Official Newbie BitInstant Support Thread (Active Customer Support)

[Dapper]

They paid one of my two outstanding transfers with a re-routing to Mt.Gox.    If they have given you that offer... and presuming they have significant reserves there, I suggest you guys take them up on it.   

[crazylikeafox]

They paid one of my two outstanding transfers with a re-routing to Mt.Gox.    If they have given you that offer... and presuming they have significant reserves there, I suggest you guys take them up on it.  

If they had significant reserves at Mt. Gox, then they would make a withdrawal of Bitcoins from there, and be able to fund all reserves at all other places with those Bitcoins.  They would then instantly turn on the Cash to BTC function since they would have Bitcoins to send.  Since they haven't done any of this, it's pretty clear that they do not have significant reserves there or anywhere else.  This is further evidenced by the fact that you, along with all the people that have posted here and many others that don't even know about this thread, still have outstanding, unresolved orders.

The proof is in the pudding - this could all be resolved within a day if they actually had funds, in any form, to back up any of the transactions.  Again, the fact that this thread exists and people continue to send them money, followed by shock that their order hasn't arrived, is mind boggling to me.  I suspect even the Bitinstant people themselves are stunned that money keeps coming in.

[kikotoby]

Just thought I'd post my retroactive review of BitInstant here.

Although nearly-free direct transfer from Dwolla to MtGox would have been my preferred method of transferring USD into an exchange, I decided to eat the 2% fee from Bitinstant to transfer funds from my Dwolla account to the Bitstamp exchange so that I could get started buying Bitcoin while waiting the 10+ days for my identity verification to happen on MtGox (yeah, new account approvals got really slow while the price was climbing from $18 to $28).

Every single time I transferred from Dwolla to Bitstamp using Bitinstant, I got the "Dwolla verification failed — unable to locate" error that numerous posters above have mentioned. Every single time, I emailed support@bitinstant.com. Every single time, Rachel at customer support replied within 2-4 hours of start-of-business-day (Pacific time) and manually processed the transaction.

Because of the relatively prompt (during business hours) email support, this process still turned out to be better than any of the alternatives I considered, but it was still frustrating. I'm left wondering ...

Has anyone had a successful Dwolla-to-(whatever) transfer process using Bitinstant, which didn't require manual processing of some kind? Is this location/verification issue a Dwolla problem, a Bitinstant problem, or both?

Ill say it again go to BITFLOOR when BITINSTANT comes on line again.. Ill be the first to use it..Ilove the ease of use but till then... BITFLOOR.  The only drag is that you have to do buisiness on banking hours..specifically Bank of America but it works!

[kikotoby]

Is anyone else having trouble trying to buy bitcoins using blockchain as their wallet?  If so do you know why it keeps on saying invalid exchange when I try to buy bitcoins?

Dude 
Ill say it again go to BITFLOOR when BITINSTANT comes on line again.. Ill be the first to use it..Ilove the ease of use but till then... BITFLOOR.  The only drag is that you have to do buisiness on banking hours..specifically Bank of America but it works!  A guy i met put me on to this and i had such a good exp.They are not like bitinstant they dont own BTC they just unite buyer with seller of BTC.. You have to go to the bank put in money in a specific account that is linked to your email and bingo bango buy the time i drove back from the bank i had funds..I tried one time with a small 200 deposit cause i was nervous and it went smooth then i tried a bigger one.Not sure the limit.Then when you have cash in your account you go to purchase the BTC .You can set a limit if you want or you can set it to buy automatically at a certain price.Its super cool ,i doubt ill do it another way unlesks bitinstant is working perfect..OH YEA NO ID  REQUIRED.. nothing!!

[Nuro77]

The 25th came and passed, BitInstant still has not funded their reserves on BTC-e, and now there new message on their website says -

The Bitcoin address and Bitcoin-to-email options are temporarily offline for system updates. These options should be back up on Friday, March 1. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience while we run these upgrades.

[cosmicboy]

It is very telling that there has been no announcements at all on here by yankee. Very stupid move on their part. To maintain their credibility all they had to do was be more honest and upfront about what's going on and give realistic dates. Instead this has turned into a total fiasco for them as many people will never use their service again. Who will step into the gap with straight-to-bitcoin service? There is ziggap, but they seem to be a bit erratic as well. Bitfloor seems OK but they are very clear that anonymity is not to be expected...Tough business to be in I guess.

-mm

[orion007]

It has now been a week I have been waiting on my order to btc-e.com. I was told last night my Rachel that they would have reserves at btc-e.com last night and my order would be fullfilled. This really leaves a bad taste i my mouth as this was my first ever bitcoin transaction. Many people want bitcoin to flourish but I can tell you that it never will as long as things like this keep happening and you have no recourse to retrieve your funds.

[ripbitinstant]

Many people want bitcoin to flourish but I can tell you that it never will as long as things like this keep happening and you have no recourse to retrieve your funds.

Well, this is a problem with BitInstant, not Bitcoin itself. There are many other payment processors. BitInstant was, until now, just the most convenient for many. In the past, I've had nothing but positive experiences, but this is enough that I will never use them again.

[supermono]

I am pleased to report that I received the BTC from my February 12 cash-to-bitcoin address order last night (2/25). They sent the exact same amount of BTC that they were supposed to send on February 12. It looks like they didn't refund the fees, but at least I got the February 12 price.

[orion007]

Just heard from Rachel again and they are now saying the weekend for reserves on btc-e.com. I was again offered an xfer to Mt. Gox instead and decided just to do that so hopefully that will get done today.

[orion007]

Also what is the longest someone has been waiting. I think I saw a post a page or so back of someone waiting over two weeks? Was the alt exchanges offer to you and did that resolve your problem?

[orion007]

Well just like that within 10 minutes I got my money on Mt. Gox (and they refunded my fees!), thanks to rachel. I would suggest if offered an alternate exchange that you take it.

[kikotoby]

Also what is the longest someone has been waiting. I think I saw a post a page or so back of someone waiting over two weeks? Was the alt exchanges offer to you and did that resolve your problem?

dont know what the longest was but BITFLOOR was so easy and just as slow or quick as Bitinstant.
The only bad part is you have to go do it on banking hours.That and you need to go to BOFA  Bank of america.still its a good alt.

[Nuro77]

Just said enough is enough, created email account at tormail via Tor, created account at BitFloor via Tor (just need email addy, password, nothing else), got deposit info, went to Bank Of America, asked for out-of-state deposit slip, filled in account and some other info (note - no where do you put your personal info - just write in the business name and address in main section), didn't get asked for ID, got home, money was in my BitFloor account, made market order in 1 second, had my BitCoins, transfered out to SR address.

Cost was 1% fee total.

It's basically just about almost less work that using BitInstant.

[bahknee]

Ripped off? You bet. When I made my order on February 15, the bitcoin high trading price was 27.50617. I FINALLY got my bitcoins today, and I received 9.59012 bitcoin for $300. Accounting for the 1.99% fee, this means that my order was processed at today's rate and not the rate from the day of my transaction. It was their fault, even though I had several successful transactions with Dwolla -> Bitinstant prior to this. I had a problem with my last order but I didn't check to see if I got ripped off by their delay. This time I checked, since the prices are going up so fast, and lo and behold I was given the rate of the day they happened to finally get around to dealing with my order. This is the last time I use Bitinstant. Terrible customer service, and that little stunt has completely turned me off. I guess I'll work on Bitfloor, since I see high praise about that.

[Dapper]

They paid one of my two outstanding transfers with a re-routing to Mt.Gox.    If they have given you that offer... and presuming they have significant reserves there, I suggest you guys take them up on it.  

If they had significant reserves at Mt. Gox, then they would make a withdrawal of Bitcoins from there, and be able to fund all reserves at all other places with those Bitcoins.  They would then instantly turn on the Cash to BTC function since they would have Bitcoins to send.  Since they haven't done any of this, it's pretty clear that they do not have significant reserves there or anywhere else.  This is further evidenced by the fact that you, along with all the people that have posted here and many others that don't even know about this thread, still have outstanding, unresolved orders.

The proof is in the pudding - this could all be resolved within a day if they actually had funds, in any form, to back up any of the transactions.  Again, the fact that this thread exists and people continue to send them money, followed by shock that their order hasn't arrived, is mind boggling to me.  I suspect even the Bitinstant people themselves are stunned that money keeps coming in.

And they paid off that other outstanding BTC-E payment with a Gox transfer.   Thanks Bitinstant.   That said, for anyone who is transferring funds that they would consider it a hardship or even significant emotional loss if the funds (sent with Bitinstant as the middleman) were to be lost, I'd recommend for those folks to stay away.   This game isn't for you.   For those (like myself) who have a very low overhead cost and am not going to sob over a few k, only then continue, and for now stick with Bitinstant to Gox transfers.   Don't have a Mt. Gox account?   It takes 5 minutes to create one.   I have at least forty accounts.   There's no reason to sit around waiting for 'reserves at BTC-E' or waiting for their cash to BTC address service to come back on line.    

Note to Charlie (and anyone else who want to make Bitinstant like business... take a look at the Remit2India business model.  It's a billion $ business.   That's something you guys might want to look into. There's no reason you couldn't take a big bite out of those 'remit' or send money home market segments (hint: focus on Indian, Filipinos, and well... all of Central and South America).   Huge potential on fees and making interest on the float (maybe offer 'fee free' transfer for 3-5 day service to go alongside the $3.95 + X % that you are already charging for 1 hour service).     Whip out that calculator and see how much you can make interest wise on say a modest 'few' hundred million US$ float.... all for operating a 'free' service with the added bonus of 'pseudo' BTC anonymity.   If you guys came up with this thing and we were living in the same dorm or apartment complex, I would front the funds myself to cover any cash flow issues like this... alas, college was 15 years ago (sigh) and now I much prefer sipping my Maker's Mark surrounded by tanned honey bunnies.    And THEN... if things really still go tits up.... THEN you can really check out and live out your days in Costa Rica (or Thailand, like myself).  



 

[cooksy]

I used ziggap yesterday and it took about 3 hours for my btc to post to my wallet. A little longer than bitinstant used to take but I would rather wait a couple hours than wait a couple weeks like some people have been experiencing. Also their customer support is awesome. When you call their support number you actually get to speak to a person. Every time that I have tried to call bitnstant I always get a machine that doesnt help at all. Unless bitinstant gets their act together I will be using ziggap from now on

[freedmind]

I was offered to have my money sent to my Bitstamp account and NOTHING HAS HAPPENED in the past 24 hours since Rachel said she would do so.
WAITING!! Please work for me one last time!

[jarethfox]

Went to deposit funds on Thursday but used CVS Moneygram instead of Walmarts
due to location and time. All was well until I got my confirmation email. It said the
funds got sent to "exchange" account instead of the # I put in there. What the frack?
Went back and forth in emails with MtGox and Bitinstant and finally have MtGox saying that
they've located the deposit and frozen the account but are waiting on the reversal
and redeposit to my account ID. Sadly Bitinstant support seems to be ignoring me
now which really makes me sad. I and family/friends have exchanged quite a few
bitcoins through Bitinstant and MtGox but have always used Walmarts moneygram.
Note to self, don't use CVS anymore. Was wondering if someone might be able to
help me with this? Been several days and the items I wanted to purchase
aren't even up for auction anymore so it'd be really swell if someone could help me
get my $480.00 back >.<

[OBF-GNJWO-280]
ticket_2o3EwzV7JbR167XE

Jareth Fox

[Nuro77]

BitInstant's btc-e reserves appeared to be fully funded this morning (~30g USD), and you could select in the menu to send to btc-e, but now btc-e is down, so that option is off.

At least they are not taking payments for broken methods any more.