Official Newbie BitInstant Support Thread (Active Customer Support)

[nioc]

I posted earlier about not receiving my coins from Tuesday purchase.  Since I was getting no replies the merchant I was going to send the coins to intervened on my behalf.  I received the coins today but at today's price and not Tuesdays.  I can't say for certain as the prices change rapidly but it seems that I was credited with the fees.

[timexy]

I'm not sure why the Dwolla never verifies for me with Bitinstant... you guys always fix it for me pretty quickly though, I appcreiate it.

Got another one for you...

Order ID: 72ba2235-4db2-4af2-87eb-a2e043a63d57

Thanks.

[Nuro77]

On the BitInstant page in now says -

All Reserves Up | Some Orders Delayed - Email for Support

I'd really like to understand why failed orders for simple cash - to - wallet transactions are "delayed" and not automatically redone (instead penalized with great wait times), while other transactions go though just fine.

I'm still SOS.

EDIT/UPDATE - Issue resolved.

[ltibayan]

Hey Yankee,
I sent a PM on the 11th and still haven't received a reply. Figured I'd get a better chance if I post the PM on the thread:

Hi, saw your reply on the thread.

I logged into my 216*** Mt Gox account and still haven't received the funds.

If you didn't already know, I accidentally send funds to a 261*** Mt Gox account and contacted Mt Gox to freeze those funds as instructed by Rachel (BitInstant):

Danny, Feb 09 08:36 (JST):

Hello Logan ,

We have freezed the account to which you have sent the funds wrongly. Please contact Bitinstant and have them contact us to have the funds reversed.

Thanks,

MtGox.com Team

Please contact them if you haven't already to send those funds to the right account. Thanks in advance.

[kjc]

Still waiting on the coins... Day 2.
 OrderID: 49fcad92-d6fd-4a42-b5b5-d6c4bbe2ef14
Can you look into this. Thanks Yankee

[filthybiscuits]

just wanted to say that i used bitinstant to hop into the bitcoin market, and was able to use them with ease.  excellent for a new user. super simple, and super quick. no complaints.

[KryptoXchanger]

hi yankee,

is something wrong with btc-e? there is enough $ on reserve, but i dont see the money i transfered.

Order ID   c6bb2bd6-5cb3-4b0b-8d50-99caae587ca0
Quote ID   cc28af16-9cd8-4553-8f92-2ffc957c3c7d
Event ID   149b4279-6f01-4076-9ad5-2d9ecffc3c1d

Hey,

BTCe has been DOS'd all day. As soon as the attack ends, the orders will be processed

Are they still under attack? i used your service about 8-10 times... only 2 attempts was really instant. else i have to wait at least 1 day.
i like the idea behind it, but technically it is not ready for use. i hope you will fix these problems soon.

[Nuro77]

It's been day, night, and now it's morning. I still don't have my bitcoins. My transaction was the simplest of types - cash - to - wallet.

How much longer is my order going to be delayed?

It's Friday now. And I've read back here in the pages that BitInstant staff don't work on the weekends! - edited - they do work on the weekends.

Quote ID    edited

EDIT/UPDATE - Issue resolved.

[Nuro77]

hi yankee,

is something wrong with btc-e? there is enough $ on reserve, but i dont see the money i transfered.

Order ID   c6bb2bd6-5cb3-4b0b-8d50-99caae587ca0
Quote ID   cc28af16-9cd8-4553-8f92-2ffc957c3c7d
Event ID   149b4279-6f01-4076-9ad5-2d9ecffc3c1d

Hey,

BTCe has been DOS'd all day. As soon as the attack ends, the orders will be processed

Are they still under attack? i used your service about 8-10 times... only 2 attempts was really instant. else i have to wait at least 1 day.
i like the idea behind it, but technically it is not ready for use. i hope you will fix these problems soon.

If you look back to ANY page in this thread, it's the same story over and over again. Failed transactions. Then the wait game begins were you are left wondering if you'll ever see your bitcoins.

> i hope you will fix these problems soon.

Just like I said, look back to any page in this thread (there are 52 of them), if they wanted to fix this they would have by now. Whether technically fixing it, or just preventing new orders, or automatically redoing them, or just letting people know up-front that there is going to be a 24h wait (or up to 7 days), or getting more staff in, etc.

EDIT/UPDATE - my issue has been resolved.

[Nuro77]

Still waiting on the coins... Day 2.
 OrderID: 49fcad92-d6fd-4a42-b5b5-d6c4bbe2ef14
Can you look into this. Thanks Yankee

If you look at your cash-to-wallet order -

https://www.bitinstant.com/order_status/49fcad92-d6fd-4a42-b5b5-d6c4bbe2ef14

It says that it's complete and deposited... EXCEPT...

http://blockchain.info/address/1DGf5dPJ4V8pc2foyoB3vaZPG99udVbiED

The bitcoin network has no history of any bitcoins being transfered to your address. And it's already been 24h after BitInstant supposedly sent coins.

How is that even possible?

[rastaj]

Wow. There are no words for this type of mess. They are in way too deep. It's gonna end badly I would assume...

[ThaddeusB]

It's been over 24 hours now and your BTC-e reserves haven't budged a penny.  Their site has been up and running fine for awhile now, so obviously something is wrong on your end.

Please just go ahead and cancel/refund my order: c7bb663a-e7be-4e51-9340-36c490ed2e9b and I'll resumbit it if/when things are working. 

Thansk,
Thaddeus

[Yankee (BitInstant)]

Hey All,

I tried to respond to everyone, here are some updates:

There are currently 2 problems, both semi-related.

Over the past 2 weeks, exchanges and Bitcoin websites have been DOS'd, including ours.

When they get attacked, orders fail, plain and simple.

Even though it is not our fault, we always process orders, refund fees, and quote the BTC at time of purchase

If anyone believes they got the wrong amount, they PM me, and I send more.

Most conversations happen via PM after someone posts here, and mostly never bother to come back and fix it.

Charlie

It's been over 24 hours now and your BTC-e reserves haven't budged a penny.  Their site has been up and running fine for awhile now, so obviously something is wrong on your end.

Please just go ahead and cancel/refund my order: c7bb663a-e7be-4e51-9340-36c490ed2e9b and I'll resumbit it if/when things are working. 

Thansk,
Thaddeus

Hey,

BTCe has been DOS'd all day. As soon as the attack ends, the orders will be processed

BTC-e has been runnign fine for 2-3 hours now...

BTC-e does confirm the DDoS issue, however its been fine for hours now indeed, hoping to be able to use my funds soon :-/

Hey,

As you can see on our website, BTCe is still disabled. They changed their API IP address and it still has not resolved in our system so we cant process orders.

If you would like a refund, PM me right away and I will do it.

Attempted to do my first cash-to-wallet transaction via BitInstant. But it seems to have been unsuccessful (Order execution failed!) and now it's just stuck on "New Order"...

The log doesn't seem to be ordered/displayed in a chronological fasion - so I'm not even sure if I should trust it for that fact.

Quote ID    d8638b22-da78-4fcb-8187-a4715c19d8ac

If anyone could explain to me why this happened, what's going on right now, and what happens next ... that would great! I'll also look back some pages to see if an explanation for all the problems has been posted.

I thought I'd have bitcoins relatively quickly, but now I'm reading here that a few people wait days to a week before it's resolved!

Thanks.

EDIT/UPDATE - support emailed response about transferring to tech support for manual transaction.

My ZipZap accounts are 540811650 and 715594198, respectively.

Thank you,
Chris Eastman

EDIT : My coins have arrived. I am still very unimpressed, but the matter was addressed. They are not crooks, just an overwhelmed company. However, the way a business responds to adversity speaks volumes.

I believe that a business that has a forum support thread in addition to normal telephone and email support is a company that is doing the best it can to resolve issues.

If you still have an issue, PM me and I will resolve it right away.

I've been using Bitinstant for months without any problems until this week.

made my deposit on Monday using the same method as always: Bitinstant -> Moneygram/CVS -> bitcoin address.
this usually results in payment within hours. usually before I even get home to check, the money is there.

but this week it's already been days (Monday to Thursday) and my wallet is still empty.
what information do you need from me in order to track down my deposit? I've got my physical receipts + confirmation emails and Payment slip.

Hey, just your ZipZap Account #

Here is the ID# 4e9fdb8a-e95b-4c1c-8f83-3be82ebfb598

Thanks!

Processed!

You can search my original posts for reference.


After going to police, and IC3.  I did receive my coins.

Charlie told me he wouldn't release my coins until I dropped police report on advise from counsel. 

He sent anyway the next day, just proving from ceo to all levels of support are confirmed liars.

I got a full refund from zipzap due to fraud.

Absolutely run by criminals making money off delays and lies.

Stay Away!!!

P.s He never refunded fees or gave my correct amount in coin.

Just glad I got a refund.
 

Hey, you realize you just contradicted yourself lol.

Not only did we process your order, but we refunded you fully as well. So we lost a few hundred dollars just to please you.

Please do not spread lies about the company.

I've been reading some of the past posts here to get an idea of why this is happening. So far the story is that it seems to be caused by DDoS attacks on the exchanges, some issues with 3rd parties / APIs failing, user faults, and sometimes bad or non existant support.

Hey,

There are currently 2 problems, both semi-related.

Over the past 2 weeks, exchanges and Bitcoin websites have been DOS'd, including ours.

When they get attacked, orders fail, plain and simple.

Even though it is not our fault, we always process orders, refund fees, and quote the BTC at time of purchase

If anyone believes they got the wrong amount, they PM me, and I send more.

Most conversations happen via PM after someone posts here, and mostly never bother to come back and fix it.

Thanks

My first issue with BitInstant after several good transactions, but still, as a company that is based on speed of service and ease of use, it stings quite a bit.  Especially since we are talking about a currency exchange, and an extremely volatile one at that. My zipzap account for the transaction is 775678105.

And is it just me, or didn't it used to say "Bitcoins in under an hour" instead of "Pay for your bitcoins in under an hour?"

No worries, issues happen. As long as you paid, you are quoted at time of payment in BTC, so dont worry about increase. Processing now.

I'm not sure why the Dwolla never verifies for me with Bitinstant... you guys always fix it for me pretty quickly though, I appcreiate it.

Got another one for you...

Order ID: 72ba2235-4db2-4af2-87eb-a2e043a63d57

Thanks.

Processed!

Still waiting on the coins... Day 2.
 OrderID: 49fcad92-d6fd-4a42-b5b5-d6c4bbe2ef14
Can you look into this. Thanks Yankee

Processing now and refunding fees

hi yankee,

is something wrong with btc-e? there is enough $ on reserve, but i dont see the money i transfered.

Order ID   c6bb2bd6-5cb3-4b0b-8d50-99caae587ca0
Quote ID   cc28af16-9cd8-4553-8f92-2ffc957c3c7d
Event ID   149b4279-6f01-4076-9ad5-2d9ecffc3c1d

Hey,

BTCe has been DOS'd all day. As soon as the attack ends, the orders will be processed

Are they still under attack? i used your service about 8-10 times... only 2 attempts was really instant. else i have to wait at least 1 day.
i like the idea behind it, but technically it is not ready for use. i hope you will fix these problems soon.

They are not under attack anymore, see my post above!

It's been day, night, and now it's morning. I still don't have my bitcoins. My transaction was the simplest of types - cash - to - wallet.

How much longer is my order going to be delayed?

It's Friday now. And I've read back here in the pages that BitInstant staff don't work on the weekends!

Quote ID    d8638b22-da78-4fcb-8187-a4715c19d8ac

Hey, of course we work on weekends!

Who doesn't? In fact, Seth only works on weekends!

Your order processed, and we sent you extra BTC to cover fees and spread.

Charlie

Wow. There are no words for this type of mess. They are in way too deep. It's gonna end badly I would assume...

What mess? What are you even talking about? If you have an issue, give me an Order ID. If not, I don't see why your posting in our support thread.

Thanks everyone!

Charlie

[Nuro77]

I can confirm that the blockchain has shown two transactions into the specified address - with the extra transaction being for 1 Bitcoin.

That definitely makes up for the fee and whatever price fluctuation from the original price of 26.5 to today's high of 27.5 on a $130 purchase.

So in effect, I got ~5.7 bitcoins at ~$22.9 US dollars (when excluding ZipZap's fee and BitInstant fee, otherwise at $24.5)!

Thanks!

I've updated all my posts to show that the issue has been resolved.

[blindsniper]

Yankee - I was one of the ones who's transaction was delayed by an entire day.

My transaction fee was not reimbursed.

I also paid for $475 worth of BTC and only received a little over $450 worth of BTC, due to the increase in BTC value between the time that I made my purchase and the 24 hour delay before I got my coins. With the ZipZap fee included, I paid $498.95 and only received a little over $450 worth of BTC.

I would like to receive a refund for my transaction fee, like everyone else here. I also feel as though I am owed the difference in value that was created between the time that I paid for my BTC and the time that your business delivered my BTC.

I have emailed your technical support and your representative Rachel told me that her CEO (I'm guessing you) would reimburse my funds within "a few business days". I see that others here are getting their reimbursements paid out immediately, so I would like the same.

Your customer support employee Rachel has all of my transaction information. My name is James Wright.

A 3.99% commission on $475 is $18.9525. So either $18.95 or $18.96, plus the difference in BTC value between when I paid your people and when you actually fulfilled your business agreement a full day later. That would be the appropriate restitution.

This is the Wallet address where my refund can be sent:

17YUprif2teV1zeYfsHL2sYfYpCa5vvKkM

My ZipZap account number = 304074966

I would appreciate a prompt resolution of this. To be quite honest this is the worst transaction involving a large sum of money that I have ever experienced. There could be a small error in my math, as I cannot remember if I paid for $470 worth of BTC or $475 worth of BTC, but regardless I did not get what I paid for and my fee was not refunded.

If this is not resolved by this evening then I will file a complaint with the BBB, along with finding out from my LEO friends if this constitutes fraud and what can be done about it. Your company is pocketing the extra funds generated by delaying people's transactions. I really am a nice, well-mannered individual in person and I apologize for taking such a hostile tone, but I feel as though I have been taken advantage of and that really does not sit well with me, at all.

[jackl526]

What's up with all these people threatening to call the law? BitInstant is a huge exchange. They were the victims of hacker games. We've all seen Yankee personally handle all of the issues brought forth in this section and I commend him for that.

Of course I had a slight panic when I didn't see my coins after 2 days but that's only natural when your expectations are so high. They usually offer the best service in the business.

You came to them for a reason. Reporting them to BBB for a SMALL issue isn't proper in my opinion. If you have to wait a day or two, it's not a big deal. The largest transaction is $500, so even if it was a fraud case you're not losing your life savings. The first rule in BTC is don't buy bitcoins with money you can't afford to lose. The market isn't 100% stable and can technically crash at any time. It can also shoot up at any time. BitInstant is currently paying out coins that were bought at $23-26 and the current market price is $27, so be easy people.

The price of BTC is higher now than it was when ANY of you bought yours from BitInstant in the last few days, so even if you weren't refunded your 3.99% fee, you're still in the green or black. BitInstant makes too much money being an industry leader...why would they scam individuals for less than $500?


Thanks again Yankee!

[blindsniper]

You came to them for a reason. Reporting them to BBB for a SMALL issue isn't proper in my opinion. If you have to wait a day or two, it's not a big deal.

Yes, I came to them for a reason. So that I could have my BTC within two or three hours. Not so that I could pay them for BTC and only receive it 24 hours later due to me harassing them, and then on top of that to not receive the full amount of BTC that I paid for.

This is not a SMALL issue if they are doing it to numerous people every single day. If they screw up 100 people's transactions and delay them for a day or longer, then they are potentially making THOUSANDS of dollars in pure profit just by these unfortunate "errors". That's free money for them and that free money has been going into their accounts for a LONG time judging by people's posts here. This is exactly how to skim money.

The price of BTC is higher now than it was when ANY of you bought yours from BitInstant in the last few days, so even if you weren't refunded your 3.99% fee, you're still in the green or black. BitInstant makes too much money being an industry leader...why would they scam individuals for less than $500?

Yes, the price of BTC is higher now than when I purchased my coins, which means that what I purchased gained value. However, everything that you typed is irrelevant because if they had paid me the correct amount of BTC that they owed me then I would have profited even more. So they have cost me money as they sold me BTC at higher rates than what I paid for them a day earlier. That's the main issue. That is money that they pocketed on top of the transaction fee. That is money that is supposed to be mine.

My guess is that all the extra money generated by these "errors" and sitting on people funds for days at the time is being diverted into someone's personal account at BitInstant.

[KryptoXchanger]

hi yankee,

is something wrong with btc-e? there is enough $ on reserve, but i dont see the money i transfered.

Order ID   c6bb2bd6-5cb3-4b0b-8d50-99caae587ca0
Quote ID   cc28af16-9cd8-4553-8f92-2ffc957c3c7d
Event ID   149b4279-6f01-4076-9ad5-2d9ecffc3c1d

Hey,

BTCe has been DOS'd all day. As soon as the attack ends, the orders will be processed

Are they still under attack? i used your service about 8-10 times... only 2 attempts was really instant. else i have to wait at least 1 day.
i like the idea behind it, but technically it is not ready for use. i hope you will fix these problems soon.

They are not under attack anymore, see my post above!

The reserves on btc-e are getting down.. what is with my money? :/

[Calicriz]

Hey Charlie,

Forgive me for posting here as well, but I've yet to hear back from you recently using PM so I was hoping that perhaps providing you with my zipzap account info #:835637646 on the order in question and the BTC address of the $$'s ($116.05) destination: 12h5tjUw1Yz9GBP6Xvd5wnqWjPhnG5bUiN would help expedite the processing.  

It's been about 2+ days since the original transaction was placed and I feel like I have been pretty friggin patient thus far.  Mostly because I see the effort you put in on these threads and have sympathy for your unintentional delay issues, but the longer the hours go by while seeing others have their orders processed, the less patient I become.  Hoping to have this behind me soon (AKA this afternoon).  Lemme know how it's going, regardless, so I know what and when to expect some sort of movement on this issue.  Thanks again.

[kjc]

Still waiting on the coins... Day 2.
 OrderID: 49fcad92-d6fd-4a42-b5b5-d6c4bbe2ef14
Can you look into this. Thanks Yankee
update: received coins