixer to another wallet you own, An ONE TIME USED WALLET), spend it then discard it.

Remember..... PRIVACY is IMPORTANT

[FundsMoney]

I have also made a test shared send yesterday, and noticed the final transaction used unspent outputs, that's why I think it takes longer to confirm than usual (+1 more confirmation).

Forgive me if i'm wrong , but that's what I realized. Other than that, the concept is really great.