Bitinstant Issue: Coins Lost Since 29 Sept

[pam]

Hello, I am obviously a newbie, I am looking for help from Yankee at Bitinstant to resolve an issue that has been outstanding since the 29 September. I have exchanged at least 20 emails with Bitinstant staff to avail.  Have I exchanged a half dozen emails with MtGox support.  My coins never reached MtGox. I have been waiting since 29 September for resolution. Thank you ~

[BCB]

Sent him a PM.   I'm sure he'll be in touch.

[Yankee (BitInstant)]

Hello, I am obviously a newbie, I am looking for help from Yankee at Bitinstant to resolve an issue that has been outstanding since the 29 September. I have exchanged at least 20 emails with Bitinstant staff to avail.  Have I exchanged a half dozen emails with MtGox support.  My coins never reached MtGox. I have been waiting since 29 September for resolution. Thank you ~

Pam,

You already know the situation here, we have been emailing, I can't understand why you would go on the forums and what you expect.

You sent the funds to the wrong address, and that other person has already taken the coins.

We are doing our best to track them down, freeze them, and give them back to you but Bitcoins are irreversible.

Our hands are tied here.

Please don't blame us for your mistake, especially when we've outlined the situation to you many times.

-Charlie

[BCB]

Pam, Pam, Pam.


..... welcome to bitcoin.....

[Yankee (BitInstant)]

Double and triple check every address you send coins or give to someone else to get coins from, now you learned your lesson!

Charlie,
Why don't you employ a way to have the person sign the address, so you can make sure they have control of it.
Before I start a flame war, while I know not every client has this option, but most newbies use the official app or blockchain.info client first anyway. It could a good way of getting rid of this issue.

Hey,

This problem occurs not just on Bitcoin Addresses, but also wrong MtGox accounts, ect.

For this reason, we have a confirmation page where we say please double check all your info before hitting confirm button.

Many people don't in fact look!

-Charlie

[pam]

Pam, Pam, Pam.


..... welcome to bitcoin.....

Excuse me, BCB?  You seem to know quite a lot about this. Are you saying I am never going to get my coins??  

If that is the case, why is Rachel in Charlie's office telling me in an email that the coins "are lost" in their system?

And, the Gox account number that I used is a single digit number.  Is there any such thing as a single digit Gox account? I am not yet ready to believe that someone else received my coins but I don't know what happened to them.


Thank you.

[BCB]

I'm saying pam pam pam becuase you took a private matter in a public channel.

and I'm saying welcome to bitcoin cause thinks like sending to the wrong address happen.   You're going to lose bitcoin.  it is unfortunate but it happens.  I think there was a guy around here that send like 10,000 BTC to the wrong address!  I think he did manage to fine that.  There is a thread in here somewhere you can read all about.

but unless you know who controls the private key to that address (public key) you are out of luck.

How much was it?

[pam]

I'm saying pam pam pam becuase you took a private matter in a public channel.

and I'm saying welcome to bitcoin cause thinks like sending to the wrong address happen.   You're going to lose bitcoin.  it is unfortunate but it happens.  I think there was a guy around here that send like 10,000 BTC to the wrong address!  I think he did manage to fine that.  There is a thread in here somewhere you can read all about.

but unless you know who controls the private key to that address (public key) you are out of luck.

How much was it?

I apologize for the breach of Forum etiquette but I am exasperated. Charlie is ignoring me. He never said the coins could not be retrieved. 

It's an insignificant amount of money - about 100 USD. 

Do you agree that someone has my coins?  Someone with Gox account number "2"?? 

If you tell me that the coins are gone for good I will delete this post. 

Thank you very, very much 
 

 

[casascius]

Judging from their database dump last year, yes, account #2 is 2,Babylon,babylon_horuv@lycos.com

If the issue is that the funds were sent to the wrong MtGox account, not the wrong Bitcoin address, then the real place where the heat should be applied is MtGox.  In my experience, BitInstant is very responsive to their customers, but they also can't be blamed or expected to take a loss when they send your money to the place they were told to.

I could totally envision MtGox being in a position where they see the funds sitting there and could reverse the transaction but don't.  I could see them going out of their way to whip up an excuse, like claiming that they need account holder #2's permission before they can take back your own funds.  That's just how they roll, but they're welcome to correct me on this. (my expectation is they probably won't)

[BCB]

Charlie said who ever you sent the coin to has taken them.  So the only thing you can do is post the address here and say you sent the money to the wrong address and maybe there will be and honest bitcoiner that will send it back to you.   But how knows who controls that address  or if they even read here.

Unfortunately you are not the first one to do this:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=54503.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=10473.msg150218#msg150218
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=113389.msg1224635#msg1224635
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=21127.msg264862#msg264862


What address did you send it too.

[pam]

What address did you send it too.

Coins did not go to an incorrect address. Money went to wrong Gox account - MtGox Account #2.

Above casascius says: "account #2 is 2,Babylon,babylon_horuv@lycos.com". And he is right. Gox is hemming and hawing and saying the transaction failed and that coins never reached them or they respond with gibberish.  Biggest problem with gox seems to be language barrier.

I don't know what to do:

Gox:  Transaction never reached their system
Rachel in Charlie's office:  Transaction lost in Bitinstant system
Charlie:  I've copied Nat from MtGox who needs to freeze the account (whatever that means)

This has been going on since 29 september

I do not mean to be causing a fuss.  I apologize for my ignorance, stupidity, carelessness & for not triple checking the Send To account number.  I am an idiot...

Thank you all for your help - really appreciate it!
/p