Coinbase Decides Not to Refund Customers in Double Billing Glitch

[poeEDgar]

I don't get whats the notable news here. They made an error, i get that, but they are crediting user's accounts with counter value in btc, which seams
to me like the most reasonable solution in this case. It's unfortunate how this even happened, but that they are "shady" because of this, definitely not.

They would prefer not to incur overhead costs that would be incurred if refunding customers correctly. They are forcing customers to take on additional capital investment positions that they never sought to take. And since the price of bitcoin has downtrended during/after the period in question, everyone affected is in a losing investment position.

I think it's despicable, actually.

[BayAreaCoins]

I don't get whats the notable news here. They made an error, i get that, but they are crediting user's accounts with counter value in btc, which seams
to me like the most reasonable solution in this case. It's unfortunate how this even happened, but that they are "shady" because of this, definitely not.

They would prefer not to incur overhead costs that would be incurred if refunding customers correctly. They are forcing customers to take on additional capital investment positions that they never sought to take. And since the price of bitcoin has downtrended during/after the period in question, everyone affected is in a losing investment position.

I think it's despicable, actually.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Coinbase is willing to do some nasty ass things to support their shit.

That pump n dump on the downtrend market was fairly beastly as well earlier this year.

Just keep pounding them with complaints to Local, State and Federal people.

[ronald98]

What if a customer only had enough funds in his bank account to make one purchase of Bitcoins? Surely he would be charged by his bank if another attempted withdrawal took place after the first. Those charges could put his account in arrears, which he would also be charged for. Bank charges can rapidly spiral in such situations. Would Coinbase reimburse him for his bank account arrears?

I see that you are participating in a signature ad campaign, so I'll go ahead and add you to my ignore list, but in the meantime I'll take a second to suggest that you learn to read:

- snip -
Please let us know if you have incurred additional bank fees as a result of this error, and we will work with you to refund those.
- snip -

Our sincerest apologies,

Coinbase Support Team

Coinbase didn't say they will definitely refund any bank fees incurred because of their mistake, they said "we will work with you to refund those", which sounds extremely tricky to me. As I said, bank charges can rapidly spiral, starting off with a charge for a debit from an account without enough money in, which could put it in debt. Then the bank starts sending letters telling you your account is overdrawn and charging extortionate amounts for each successive letter.

If you have direct debits on your account that are not paid because your account is in debt you get charged for each attempted direct debit by your bank, and also might get charged by the company making the debit.

Suppose all that happens because of Coinbase double charging you. Will they pay everything you have been charged? Will they demand proof of all your personal transactions and charges, then decide not to pay most of them? I doubt they would pay everything in such situations, maybe a tiny amount.

[jonald_fyookball]

I don't get whats the notable news here. They made an error, i get that, but they are crediting user's accounts with counter value in btc, which seams
to me like the most reasonable solution in this case. It's unfortunate how this even happened, but that they are "shady" because of this, definitely not.

They would prefer not to incur overhead costs that would be incurred if refunding customers correctly. They are forcing customers to take on additional capital investment positions that they never sought to take. And since the price of bitcoin has downtrended during/after the period in question, everyone affected is in a losing investment position.

I think it's despicable, actually.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Coinbase is willing to do some nasty ass things to support their shit.

That pump n dump on the downtrend market was fairly beastly as well earlier this year.

Just keep pounding them with complaints to Local, State and Federal people.

They are one of the easiest places to get coins in my experience
and despite this error (all businesses have errors), I still think
they are a great company.

You want to take down coinbase?  Don't see how that will be
good for adoption.

[allthingsluxury]

I don't find this sketchy, its pretty standard.

[BayAreaCoins]

I don't get whats the notable news here. They made an error, i get that, but they are crediting user's accounts with counter value in btc, which seams
to me like the most reasonable solution in this case. It's unfortunate how this even happened, but that they are "shady" because of this, definitely not.

They would prefer not to incur overhead costs that would be incurred if refunding customers correctly. They are forcing customers to take on additional capital investment positions that they never sought to take. And since the price of bitcoin has downtrended during/after the period in question, everyone affected is in a losing investment position.

I think it's despicable, actually.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Coinbase is willing to do some nasty ass things to support their shit.

That pump n dump on the downtrend market was fairly beastly as well earlier this year.

Just keep pounding them with complaints to Local, State and Federal people.

They are one of the easiest places to get coins in my experience
and despite this error (all businesses have errors), I still think
they are a great company.

You want to take down coinbase?  Don't see how that will be
good for adoption.

Fuck adoption if it requires getting scammed by these bastards.

Pirateat40 and the Silk Road were good for adoption... Coinbase just road the coat tale and leached off the real hustlers.

Bitcoin vendors are pimples.  Once you pop one about 3 more larger ones show up.

I don't find this sketchy, its pretty standard.

I feel horrible for your "standards".

[jonald_fyookball]

I don't get whats the notable news here. They made an error, i get that, but they are crediting user's accounts with counter value in btc, which seams
to me like the most reasonable solution in this case. It's unfortunate how this even happened, but that they are "shady" because of this, definitely not.

They would prefer not to incur overhead costs that would be incurred if refunding customers correctly. They are forcing customers to take on additional capital investment positions that they never sought to take. And since the price of bitcoin has downtrended during/after the period in question, everyone affected is in a losing investment position.

I think it's despicable, actually.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Coinbase is willing to do some nasty ass things to support their shit.

That pump n dump on the downtrend market was fairly beastly as well earlier this year.

Just keep pounding them with complaints to Local, State and Federal people.

They are one of the easiest places to get coins in my experience
and despite this error (all businesses have errors), I still think
they are a great company.

You want to take down coinbase?  Don't see how that will be
good for adoption.

Fuck adoption if it requires getting scammed by these bastards.

Pirateat40 and the Silk Road were good for adoption... Coinbase just road the coat tale and leached off the real hustlers.

Bitcoin vendors are pimples.  Once you pop one about 3 more larger ones show up.

I don't find this sketchy, its pretty standard.

I feel horrible for your "standards".

It's not a scam.  They accidentally double billed.  Happens all the time.

They are refunding it and offering to also refund any bank charges.

Stop acting like a doofus.

[BayAreaCoins]

It's not a scam.  They accidentally double billed.  Happens all the time.

They are refunding it and offering to also refund any bank charges.

Stop acting like a doofus.

It doesn't "happen all the time".

They aren't refunding peoples cash.  They are giving them Bitcoins they didn't intend on buying.

Do you have a business that drafts from peoples accounts?  It's kind of a big deal to double tap peoples shit and then not give them their money back at least...

[jonald_fyookball]

It's not a scam.  They accidentally double billed.  Happens all the time.

They are refunding it and offering to also refund any bank charges.

Stop acting like a doofus.

It doesn't "happen all the time".

They aren't refunding peoples cash.  They are giving them Bitcoins they didn't intend on buying.

Do you have a business that drafts from peoples accounts?  It's kind of a big deal to double tap peoples shit and then not give them their money back at least...

Actually, they are refunding the money.

Originally we decided it was best to resolve this by crediting the amount of bitcoin for the second charge, but customer feedback indicates a strong preference for a direct and immediate refund of the full amount.

That's directly from an email from them.

OP should correct the misleading title of the thread.

Sorry for the insult, I thought it was clear.  Perhaps it wasn't.
Now it should be.

[BayAreaCoins]

It's not a scam.  They accidentally double billed.  Happens all the time.

They are refunding it and offering to also refund any bank charges.

Stop acting like a doofus.

It doesn't "happen all the time".

They aren't refunding peoples cash.  They are giving them Bitcoins they didn't intend on buying.

Do you have a business that drafts from peoples accounts?  It's kind of a big deal to double tap peoples shit and then not give them their money back at least...

Actually, they are refunding the money.

Originally we decided it was best to resolve this by crediting the amount of bitcoin for the second charge, but customer feedback indicates a strong preference for a direct and immediate refund of the full amount.

That's directly from an email from them.

OP should correct the misleading title of the thread.

Sorry for the insult, I thought it was clear.  Perhaps it wasn't.
Now it should be.

Thanks for your follow up post.  Happy to see them doing the right thing.

*disengages doofus mode* 

[RGBKey]

It seems odd that they would force you to take bitcoin with the extra charge when they are the ones who incorrectly drew too much from your account.

Also to ironically note that is only possible with a pull-based system. If Bitcoin was the main currency, then no company could have made this mistake. Even more ironic is that it was caused BY a bitcoin company.

While I'm not sure why this is the path they took to correct this problem, they have served us well for turning our "pull based money" into bitcoin.

[poeEDgar]

It's not a scam.  They accidentally double billed.  Happens all the time.

They are refunding it and offering to also refund any bank charges.

Stop acting like a doofus.

They could have chosen to refund just as they deducted -- in dollars. But they'd rather not incur the costs to refund their customers honorably. Also:

They are forcing customers to take on additional capital investment positions that they never sought to take. And since the price of bitcoin has downtrended during/after the period in question, everyone affected is in a losing investment position.

[iGotSpots]

I've had only a few small issues with coinbase over my several years with them but they were always resolved to make me happy with their service. Send them an email if you were affected, they're cool as shit and respond fairly fast

I'm not sure what level account you have, but my bitcoins show up like instantly if I buy them there?

[jonald_fyookball]

It's not a scam.  They accidentally double billed.  Happens all the time.

They are refunding it and offering to also refund any bank charges.

Stop acting like a doofus.

They could have chosen to refund just as they deducted -- in dollars. But they'd rather not incur the costs to refund their customers honorably. Also:

They are forcing customers to take on additional capital investment positions that they never sought to take. And since the price of bitcoin has downtrended during/after the period in question, everyone affected is in a losing investment position.

They did refund in dollars.  Please read what I just posted. 

[poeEDgar]

It's not a scam.  They accidentally double billed.  Happens all the time.

They are refunding it and offering to also refund any bank charges.

Stop acting like a doofus.

They could have chosen to refund just as they deducted -- in dollars. But they'd rather not incur the costs to refund their customers honorably. Also:

They are forcing customers to take on additional capital investment positions that they never sought to take. And since the price of bitcoin has downtrended during/after the period in question, everyone affected is in a losing investment position.

They did refund in dollars.  Please read what I just posted. 

My mistake. Hadn't scrolled all the way down. Glad to see they came to their senses.

[Mickeyb]

It's not a scam.  They accidentally double billed.  Happens all the time.

They are refunding it and offering to also refund any bank charges.

Stop acting like a doofus.

They could have chosen to refund just as they deducted -- in dollars. But they'd rather not incur the costs to refund their customers honorably. Also:

They are forcing customers to take on additional capital investment positions that they never sought to take. And since the price of bitcoin has downtrended during/after the period in question, everyone affected is in a losing investment position.

They did refund in dollars.  Please read what I just posted. 

Oh ok, this changes the thing completely. Glad to see they have come to senses and are doing the right thing! Not to many companies out there actually listens to their customers feedback!

[BayAreaCoins]

<snip> Not to many companies out there actually listens to their customers feedback!

 

Not many companies double tap your account and expect to get away with not giving your money back.