is BITINSTANT scamming??!

[reader31]

I have sent my $500.00 to them more than two weeks back. I haven't heard a single word on what happened to my money yet. The interesting part is, I did not even ask them for for a bit coin deposit. But rather a vouchX deposit...not sure why they cant event get the coupons over to me after 2 weeks unless they just "swallowed" my money.

I heard good things about them thats why I decided to use them for the transfer, but think I made a big mistake. I have posted more than 5 times over the past week and not even a single useful response. Their support guys are trying their best to be responsive on their thread but I dont think theres being any useful progress being made at all(atleast from my experience).

I at least want this post to be a warning for others to be more careful...as bitinstant dont even seem to have a notice about these delays on their site(why should they? More money coming in the better for them I guess!)

WHY ARE MY MESSAGES BEING IGNORED?...I ASKED FOR VOUCHX COUPONS...NOTHING RELATED TO BITCOINS...WHY IS IT TAKING SO LONG TO SEND YOU THE COUPONS?

please answer my question...my other plans are getting delayed because I used your service...atleast be reasonable enough to give me a direct answer for when I can expect to get my money...Your delay is dragging down my other plans...

this is the fourth time asking about my VouchX deposit...Why do I have to keep posing on this thread to get my money back and keep checking back for replies twice a day? This is how you want to TREAT ur customers?

Its been more than a wekk and I have no idea what happened to my money?? Why is it so difficult for you send me my vouchX coin? If you care about your customers then why is there not a notice on your site infroming about the current difficulties you are facing??

I'm starting to loose my cool with my order...Please resolve this...its been more than a week of BS.

order ID - 8787e0d9-d976-4bf3-9f05-f54b881e6613

I have escalated you thru support and they are working on it.  I am not requiring you to repost or check back.  You funds are safe and you will get your order as our customer service agents work through the volume.

We HAVE posted all kinds of things about the current difficulties we face and we always do!  You must not be reading?

I apologize for your wait and I hope to have your issue resolved soon.  Thanks for your patience!  

Can you give a day count? How fast is "soon"? - please dont try to dodge this questions, please be specific. As this would give a clear idea of the timeline to plan my other activities around this.

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[Villem Anton]

I am sure they are scammers. Look in the Service Discussion, many users have deposits that vanish, of much larger amounts. This has been going on for a month now. Anyone using BitInstant now, will risk putting money in a sink hole.

You may look at this poll,
http://bitinstantscam.com

And this
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=171473.0

Here is more,
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1bzo49/do_not_use_bitinstant/

[nuggets4all]

I placed an order with BitInstant during a big dip a couple weeks ago and didn't receive my btc until four days later. They didn't even send me the right amount! I believe their policy is to lock in a price once dwolla funds are received, which means I should have received ~20% more BTC! Their support was very unhelpful and didn't seem to think my issue was important enough to resolve.

[dontek]

Knock on wood I have used them 2x so far in the past 4 weeks and haven't had any issues.

My transactions were cash>MtGox and cash>email address.

[Nachtwind]

pretty sure they gambled with the users money while the price was raising and made a nice amount of money through that... yet now that the bubble did burst they face the problem that their coin is only worth half of what it should be.. so they have to take orders to pay older orders..

I dont have proof but this is the only reason i can think of why all of a sudden they have liquidity problems and deny people (like me) the money they should have got a week ago...

If someone has a better reason for this i'd be happy to hear it..

[justtired]

Yes. For longer than a month. I have been warning peole since Jan. The scammed me back in November, then led me along (technical issues, someone deathly ill, etcetc, for abut two months, then pretty much not giving you your money. Stop using them before you become the next victim.

[Bjork]

I was also scammed. Been a week of relentlessly trying to get my money and they won't give me it.  This thread deserves attention

[EdsWow1]

same here...

waiting since 5 days... - no reactions from them more then 48 hours ... - and before  telling always the same ("they are already looking into it", "someone is just now working on it" a.s.o. - and nothing ever happened ...)

[catcow]

been waiting 9 days for a simple mtgox to bitstamp usd transfer.  i have not received even an acknowledgement of my issue from bitinstant.  see my sig for details.

[Anonymouss]

been waiting 9 days for a simple mtgox to bitstamp usd transfer.  i have not received even an acknowledgement of my issue from bitinstant.  see my sig for details.

I am missing out on the time to buy because I used to use bitinstant, they need to clean up or else this won't look good for bitcoin in general.

[reader31]

Ya its almost as though they think they cant be held accountable or something. Not sure whats the best way to hold them accountable....I mean I do have receipt confirmation and everything...

[Bjork]

Why are the mods ignoring this?  Is Bitinstant "too big to fail"?

honestly the moderation on here is disgusting and apparently they back every big scammer that rolls through even up to the end.

[kokjo]

forums are not the way to contact bitstamp...

internet people are really fail sometimes...

[EdsWow1]

same here...

waiting since 5 days... - no reactions from them more then 48 hours ... - and before  telling always the same ("they are already looking into it", "someone is just now working on it" a.s.o. - and nothing ever happened ...)

just for the report: got my money today, problem solved.

[Gareth Nelson]

For everyone who's posted on this thread and has either an order that didn't arrive or which arrived delayed please post your OrderID and i'll personally handle it.

I've already handled the OP's order.

[reader31]

Yes, I just got my money. I can confirm. Thx for handling our cases.

[Villem Anton]

Today I have waited 32 days for a bitinstant transfer.

My first complaint to bitinstant was made 31 days ago, which ultimately ended with support telling me "Direct your questions to Charlie, he is the only one that can help you now. Best of luck!", that was 25 days ago.

Charlie did not respond for another 8 days, and countless emails, from me and the exchanges' support people. Charlie then stated it should be fixed shortly, in less than an hour. It was not fixed.

Another 8 days later, I contacted them via the new channel and got the auto-reply that, "Please rest assured, ---, I should expect the funds within 12 hours ..."

Since then I have heard nothing. No transfer completed.

I have yet to hear any sensible statement from bitinstant explaining their complete incompetence in fulfilling their promise, and as they are still accepting new unsuspecting customers, I find no other explanation than to believe they are fully fledged scammers.

Update: I got the transfer completed after 36 days.  So I assume they do not really try to be criminals.  But, I would not use the service again for obvious reasons.

[crazylikeafox]

Today I have waited 32 days for a bitinstant transfer.

My first complaint to bitinstant was made 31 days ago, which ultimately ended with support telling me "Direct your questions to Charlie, he is the only one that can help you now. Best of luck!", that was 25 days ago.

Charlie did not respond for another 8 days, and countless emails, from me and the exchanges' support people. Charlie then stated it should be fixed shortly, in less than an hour. It was not fixed.

Another 8 days later, I contacted them via the new channel and got the auto-reply that, "Please rest assured, ---, I should expect the funds within 12 hours ..."

Since then I have heard nothing. No transfer completed.

I have yet to hear any sensible statement from bitinstant explaining their complete incompetence in fulfilling their promise, and as they are still accepting new unsuspecting customers, I find no other explanation than to believe they are fully fledged scammers.

It's a ponzi scheme.  Simple as that.  It likely didn't start out that way, since it used to be instant, but it certainly is now.  When enough new orders come in, your order will be funded out of those, and those people will have to wait for more orders to come in.  They have thus far done an amazing job of silencing most of the public complaints by having Ursay just reply to every complaint in the thread saying that he has "pushed" their order for the 20th time.  That way Bitinstant appears to be responsive even though they are still way behind with no end to this problem in sight.  I guess if they keep talking, regardless of whether or not they actually deliver orders, no one will go to the authorities.  It's working so far anyway.  The site is still active and promising "instant" bitcoin transactions.

From https://www.bitinstant.com/faq :

"Funds can be available in as little as 15 minutes and are typically available within one hour at the exchange or other merchant selected by the Customer. All payments are processed automatically."  

I wonder when the last time was that one hour was "typical" of a Bitinstant transaction.  Additionally, there are 320+ pages in their support thread showing that payments are far from automatic.  In just those two sentences, there are two fraudulent statements designed to induce people into sending them money under false pretenses.  In legal parlance Bitinstant has deployed a "scheme or artifice to defraud" in violation of 18 USC Section 1343 (Fraud by Wire, Radio, or Television).

[Gareth Nelson]

Today I have waited 32 days for a bitinstant transfer.

My first complaint to bitinstant was made 31 days ago, which ultimately ended with support telling me "Direct your questions to Charlie, he is the only one that can help you now. Best of luck!", that was 25 days ago.

Charlie did not respond for another 8 days, and countless emails, from me and the exchanges' support people. Charlie then stated it should be fixed shortly, in less than an hour. It was not fixed.

Another 8 days later, I contacted them via the new channel and got the auto-reply that, "Please rest assured, ---, I should expect the funds within 12 hours ..."

Since then I have heard nothing. No transfer completed.

I have yet to hear any sensible statement from bitinstant explaining their complete incompetence in fulfilling their promise, and as they are still accepting new unsuspecting customers, I find no other explanation than to believe they are fully fledged scammers.

It's a ponzi scheme.  Simple as that.  It likely didn't start out that way, since it used to be instant, but it certainly is now.  When enough new orders come in, your order will be funded out of those, and those people will have to wait for more orders to come in.  They have thus far done an amazing job of silencing most of the public complaints by having Ursay just reply to every complaint in the thread saying that he has "pushed" their order for the 20th time.  That way Bitinstant appears to be responsive even though they are still way behind with no end to this problem in sight.  I guess if they keep talking, regardless of whether or not they actually deliver orders, no one will go to the authorities.  It's working so far anyway.  The site is still active and promising "instant" bitcoin transactions.

From https://www.bitinstant.com/faq :

"Funds can be available in as little as 15 minutes and are typically available within one hour at the exchange or other merchant selected by the Customer. All payments are processed automatically."  

I wonder when the last time was that one hour was "typical" of a Bitinstant transaction.  Additionally, there are 320+ pages in their support thread showing that payments are far from automatic.  In just those two sentences, there are two fraudulent statements designed to induce people into sending them money under false pretenses.  In legal parlance Bitinstant has deployed a "scheme or artifice to defraud" in violation of 18 USC Section 1343 (Fraud by Wire, Radio, or Television).

Please do not make accusations like this without evidence, as it happens the last order to execute under an hour took about 1 minute and executed just now (I checked just as I was posting this).

What can happen is we get delays which can temporarily slow down processing or cause problems, which is why we have expanded our deadlines to 24 hours.

[crazylikeafox]

Please do not make accusations like this without evidence,

There is plenty of evidence in your support thread.

as it happens the last order to execute under an hour took about 1 minute and executed just now (I checked just as I was posting this).

Looking at the last 2 months, would you honestly argue that a 1 minute delivery time frame, or even the one hour time frame specified in your FAQ, is a "typical" time frame?

What can happen is we get delays which can temporarily slow down processing or cause problems, which is why we have expanded our deadlines to 24 hours.

Are you honestly saying that even 24 hours is "typical" of transactions at Bitinstant these days?  Even if it is, the "typically available within 1 hour" statement is still in your FAQ as of 1:34pm Pacific time on 4/25/13.  That is a fraudulent statement, even according to what you have said here.

I wish BitInstant worked as promised, it would make my business much easier.  Unfortunately, in my experience and that of many of my customers, it doesn't.