Coinbase Users! Please Contribute Data!

[thefiniteidea]

I'm wondering how often this happens, since they choose to keep secret their method of determining "high risk". I wish the poll could incorporate a few other factors. Regardless, I'm hoping it's a very low percentage, but we will see.

Derived from the concerns addressed in this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=144633.msg1559435#msg1559435

Thanks everyone!

 

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[justusranvier]

1 transaction out of 9 = 11%

[MEGAMERICAN]

0 for 3. All 3 were purchases of 5 bitcoins.

[greenlander]

I had a few transactions in a row deemed "high risk" and canceled after using coinbase successfully for awhile.  After that, I stopped using it and went back to using Dwolla->mtgox.

I think it's important to keep in mind what Coinbase is: it's a startup consisting of two guys, some furniture and a few computers.  Coinbase is quirky and has some issues now, but it will probably get better with time as the company matures.  They have bitten off a big problem and they probably just don't have the staff and experience to deal with all the issues yet.  Eventually they will stumble their way making it work better and there won't be all this BS with "high risk" canceled transaction.

Bitcoin really needs Coinbase and companies like it that make the conversion from fiat -> bitcoin easier.  Dwolla->mtgox isn't the answer for most people.

In the meantime we'll just have to tolerate the quirkiness of coinbase.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Wait ..... they got furniture?  Premium.

We use stacks of old GPU boxes. 

[camolist]

bought $2,500 worth while under the 100/day limits  0 cancellations from those ~30 transactions

sold about 5 times to them maybe $700 in total no cancellations


have sent them an email twice (once saying everything was going well but i hoped that they would raise limits soon, and the other time about a missing half a bitcoin on my balance) both times received a reply within hours


I'm sure it's a risky business (simple bank transfers are reversible i am sure?) seems they are just being careful with the reports of canceled transfers

[CurbsideProphet]

bought $2,500 worth while under the 100/day limits  0 cancellations from those ~30 transactions

sold about 5 times to them maybe $700 in total no cancellations


have sent them an email twice (once saying everything was going well but i hoped that they would raise limits soon, and the other time about a missing half a bitcoin on my balance) both times received a reply within hours


I'm sure it's a risky business (simple bank transfers are reversible i am sure?) seems they are just being careful with the reports of canceled transfers

ACH transfers are very difficult to reverse after 24 hours or so.

[bbit]

I'm wondering how often this happens, since they choose to keep secret their method of determining "high risk". I wish the poll could incorporate a few other factors. Regardless, I'm hoping it's a very low percentage, but we will see.

Thanks everyone!

 

This might help with explaining "high risk" .

http://blog.coinbase.com/post/44046687068/high-risk-transactions

[DeathAndTaxes]

ACH transfers are very difficult to reverse after 24 hours or so.

Not true.  ACH can be used as either a push or pull transfer method.  To provide some context, bitcoin & bankwires are push only, credit cards are pull only.   A customer initiated ACH is where the customer "pushes" funds to the receiver from their bank account.  An example of this would be online billpay where you login to YOUR bank website and push funds to a merchant.   This can't be done anywhere else except from within your online banking account and the bank can log and monitor the transaction.  The bank takes a hit in disputes of these transactions so they are pretty vigilant about fraud procedures.  The bank also has your personal information so they can suspend transactions pending a callback verification.   Things like adding a new payee, or an abnormal payment amount are likely to trigger a callback.  The more common method is merchant initiated transactions where the merchant pulls funds from the customers account.   Now in theory this is only done by the customer, but in theory credit cards are only used by authorized users too.  There is a 60 days window to dispute the later (on personal accounts, business accounts are limited to 24 hours under the theory that businesses have better fraud detection procedures in place).  ACH fraud is harder to pull off then credit cards (which are pathetically easy to use fraudulently) but the best defense is detection.  

[Walter Rothbard]

Thanks, D&T; that was very informative.

[veteranBtc]

1 from 10, in rest all is ok

[Cubic Earth]

I bought BTC1 through coinbase last week and it worked out well.

[thefiniteidea]

Well these numbers are a sigh of relief!

Thank you to everyone who contributed data, I feel comfortable using the service again

[HappyScamp]

Just once, and I won't use them again.

They just cancelled a valid contract AFTER the time of delivery... waiting some 5 days.

The transaction history actually said COMPLETED on the purchase.

Several hours later I get a "Sorry, we're not gunna do it" letter.
But that back account has been solid since the early 90's with no problems.

Meanwhile the price of BTC went up several dollars.  So they effectively gambled with my money.  Price goes up? disallow the transaction.

FTS.

I have already filed a complaint with the California Attorney General, and in process with the State of Oregon as well.
Coinbase has physical operations in both states.

And they WILL be answering a lot of questions.

[thefiniteidea]

Just once, and I won't use them again.

They just cancelled a valid contract AFTER the time of delivery... waiting some 5 days.

The transaction history actually said COMPLETED on the purchase.

Several hours later I get a "Sorry, we're not gunna do it" letter.
But that back account has been solid since the early 90's with no problems.

Meanwhile the price of BTC went up several dollars.  So they effectively gambled with my money.  Price goes up? disallow the transaction.

FTS.

I have already filed a complaint with the California Attorney General, and in process with the State of Oregon as well.
Coinbase has physical operations in both states.

And they WILL be answering a lot of questions.

That was actually the whole point of this poll.

But judging by the amount of users who aren't having any issues, not to mention their feature of white-listing, I seriously doubt this is a scheme that coinbase is carrying out.

I think you should do whatever it is that you feel is necessary, but just be-careful of hurting a good thing here. Try and get some more research if you can. That is all.

 

[BitcoinTate]

Bitcoin Canceled my order from Feb 23rd an hour before my coins where supposed to show up: BTC bought @ 28.20... price now $36 wtf?

     "On Feb 23, 2013 you purchased 10.00 BTC via bank transfer for $286.69.

Unfortunately, we have decided to cancel this order because it appears to be high risk. We do not send out any bitcoins on high risk transactions,
      "


After a couple emails to support I received this:
      "Hi,
Sorry about that! After manually reviewing your account I've whitelisted it so you shouldn't experience any additional issues going forward. I've also pushed through the transaction           that was canceled previously (at the original exchange rate you locked in), so you should have those coins by the end of tomorrow. In addition, we recently wrote a blog post about this you might find interesting: http://blog.coinbase.com/post/44046687068/high-risk-transactions

Hope it helps and sorry again for the trouble!"

After three days, still no BTC or any evidence of a transaction to occur. Support has no responded to my last tweet or email.

[BitcoinTate]

Glad to see most people are not having this issue. However I have noticed people who only ordered 1 or 2 BTC have not had this issue. Nor did I until I ordered the daily limit of 10. How many people had their transactions canceled at 10 BTC?

[veteranBtc]

Glad to see most people are not having this issue. However I have noticed people who only ordered 1 or 2 BTC have not had this issue. Nor did I until I ordered the daily limit of 10. How many people had their transactions canceled at 10 BTC?

Yes, this limit is weird.

[jayson3]

Over $1000 in bitcoins purchases over 2 months in increments of 3 to 10 btc at a time.  0 cancellations or problems. I have two bank accounts attached and verified.

[Walter Rothbard]

I have two more purchases in transit; one has an ETA of Wednesday, 18:00 UTC, and the other of Thursday, 18:00 UTC.  I'll try to keep progress posted here if anything changes.

Right now both of them are appearing in my transactions tab.

[Walter Rothbard]

I have two more purchases in transit; one has an ETA of Wednesday, 18:00 UTC, and the other of Thursday, 18:00 UTC.  I'll try to keep progress posted here if anything changes.

Right now both of them are appearing in my transactions tab.

The Wednesday purchase has arrived, right on schedule.

[jayson3]

My recent purchase cleared right on schedule.'

However, I have been unable to initiate any new purchases for the last 3-4 days.  I always get the "limit has been reached" message.  Has anyone been able to place an order on coinbase recently?  If so, how?

[thefiniteidea]

My recent purchase cleared right on schedule.'

However, I have been unable to initiate any new purchases for the last 3-4 days.  I always get the "limit has been reached" message.  Has anyone been able to place an order on coinbase recently?  If so, how?

You don't need to wait 24 hours. Wait for the price to drop a bit.... then try again.

When enough people sell, Coinbase seems to have enough on reserve to safely fill buy-orders.

This is based off of personal experience. I have no idea what Coinbase does on their end.

[Walter Rothbard]

I have two more purchases in transit; one has an ETA of Wednesday, 18:00 UTC, and the other of Thursday, 18:00 UTC.  I'll try to keep progress posted here if anything changes.

Right now both of them are appearing in my transactions tab.

The Wednesday purchase has arrived, right on schedule.

Thursday made it, too.

[w1R903]

My recent purchase cleared right on schedule.'

However, I have been unable to initiate any new purchases for the last 3-4 days.  I always get the "limit has been reached" message.  Has anyone been able to place an order on coinbase recently?  If so, how?

You're probably running up against their daily limits on the total number of Bitcoins they sell (presumably because they have an algorithm to limit the number of coins in their hot wallet per day to x percent).  However, it's a rolling limit, so if you check back a few hours later it may be lifted.

I'm still not very happy with the number of incidents I'm hearing where they overturn Bitcoin purchases a week later after the price has gone up considerably.  In the meantime, that amount is presumably frozen in your bank account.  I don't think they're trying to pull any kind of intentional scam, but it leaves a very bad taste in new customers mouths, even ones they are not directly affected.  I like the ease with which I was able to add a checking account to Coinbase, but I'll probably be using another exchange in the future (trying to move away from MTGOX).  Perhaps Bitstamp, who has by far the cleanest-designed site of any exchange I've seen in 2+ years of buying Bitcoins.  I used them to fund my Ripple account in BTC and then buy a few Ripple and have been very impressed (disclaimer: I haven't actually used them for any BTC trades yet, so do your due diligence).

[redwraith]

My recent purchase cleared right on schedule.'

However, I have been unable to initiate any new purchases for the last 3-4 days.  I always get the "limit has been reached" message.  Has anyone been able to place an order on coinbase recently?  If so, how?

You're probably running up against their daily limits on the total number of Bitcoins they sell (presumably because they have an algorithm to limit the number of coins in their hot wallet per day to x percent).  However, it's a rolling limit, so if you check back a few hours later it may be lifted.

I'm still not very happy with the number of incidents I'm hearing where they overturn Bitcoin purchases a week later after the price has gone up considerably.  In the meantime, that amount is presumably frozen in your bank account.  I don't think they're trying to pull any kind of intentional scam, but it leaves a very bad taste in new customers mouths, even ones they are not directly affected.  I like the ease with which I was able to add a checking account to Coinbase, but I'll probably be using another exchange in the future (trying to move away from MTGOX).  Perhaps Bitstamp, who has by far the cleanest-designed site of any exchange I've seen in 2+ years of buying Bitcoins.  I used them to fund my Ripple account in BTC and then buy a few Ripple and have been very impressed (disclaimer: I haven't actually used them for any BTC trades yet, so do your due diligence).

Yes, I ran up against that "limit reached" message on Friday.  I tried 3 times and on the third try was able to place the order.  Total wait time about 10 minutes. 

[BitcoinTate]

I have still yet to receive my BTC or any indication they are on their way. My last communication with them was on March 05:
"Hi Jared - taking a look at the original thread now. Sorry for the delay, but rest assured we will make it right.

Regards,
Fred"

Somehow how I really doubt I will ever receive the BTC I ordered, I am now going on three weeks.

[HappyScamp]

Update:

Okay, at least they are now making a serious effort at responding to their customers.

It's been a month or so since I made plenty of stink for them for canceling a transaction after it had shown up as cleared.

This morning, however, I received this email from them:

Coinbase just sent you 0.2496 BTC (worth $14.61 USD) using Coinbase.

Attached message:

    I'm sorry you had a poor experience and would have been happy to rectify had you contacted us directly. I've made sure it won't happen again and send this for the lost profit over the window you were waiting for your order to arrive.

So, their having done that, I want to acknowledge it, and suggest that people (cautiously) reconsider their service.

[justusranvier]

1 transaction out of 9 = 11%

I'm now at 3 transactions cancelled out of 20 or 15%

All three times have been cancelled one week after initiating the purchase, after the funds had successfully cleared from my bank account, and approximately at the time they had promised to release the bitcoins.

I also tried an "instant" buy last night after completing the new verification step. It's still pending after 18 hours.

[BitcoinTate]

I'm wondering how often this happens, since they choose to keep secret their method of determining "high risk". I wish the poll could incorporate a few other factors. Regardless, I'm hoping it's a very low percentage, but we will see.

Derived from the concerns addressed in this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=144633.msg1559435#msg1559435

Thanks everyone!

 

This happened to me the first time I used them in February of this year. That's why they are still in business.. They protect their customers & themselves.

[BitcoinTate]

I'm wondering how often this happens, since they choose to keep secret their method of determining "high risk". I wish the poll could incorporate a few other factors. Regardless, I'm hoping it's a very low percentage, but we will see.

Derived from the concerns addressed in this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=144633.msg1559435#msg1559435

Thanks everyone!

 

This happened to me the first time I used them in February of this year. That's why they are still in business.. They protect their customers & themselves.

Just remembered I had another issue from above when the price jumped in March. I actually talked to the founder directly back then and he credited me the loss from the price increase in the delay. Different world back then.

[malaimult]

1 transaction out of 9 = 11%

I'm now at 3 transactions cancelled out of 20 or 15%

All three times have been cancelled one week after initiating the purchase, after the funds had successfully cleared from my bank account, and approximately at the time they had promised to release the bitcoins.

I also tried an "instant" buy last night after completing the new verification step. It's still pending after 18 hours.

have the same problem here. They reply me with the high risk algorithm and Olaf advise me to keep trying until i got my transaction cleared. Or wait 2 3 weeks and try again. But my canceled transactions are 10 out of 10. i stop trying once i reached this limit, to tired to see the stupid algorithm at work.

Your instant transaction will be canceled as far as i know. Maybe they change the strategy but from my experience they will definitely canceled.