Coinbase is an Honorable Company[EDIT: Major Issues at CB now]

[BitcoinTate]

I purchased 10 BTC through Coinbase on Feb. 23rd. Right before the transaction went through I received an email saying it had been canceled by their automatic fraud detection system on the 28th.

After several emails back and forth with their customer service I was told the cancellation would be reversed and I would receive the BTC about a day after the reversal.
 
After two weeks and additional emails their was no evidence within my Coinbase account or secondary linked bank account that a transaction was about to occur so I thought the transaction was truly canceled and moved the funds I intended to purchase BTC with back to my primary bank account.

Without any indication or heads up the transaction went through and I ended up over drafting my secondary account by $40 and incurring a $35 Wells Fargo overdraft fee on March 12th. After talking to multiple people Wells Fargo refused to reverse the overdraft even after I corrected the overdraft within two hours on the same business day.

I wrote Coinbase and explained the situation stating it was not fair to provide no information of a transaction either through email or within my Coinbase account. Given that I had no idea when or even if a transaction was going to occur I was unable to accurately move funds around between my accounts in advance.

Coinbase in response sent me $35 in BTC to cover the overdraft fee. They went above and beyond when they did not have to. I highly recommend them. I understand they are an up and coming company that currently consists of a two man team. Yes they have some issues, but what new up and coming company doesn't? They have honor and integrity, that goes a long way in my book.

EDIt: 3-27-13.
I logged into Coinbase and it shows me that my balance is -$890.00.  Wtf?

My last purchase was three weeks ago and I tried sending the 10 BTC out twice and it took the BTC 4 days to clear out of my coinbase wallet. Now every time I try to purchase more it says the daily limit has been reached. How the hell do I have a negative balance now when I never had a balance to begin with???

[opentoe]

They may be honorable, but even with a verified/active account with a buying limit increased to 100 doesn't mean you can even still use their service. I'm trying to buy bitcoin from them again for the third time and now see this message:

Sorry, the maximum number of purchases on Coinbase has been reached at the moment. This is a 24 hour rolling limit with no specific start time. Please try again later. We'll continue raising this limit over time.


Their main goal as bitcoin site is to sell bitcoins. If users are unable to do that then I'm sure people will go elsewhere. It is like McDonald's not having any food left. Why stay open if you can't provide the service. Confuses me a little and that's why I've been trying to find a more realistic place to purchase bitcoins from where I don't have to take a trip to the bank everytime I want to do so. Maybe their having site problems or something?

So if I really needed bitcoin in a hurry this place would be at the bottom of the list. Not because I don't like them but because I couldn't count on them.

[BitcoinTate]

I am in the same boat, getting the same message.

[justusranvier]

There is a program that will automatically keep trying for you until they have some bitcoins to sell:

https://github.com/martindale/coinbase-trader

[swappermall]

"I understand they are an up and coming company that currently consists of a two man team. Yes they have some issues, but what new up and coming company doesn't? They have honor and integrity, that goes a long way in my book."

Wha?  They can't hire people to handle the work they should be handling?  I have a withdrawal request pending for over three days now.  Now I'm wondering why they don't have three minutes to honor my request by simply transferring my bitcoins from my Coinbase wallet to the address I gave them.

FinCEN's guidelines that would require Coinbase to be strictly regulated as a money transmitter is beginning to sound better and better.  Bitcoiners have a right to expect that their requests for purchases and withdrawals would be handled on a professional basis.  In my opinion, as a Coinbase customer, Coinbase has not yet earned a reputation as an "Honorable Company".

[BitcoinTate]

"I understand they are an up and coming company that currently consists of a two man team. Yes they have some issues, but what new up and coming company doesn't? They have honor and integrity, that goes a long way in my book."

Wha?  They can't hire people to handle the work they should be handling?  I have a withdrawal request pending for over three days now.  Now I'm wondering why they don't have three minutes to honor my request by simply transferring my bitcoins from my Coinbase wallet to the address I gave them.

FinCEN's guidelines that would require Coinbase to be strictly regulated as a money transmitter is beginning to sound better and better.  Bitcoiners have a right to expect that their requests for purchases and withdrawals would be handled on a professional basis.  In my opinion, as a Coinbase customer, Coinbase has not yet earned a reputation as an "Honorable Company".

I have seen there advertisements for customer support specialists, so hopefully their support timing speeds up soon. But I have gave up trying to even purchase BTC through them as every time I try it says they have reached their daily limit.

[opentoe]

There is a program that will automatically keep trying for you until they have some bitcoins to sell:

https://github.com/martindale/coinbase-trader

So coinbase has this problem so bad there are programs out there written to keep checking with coinbase on when they have coins available?

Maybe they should close doors and rethink strategy so they can actually be up and running again?

[BitcoinTate]

Shit I just logged into my account for the first time in a week and it says I am -$890.00 wtf? I haven't used them in over three weeks... I cant even buy when I try? Last time it took 4 days for my transaction to send 10btc out of my coinbase wallet to clear.

[Tonko]

Maybe they should close doors and rethink strategy so they can actually be up and running again?

They are promising things will get better but the problem with them is, it is always something going on. Currently they can't show correct amount of the BTCs that you own. Okay, BTCs are not really gone, it is just a display on the web page. Duh!

I could have had 100 BTC by now for half a price, were it not that I made this mistake. That is annoying me so much that I am thinking of taking Dwolla-MtGox route, except that I don't see many too happy with MtGox either.

BTC is skyrocketing in price but volume is average, lower than in some periods when it was $6. No wonder. Nobody can buy the stuff!

[justusranvier]

BTC is skyrocketing in price but volume is average, lower than in some periods when it was $6.

I see volume being higher than it has ever been:

http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#igWeeklyztgSzm1g10zm2g25zvzcvzl

[Tonko]

BTC is skyrocketing in price but volume is average, lower than in some periods when it was $6.

I see volume being higher than it has ever been:

http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#igWeeklyztgSzm1g10zm2g25zvzcvzl

Not according to this chart (press W for weekly):

http://bitcoin.clarkmoody.com/

And MtGox itself, showing at most monthly chart, doesn't see that either:

https://mtgox.com/

Ah, I see, you are looking at volume expressed in currency. Well, yes, if price in curreny skyrockets, the volume expressed in that currency will too.

[BitcoinTate]

I think they only have so much free capital to buy in at any given time. And since their initial investment is tied up for a week at a time they just dont have enough money.

[Tonko]

I think they only have so much free capital to buy in at any given time. And since their initial investment is tied up for a week at a time they just dont have enough money.

It is possible, but I'm afraid that then they will be getting less and less money. People will start getting more pissed off, the longer this is going on. I feel that only parabolic price increase keeps some still wanting to go through the trouble.

[justusranvier]

Ah, I see, you are looking at volume expressed in currency. Well, yes, if price in curreny skyrockets, the volume expressed in that currency will too.

At the present time measuring volume in currency is a much better reflection of how much actual purchasing power is being traded.

[Tonko]

Ah, I see, you are looking at volume expressed in currency. Well, yes, if price in curreny skyrockets, the volume expressed in that currency will too.

At the present time measuring volume in currency is a much better reflection of how much actual purchasing power is being traded.

If you ever traded stocks you would want to see volume increase along with the price increase, especially a significant one. Ask around if you don't believe me.
Without the volume all this purchasing power may be just a few big operators  buying and selling to each other, covering every bid, in order to inflate the price. You know: I sell to my friend for $10, he sells back to me for $11, then I sell to him for $12 and so forth... in the end we haven't spent any more than what we started with, but price got high.

[justusranvier]

If you ever traded stocks you would want to see volume increase along with the price increase, especially a significant one. Ask around if you don't believe me.
Without the volume all this purchasing power may be just a few big operators  buying and selling to each other, covering every bid, in order to inflate the price. You know: I sell to my friend for $10, he buys from me for $11, then I buy from him for$12 and so forth... in the end we haven't spent any more than what we started with, but price got high.

Bitcoin isn't a stock though., and it's not just traded in one place. We're just looking at Mt Gox USD right now. What happens when you include all the bitcoins changing hands for other currencies, on all the other exchanges, plus the off-exchange sales by companies like Tangible Cryptography, and the in-person trades on localbitcoins.com?

This chart is a mixture of commerce and speculation, but regardless the volume of bitcoins being moved on the blockchain is going up in BTC terms as well:

https://blockchain.info/charts/estimated-transaction-volume?showDataPoints=false&show_header=true&daysAverageString=1&timespan=all&scale=0&address=

[opentoe]

I never had such a tough time to buy BTC. I refuse to pay crazy high fees. I'll stand my ground.

I think I'm ditching coinbase off my list of potential BTC suppliers. Not having the service available is essentially them not being in business. If only %10 of people are able to buy BTC from them %90 others will go elsewhere obviously.

I'm on the hunt!

[Tonko]

Bitcoin isn't a stock though., and it's not just traded in one place. We're just looking at Mt Gox USD right now. What happens when you include all the bitcoins changing hands for other currencies

Well, reasoning about the demand and supply applies to anything that is exchanged. Consider oil the commodity then. It is traded all over the place, yet the price and volume on few major exchanges shows the demand/supply fairly well. Yes, total BTC volume is increasing, since the amount of mined coins is increasing,  but not tripling and quadrupling in one month as the price. I don't like it, I would prefer to see a clear indication that it is fresh, new blood coming in drones into the market, but, of course, everybody has his own motivation and opinion when trading.

[justusranvier]

Well, reasoning about the demand and supply apply to anything that is exchanged. Consider oil the commodity then. It is traded all over the place, yet the price and volume on few major exchanges shows the demand/supply fairly well. Yes, total BTC volume is increasing, since the amout of mined coins is increasing,  but not tripling and quadrupling in one month as the price. I don't like it but, of course, everybody has his own motivation and opinion when trading.

What did the markets for oil look like back in the second half of the 19th century when demand for petroleum had just begun to materialize, and the infrastructure for drilling and transporting it was still being invented?

[Tonko]

What did the markets for oil look like back in the second half of the 19th century when demand for petroleum had just begun to materialize, and the infrastructure for drilling and transporting it was still being invented?

I don't think it is easy to find chart from those days. See here since 1947:
http://www.wtrg.com/oil_graphs/oilprice1947.gif

Anyway, I don't think that comparison is valid. You can as well ask the same about the mutual funds before the Internet. Well, you had to be well dressed and go into the nice office and hope that they will like you and decide to sell you some mutual funds.

Everything changed since Internet boom and we have all the infrastructure and technology in place.  
There is no historical justification for:
http://z1xwitch.deviantart.com/art/The-BitCoin-Comic-by-Z1Xwitch-245261325