Use Kraken, do not use Coinbase. Coinbase is horrible.

[TKeenan]

Coinbase is a nightmare.  They sent stupid messages saying limits are increased while the account if frozen waiting for ID.  Can't upload ID because the interface is busted.  Can't contact help, because no help is available.  You send email, they ignore.  Coinbase is horrible customer service.  Do not use Coinbase.  Use Kraken. https://www.kraken.com/

Coinbase needs to quickly go out of business so they can stop bothering people.  Idiots.

[LTU_btc]

Many people use Coinbase as their wallet, not as a trading website, so Kraken isn't alternative them. Mostly people use Coinbase just because they are offering free transactions. Trading on Coinbase even isn't available for many countries. I agree that their customer service isn't, but isn't the worst. If you want to resolve your issue, sometimes you need to attack them with support request through all available methods - not only support email, but also Twitter, Facebook and so on.

[swogerino]

Was going to use Poloniex so you would say that Kraken is better to use?
Please give the positives and the negatives of both so I can make an educated decision on which one to give my bitcoins too.
As with most exchanges there would not be a 100% assurance to use them and not have them claim the bitcoins were stolen months later. It has been done before.

[TKeenan]

If you want to resolve your issue, sometimes you need to attack them with support request through all available methods - not only support email, but also Twitter, Facebook and so on.

Begging people to take my money doesn't fit my style.

[TKeenan]

Was going to use Poloniex so you would say that Kraken is better to use?
Please give the positives and the negatives of both so I can make an educated decision on which one to give my bitcoins too.
As with most exchanges there would not be a 100% assurance to use them and not have them claim the bitcoins were stolen months later. It has been done before.

Poloniex is awesome.  But I don't think you can connect your bank account to it.

[Emoclaw]

I agree, Coinbase is terrible.
I was going to verify my ID and I left before uploading it because I didn't have it on hand at the time and they froze my account, without replying to emails of course.
Thankfully I didn't have anything in my wallet and now I can buy Bitcoins through blockchain.info (EU citizens only)

[LTU_btc]

If you want to resolve your issue, sometimes you need to attack them with support request through all available methods - not only support email, but also Twitter, Facebook and so on.

Begging people to take my money doesn't fit my style.

Then just go on, choose better service, simply as you do. It's not your fault that Coinbase staff don't work as the should to work. Result of it - they lost another client. It's a lot of negative feedbacks about Coinbase in recent time. But it looks that Coinbase don't care much about it. It's good that we have enough Coinbase alternatives.

[richardsNY]

I agree, Coinbase is terrible.
I was going to verify my ID and I left before uploading it because I didn't have it on hand at the time and they froze my account, without replying to emails of course.
Thankfully I didn't have anything in my wallet and now I can buy Bitcoins through blockchain.info (EU citizens only)

I know barely anyone is doing it, but browsing through exchanges their TOS before signing up could have made you aware of their verification policy. This basically applies to everyone blindly signing up at exchanges. That aside, as far as I am aware of blockchain.info is only a wallet service, so how have you bought your coins via them? Or you meant that you use their wallet service to receive coins bought from other sources?

[JeffBrad12]

Kraken is much better rather than coin base and his GDAX. Coinbase has bothered by IRS. And they turn into the mad exchange site.  Stop use coinbase and try to go to the kraken's site. 

[Velkro]

Coinbase is a nightmare. 

I heard it too much already. There are so many alternatives, but people will always complain on service. I mean most used service (coinbase) = most user problems thats obvious.
Im not defending them, they have probably bad support but watch time when gemini will be most used exchange, they will have many problematic users also then.

[sotoshihero]

Many people use Coinbase as their wallet, not as a trading website, so Kraken isn't alternative them. Mostly people use Coinbase just because they are offering free transactions. Trading on Coinbase even isn't available for many countries. I agree that their customer service isn't, but isn't the worst. If you want to resolve your issue, sometimes you need to attack them with support request through all available methods - not only support email, but also Twitter, Facebook and so on.

Correct sir,Coinbase is mostly used just a wallet but you can trade also but not a good one and as you point out its not available on other countries. If you have issues with coinbase,you can always contact their support as in my experience customer support is fine.There are delays but i understand they are attending many customers. Kraken is a good trading exchange platform,its fast and reliable too just like other active exchanges.

[zahra4577]

Coinbase is a nightmare.  They sent stupid messages saying limits are increased while the account if frozen waiting for ID.  Can't upload ID because the interface is busted.  Can't contact help, because no help is available.  You send email, they ignore.  Coinbase is horrible customer service.  Do not use Coinbase.  Use Kraken. https://www.kraken.com/

Coinbase needs to quickly go out of business so they can stop bothering people.  Idiots.

I have never used coinbase but I agree that kraken is a good exchange for trading purpose.But Poloniex is even better than kraken.I am sorry that you had a bad experience with coinbase but if a exchange does not have necessary basic support system in place, I wouldn't even give it a try.

[Tyrantt]

Use kraken if you're in the European union... fees are ridiculous if your country is not in the EU. I remember two-three years ago I've tried using kraken and then I saw that the fee for me is 40$... So yeah, use only if you're from a country that is in European Union.

[MatDerKater]

Coinbase is a nightmare.  They sent stupid messages saying limits are increased while the account if frozen waiting for ID.  Can't upload ID because the interface is busted.  Can't contact help, because no help is available.  You send email, they ignore.  Coinbase is horrible customer service.  Do not use Coinbase.  Use Kraken. https://www.kraken.com/

Coinbase needs to quickly go out of business so they can stop bothering people.  Idiots.

Do NOT use Kraken. Kraken is horrible: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1559553.100

[bitbunnny]

There is no perfect exchanger, everyone has the bad sites. Sometimes that also depends on country you are from. It's true that many people complain on both, Coinbase and Kraken but that actualy depends on ones experiences. The demands for ID and different regulations are much harsher then before and that affects the users in greate deal and that is the reason why in some are very unhappy with their services.

[Emoclaw]

I agree, Coinbase is terrible.
I was going to verify my ID and I left before uploading it because I didn't have it on hand at the time and they froze my account, without replying to emails of course.
Thankfully I didn't have anything in my wallet and now I can buy Bitcoins through blockchain.info (EU citizens only)

I know barely anyone is doing it, but browsing through exchanges their TOS before signing up could have made you aware of their verification policy. This basically applies to everyone blindly signing up at exchanges. That aside, as far as I am aware of blockchain.info is only a wallet service, so how have you bought your coins via them? Or you meant that you use their wallet service to receive coins bought from other sources?

Nonono blockchain.info is a wallet service, but they've recently (I think 2 months ago) started selling BTC through Coinify.



Though like I said I think it's for EU citizens only (and since I'm an EU citizen I can't speak for others).

[Llord-of-the-Sword]

I haven't had any issues with Coinbase or the GDAX exchange. This is not to say it's the best since I haven't tried any others as of yet but so far so good. I started using coinbase before GDAX since my state didn't allow the crypto-exchanges to do business at that time but now all seems well. I won't belittle anyone's experiences though because I could be the next one venting frustration.   

[buyethereumio]

Unfortunately, with the rapid increase in demand from new customers, it seems all major cryptocurrency sites are struggling to keep up with customer support.

Recently users have complained that Kraken is taking weeks or even over a month to respond to customers.

Kraken and Coinbase are two very different sites, with Kraken being an exchange and the Coinbase being more of a "cryptocurrency retail store".  For the services and payment methods Coinbase offers, they charge higher fees.

You can see a full comparison of the two here https://buy-ethereum.io/coinbase-vs-kraken/