Bitstamp.net experiences before and after Mt Gox meltdown

[l0ud]

Just wondering if anyone are experiencing any issues with Bitstamp and its support services recently?

I have an issue they are not really focusing on solving, regarding what is for me a large amount of money.
I'll spare the details and give them the rest of the week to sort it out (although it's been 2 weeks already) but I'm wondering if anyone else have had any issues here the last 10 days or so?

Hopefully its just the extra work and business that came in their direction once Mt Gox fucked up (again) that causes these delays, but when people have control of your money and seem not to care much about your support requests regarding that money - it is QUITE frustrating.

That being said, up until about 10 days ago their support service was excellent. So hopefully this is just a result of a lot of extra work being done on their part... but I still would like to hear from other Bitstamp customers if anyone has had to contact their support lately?

[crazy_rabbit]

I have to say they have written me back several times in the past two weeks to a) answer my questions and b) let me know that their user base is gotten much larger because of the gox thing. Even on their front page they mention asking for patience. So hang tight.

[oda.krell]

So far, I have nothing but positive experiences with bitstamp. Please note though that I've verified my account, don't know if that makes a difference or not.

I got in contact with support because of a Google two-factor verification issue, at first they sent me 2 "boilerplat-ish" replies, 3rd reply gave a satisfactory answer. Which is pretty much how for example amazon handles support, you just have to be a bit persistent, but they resonded pretty fast each time.

Also made a few SEPA transfers this week, and they all were processed within <48 hours.

Ergo, no complaints.

[Phil21]

9 days now on a past-due wire for me of a substantial sum.  I'm not sure how it happened, but supposedly my SWIFT code changed - what I had saved was wrong, but I had previously withdrawn using that information a few times successfully for around the same amounts.  A friend did mention they may have switched banks, and the old bank was simply fixing the code before sending it.

So, due to them needing to manually fix what appears to be my error, I'm giving them a bit more time.  But, 8 days after they supposedly re-sent it is pretty long to wait for something that should be next day.  I don't particularly mind as long as it's simply being backed up, but delays in sending money is always of course a strong red flag for me.

[michaelGedi]

yep they are all good for me... there are some downsides though but on the whole my transfers in have been smooth, customer service has been great, and I have a feeling security is tight but I wouldn't know how much it's been tested yet... (I would assume a fair bit considering point 1 below)

downsides are:

1 - when they get ddos'd they really go down... has happened a few times, even today.
2 - lag when too many customers (either with, or like, ddos). This happened during the crash.
3 - gui in browser needs an update as you need to manually refresh to see price etc sometimes (still haven't worked out what pages refresh automatically and what don't).


I'm sure they are on it, but my concern would be if a flood of new customers entered their system, they may end up in the same boat as gox really...


no experience withdrawing money yet - I transferred all my funds in bitcoin to Bitcoin-24 just before that went down... yay.




And if you are in the UK and you want to trade on Bitstamp - I have been using this method I adapted from WikileaksDude's guide - it's very quick and cost effective.

http://bitcointransfer.blogspot.co.uk/

[giantdragon]

Bitstamp SEPA withdrawals are very fast (I waited just 2 working days).

[juhakall]

I can confirm that the limit buy/sell order page is not updating very well, I think it worked better in the past. Now I don't even expect it to display correct prices before pressing F5. If everyone's behaving like me, that's not going to help lighten the load...

[l0ud]

Support got back to me and said they were "working out" what had happened to my transfer. Which is .. something, I guess..

They're probably swamped with all the new activity coming their way, which is fair enough.

The case is still not resolved but some attention has been given to me, at least. Just too bad that I had to get upset and send them an "angry" message in the support ticket system before they bothered to give me a proper response.

But like I said in my original post, I've had nothing but positive experience with the bitstamp support up until now so I have no reason to believe that this won't be resolved.
I just don't like to wait too long when it comes to a transfer of this size, a few hundred dollars would be OK. I could let that slide for a while and let them sort things out, but this is a fairly big transfer (for me) and I'm kind of depending on it to pass through sometime soon so it has been annoying to not even get proper responses to my many requests

[oda.krell]

I can confirm that the limit buy/sell order page is not updating very well, I think it worked better in the past. Now I don't even expect it to display correct prices before pressing F5. If everyone's behaving like me, that's not going to help lighten the load...

THIS is my single biggest complaint about bitstamp at the moment. SEPA transfers are fast for me, their support has been helpful, but their trading interface suffers from a lack of (reliable) auto-refresh.

hazek, can you tell us if you're aware of the issue/working on it?

[Phil21]

Regarding the missing wire I previously posted about.

I have had zero communication from Bitstamp since April 9th on the issue.  I sent them a "hey can I get a status update" request last week, with no response.

Definitely starting to get worried.  Hopefully it's just growing pains and they are swamped, but 12 days is getting excessive for something that should take a few minutes to resolve on their end.

This is a wire in the mid-4-figures range, so it's not a trivial amount to simply write off.

I'll post updates one way or the other

[Zedster]

Made my largest transaction this last week with BitStamp with absolutely no problems.  They even changed banks the same day.

[moni3z]

All the alternative exchanges to Gox are getting slammed with support emails, cavirtex says they have a 400 email backlog and had to hire 6 people to do support, I imagine Bitstamp having same problems: too much business

[mmitech]

Regarding the missing wire I previously posted about.

I have had zero communication from Bitstamp since April 9th on the issue.  I sent them a "hey can I get a status update" request last week, with no response.

Definitely starting to get worried.  Hopefully it's just growing pains and they are swamped, but 12 days is getting excessive for something that should take a few minutes to resolve on their end.

This is a wire in the mid-4-figures range, so it's not a trivial amount to simply write off.

I'll post updates one way or the other

I was using bitstamp since I started using Bitcoin , and I really have nothing to complain about, the exchange is way better than MT.gox, the guys are really working hard, thought  they did mention on their page that the number of users has increased and they had to hire new employees to keep up, and they did mention also that they are doing allot of deposits manually .

we would like to assure those of you who sent deposits to our old details that our old IBAN is still active and your transfers, if otherwise sent with correct information, should arrive without a problem.

Please note that SEPA transfers usually take 1 to 3 business days to arrive and would kindly ask those waiting for your SEPA transfers longer than usually to please send us a transfer confirmation so that we can examine our bank account log and locate your transfers.

Also for those waiting on deposits we ask for your patience; we have accumulated a long list of transfers which lack information or contain wrong information which means we need to manually go through all of them instead of our system sorting them automatically.

Best regards
CEO, Nejc Kodrič
Bitstamp LIMITED

[mmitech]

and here again to confirm

Dear Bitstamp customers,

The current Bitcoin rally has been overwhelming. Due to demand, Bitstamp has been growing its staff rapidly. Bitstamp has recently hired four additional people to handle support and will be hiring more. Bitstamp has also been rapidly automating our backend processes to improve service.

Service status:
Bitcoin deposits are still processed in 3 confirmations.
Bitcoin withdrawals are not delayed.
SEPA and wire deposits are still processed the same day they are received.
SEPA and wire withdrawals are taking extra processing time and may take up to 3 days.
Support tickets are currently delayed up to 1-2 days.

Please help us help you:

Avoid manual processing of your deposit:
Please be sure that you put correct deposit reference number in your deposit so our system can match it with your account automatically.

Verify your account:
Verified accounts are processed with highest priority. Start verification procedure here: https://www.bitstamp.net/account/verify/

Avoid unsuccessful withdraws:
Please be sure to input correct BIC code and IBAN number. Unsuccessful withdrawals require additional processing time to investigate and re-send.

Carefully use our support ticketing system:
Provide as much information as possible. Be patient and do not submit more than one support ticket for the same issue.

Best regards
CEO, Nejc Kodrič
Bitstamp LIMITED

[Phil21]

Yep, I got that before my issue.

I'm not freaking out yet, just something to keep an eye out for.  If it's just a support backlog, I'm a perfectly happy customer and will use them in the future.

To be clear:  I had withdrawn two similar sized wires in the week or two before the failed wire, and both came in as fast as expected with zero problems.  I was surprised when I noticed the third hadn't hit my account when I checked, then they e-mailed me re: the SWIFT code.

So, definitely a self-caused delay.  As long as it's a delay I'm in no rush to get my funds - I just want to make sure they *do* eventually get here

I also preferred them to the alternative exchanges, but it's also prudent to spread risk around multiple third parties if possible!

[Phil21]

Hey guys,

Just an update.  I received a response to my ticket at Bitstamp earlier this week stating the wire would arrive within 3-5 business days.  They were correct, and I received the funds in full on Friday.

So, this does look simply like growing pains.  Other than the delay in responses, they were absolutely professional about the situation - at the end offering me personal contact details in case their final resolution did not resolve the situation.

[l0ud]

I though I had come back here to give an update but I see I was mistaken.

Anyways. Bitstamp support has settled all issues now, they did however take their time and while waiting I could have invested a whole lot of money in BTC while the prices were below 70¤ but I could not as Bitstamp did not fund my account in time.

Quite frustrating, but at least it worked out in the end...