Coinbase made my client, a newcomer to Bitcoin, wait a week for his coins only to deny him due to "high risk." His account is with a major bank and he's been conducting business online for years with no problems.
I didn't get paid and he received a bad first impression of Bitcoin. I am unimpressed by Coinbase, to say the least.
Coinbase didn't make your client do anything, the wait is standard for their service...Everyone who uses the service has this buffer time. Until they released the "Instant Buy" for Level 2 verified customers recently, this was their standard protocol and they didn't hide it.
Coinbase has openly responded about their fraud system and how the "High Risk" transactions are processed, they do not have a perfect system yet. If you were hired to consult or refer this client, it sounds like in this case you should be a bit more unimpressed in your ability than Coinbase's service.
The fact is, he was made to wait and this waiting period was imposed by Coinbase. It's their standard operating procedure, sure.
You misunderstand the situation and blame the victim. This "high risk" cancellation was arbitrary and ridiculous, as a long-established businessman my client is the exact opposite of high risk. No one likes to be tainted by such suspicions, so Coinbase really need to refine their anti-fraud system. I for one will likely steer clear of them in future due to this experience.
I appreciate you trying to clarify the situation, but I haven't misunderstood. Coinbase is a startup with a small amount of people trying to do some really large things. They are creating a trading/merchant platform for BTC from scratch and having been about a year old, they are
guaranteed to run into problems.
What am I saying here is that, as a consultant, it is your duty to be well versed in the companies and services you recommend to your clients. It is, after all, what you are being paid for. Even one search on Google about the "high-risk" issue would have brought up multiple results about this issue, including an official blog post by Coinbase covering why it's happening.
Anyway, in the end poop happens and it can get the best of us sometimes. Such is life. Hope things can be revived with the client and things can improve. If not, on to the next! Take care.
