bitfloor issues?

[ProfMac]

Anyone who cannot understand why one might behave honestly and sacrifice short-term gain (which is inconsequential as time goes to inf), where said gain is not part of a net-sum-positive trade, is part of the problem.

Well said.

I try to pay forward and be strong & honorable.  Bitcointalk strengthens and tests my resolve about this.

[mrbrt]

I got into communication with BitFloor explore a simple method to roll over accounts into one consolidated account of debt in my name, and how to prove with contracts etc to Roman that this had occurred. A few days later, their lawyer and mine had NDA set up and filled me in on the plans (still not guaranteed at that time of course -- or even now, this very minute, since none of us yet has our money back, but things are looking up, at least). This was not a "personal" relationship with a damn thing; it was a contractual, business relationship.

Your original post is out of nowhere.. Were people publicly inquiring as to why you never followed through with purchasing Bitfloor debt? I'm not sure anyone cares that you are claiming to have acted with integrity by not going through with the purchase, but maybe the following will help you understand why some people may be questioning your claims:

You asked Roman/Bitfloor if you could roll over accounts into one consolidated account of debt in your name. Why would his response be anything other than "No"? Why would he go through all of the trouble of having his lawyer get in touch with your lawyer and set up an NDA just tell you what Bitfloor's plans were? He doesn't have to tell you anything. It just seems kind of bogus that Roman and/or Bitfloor would spend any amount of time on this considering all of the problems he and Bitfloor were already dealing with. Not to mention his companies lack of communication with it's customers.

With that being said, best of luck to you, and hopefully we all get our money back soon.

[FenixRD]

Your original post is out of nowhere.. Were people publicly inquiring as to why you never followed through with purchasing Bitfloor debt? I'm not sure anyone cares that you are claiming to have acted with integrity by not going through with the purchase, but maybe the following will help you understand why some people may be questioning your claims:

You asked Roman/Bitfloor if you could roll over accounts into one consolidated account of debt in your name. Why would his response be anything other than "No"? Why would he go through all of the trouble of having his lawyer get in touch with your lawyer and set up an NDA just tell you what Bitfloor's plans were? He doesn't have to tell you anything. It just seems kind of bogus that Roman and/or Bitfloor would spend any amount of time on this considering all of the problems he and Bitfloor were already dealing with. Not to mention his companies lack of communication with it's customers.

With that being said, best of luck to you, and hopefully we all get our money back soon.

It isn't. I publicly advertised my offer to buy the debt in this thread, many pages ago. I was in PM communication with a couple dozen folks (some selling; some telling me no thanks, not for that rate; and others telling me to go F myself   ) and it stands to reason that I would respond after it became apparent that Roman would be paying back funds, since, the messages being private, no one knows how much (if any) debt was bought by me, for sure. This also would give the opportunity for someone to chime in and say, BS, here is my contract with Fenix, I wish I hadn't sold to him, and I hate him forever now, or what have you.

The communication with BitFloor was very muted as you'd expect. The extent of it was to set up the requirements to enable accounts to be rolled into mine. It's a free market (more or less), so if I had a contract with someone turning over their account to me, Roman would have to honor that agreement. I was trying to make it easy so that less transfers would take place (a good thing for Roman too). I didn't go through with it based on information I received during the process, however.

Of course he doesn't have to tell me anything, and he didn't directly. He just as easily could do nothing at all; I would get account access based on contracts, and redirect all funds transfers to my aggregate account. Note how you have to re-enter all your account data to BitFloor for the transfer now? The idea would be I paid individuals for their accounts, and now, I would enter my aggregate account into the fields. The only difference was, prior communication with Roman would help smooth this, since he would be noting numerous accounts going to the same place, and would be right to be suspicious of a hack, if I hadn't spoken with them first.

Yeah. My entire point was to state that, "if you remember my offer, and are wondering what happened with that or if anyone got their debt bought for fractions and are pissed now, here is what transpired, because I am an honest guy." Take it or leave it. This is a community that values trust and reputation to a large degree. I'm sure you can understand why I might want to clarify that I didn't go through with buying any debt fractionally, and why.

[village.idiot]

When I login to bitfloor and try to withdraw my funds (less than 3000 USD), I just get the error message 'internal server error'.
Anyone having better luck with this?
Any idea what I might be doing wrong?

[DannyHamilton]

Has anyone in this thread with more then $3000 to withdraw from BitFloor received a call from IAFCU yet?  When I filled out the information to open an IAFCU account on Saturday, the information stated that I'd receive a call on the next business day.  It is now Wednesday (three business days later), and I've still heard nothing.  I'm really getting tired of individuals and companies in the bitcoin community failing to live up to the commitments they make, I suppose I should just get used to it.

[infested999]

Since July 6, Bitfloor claimed they are ready to send out refunds. Now 4 days later:
-Nobody has received any refund yet
-IAFCU has not called anyone to verify their account (although they did "recognize" Bitfloor when SpottedMarley called)

Though we do have some assurance we are getting our money because of Fenix. Since Fenix honestly thought that there is a 50% (or even worse) chance that Roman will return the funds. Now he is "happy" with what he did, which means he will get his money.

[johnblaze]

its a joke that i had to read this thread to find out about the new info regarding getting my money back

no email, nothing from bitfloor themselves.

you would think that they would have the decency to contact their customers. they are probably hoping that most people forget and they just keep the money

[SpottedMarley]

-IAFCU has not called anyone to verify their account (although they did "recognize" Bitfloor when SpottedMarley called)

I never said they acknowledged knowing who/what Bitfloor is. We didn't speak about Bitfloor.

Here's my experience so far:

Saturday - Registered on the IAFCU web site

Monday - Called to expedite my account setup, was told I would be called either later that evening or the next day (Tuesday)

Tuesday - No call

Wednesday (today) - I just called them about 30 minutes ago. The person I spoke with sounded like they were on a cel phone and there were conversations and general commotion going on in the background (I got the impression I was talking to someone who was maybe sitting in their living room with other people in the room) I gave him my name so he could find my account info, a moment later another person picks up and says something about there are no reps available and told me to leave a message for them?.. then I was sent to a voicemail system.. I left a message asking to be called back as soon as possible

I dunnow .. something tells me nobody is gonna call... (glad i was wrong!)

[mrbrt]

-IAFCU has not called anyone to verify their account (although they did "recognize" Bitfloor when SpottedMarley called)

I never said they acknowledged knowing who/what Bitfloor is. We didn't speak about Bitfloor.

Here's my experience so far:

Saturday - Registered on the IAFCU web site

Monday - Called to expedite my account setup, was told I would be called either later that evening or the next day (Tuesday)

Tuesday - No call

Wednesday (today) - I just called them about 30 minutes ago. The person I spoke with sounded like they were on a cel phone and there were conversations and general commotion going on in the background (I got the impression I was talking to someone who was maybe sitting in their living room with other people in the room) I gave him my name so he could find my account info, a moment later another person picks up and says something about there are no reps available and told me to leave a message for them?.. then I was sent to a voicemail system.. I left a message asking to be called back as soon as possible

I dunnow .. something tells me nobody is gonna call...

I certainly feel great about giving them all of my personal/banking info......

[SpottedMarley]

UPDATE!

Ok, so Kathy Piscitelli just called me from IAFCU. She was very nice and called me because I had left that voicemail so I'm glad I did.

She had a lot of information for me and I tried to make sure I remember everything.. but here goes..

IAFCU is in New Brunswick, NJ

Roman Shtylman set up his account on June 17

Kathy met with him personally to set up his account

He had "many" cashiers checks, all totaling more than $2.8M

All the checks have cleared and she immediately froze the account (Roman CANNOT withdraw funds from the account)

Im pretty sure she said that there are hundreds of accounts that Bitfloor customers are setting up and that it is slowing them down

All accounts should be ready by the end of the week. She told me someone would call me with my account number

All accounts will require $15 to open. Here is the breakdown for that:

There is a $5 credit union deposit that belongs to you but is put on hold in your account. If you have used a credit union before, you know that they all do this. I forget what the deposit is called but it's like your 'stake' in the credit union.

By law (their credit union charter) all customers of their credit union must own, operate, work for, or donate to a local New Brunswick, NJ charity. So a $10 donation is required.

...so $5 + $10 = $15 to open the account (unless you DO in fact work for or own/operate a charity in New Brunswick, NJ)

She was very eager to answer all my questions and was actually very nice and almost fun to talk to.

They are the first new credit union on the east coast in like, 15 years or something like that, she said.

She seemed interested in getting word out to everyone in my situation that everything was going to be okay. She had mentioned talking to a few other people in this situation and knew that we are all very nervous about whats going on, and she wants to reassure everyone.

WOW, cool deal...

As I am typing this, she just sent me this email:

Hi [SpottedMarley],
I know a lot of people are waiting to hear from IAFCU regarding account
information and start the process of getting their funds from Bitfloor.
We are working from an on-line queue that has hundreds of membership
applications.

If you don't hear from us by Friday, please email me and I will personally
take care of setting the account up for you.

Once you have the account number and fund the account (the information I
sent you in a prior email) we are issuing debit cards so you will have
easy access to your funds. As I understand it, Bitfloor will be
transferring funds back to their clients via ACH transactions. The funds
will land in your credit union account. You are certainly free to do as
you please with your account, it's your money! We hope that you will stay
a member and encourage you to research us. Jordan's blog on iafcu.org is
a good start or google Internet Archive/Brewster Kahle, our sponsor.

I can also tell you that they funds from BitFloor are secured and in
placed at the credit union waiting for transfer information from BitFloor.
So please be a little patient as we contact each and every member.

I hope this information helps you and please share with your group.

Kathy Piscitelli
Internet Archive Federal Credit Union
2-4 Kirkpatrick St 100A
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
848-202-9292

[audenx]

UPDATE!

That is a great update! Thanks for capturing all those details. Makes writing my update email easier

[village.idiot]

UPDATE!

Ok, so Kathy Piscitelli just called me from IAFCU. She was very nice and called me because I had left that voicemail so I'm glad I did.

She had a lot of information for me and I tried to make sure I remember everything.. but here goes..

Thanks for the update.
I hope someone fixes the server issue for those of us with smaller balances.

[FenixRD]

Since July 6, Bitfloor claimed they are ready to send out refunds. Now 4 days later:
-Nobody has received any refund yet
-IAFCU has not called anyone to verify their account (although they did "recognize" Bitfloor when SpottedMarley called)

Though we do have some assurance we are getting our money because of Fenix. Since Fenix honestly thought that there is a 50% (or even worse) chance that Roman will return the funds. Now he is "happy" with what he did, which means he will get his money.

By my money, you mean my original funds from Bitfloor that had been frozen with everyone else's. Sorry for being picky on phrasing, I'm trying to protect my forum rep in case I ever do open a bitcoin business, and I don't want anyone to misread something and associate me with anything shady.

Also, to be fair, the only assurance from my statements is that it corroborates what we are hearing publicly out of BifFloor and the IAFCU now. The only horse I actually have now, in this race, is my own money from BF that I hope to recover.


...anyway, separately, excellent news in that communication out of the lady from IAFCU. Very good stuff, thanks for posting it Marley.

[johnblaze]

UPDATE!
...

great news. nice to see that somebody actually has their shit together. Kathy seems very professional

[johnblaze]

Here's a bit about Internet Archive Federal Credit Union (IAFCU) from my June 7th email update, which explains why they're interested in helping Bitcoin users and Bitcoin businesses affected by bank antagonism:

"Some of you might be interested in watching the talk Brewster and Jordan gave at Bitcoin 2013 in which they laid out the value proposition of credit unions and explained their interest in helping Bitcoin businesses. The portion of the talk that’s Bitcoin-specific starts at minute 4:15, and the most pertinent part of the talk to our situation is from about 10:50 to 19:00."

good video, i like these guys, i'll probably just keep my IAFCU account and start using it

[SpottedMarley]

good video, i like these guys, i'll probably just keep my IAFCU account and start using it

Yeah man, I was turned on by his talk in that video too.. especially his idea of potentially having accounts where the underlying currency IS BITCOIN while, at the same time, giving customers access to USD from ATM machines that convert on the fly... that would be HUGE

[infested999]

good video, i like these guys, i'll probably just keep my IAFCU account and start using it

Yeah man, I was turned on by his talk in that video too.. especially his idea of potentially having accounts where the underlying currency IS BITCOIN while, at the same time, giving customers access to USD from ATM machines that convert on the fly... that would be HUGE

That is actually what Kim Dotcom announced to do when he said he will create a Bitcoin credit card. Which was of coarse a huge Pump-and-Dump.

[xxyyzz]

I just filled out the online form in iafcu.org, but I didn't find out how to fund the account. Am I suppose to send them a check?

[SpottedMarley]

I just filled out the online form in iafcu.org, but I didn't find out how to fund the account. Am I suppose to send them a check?

I was told that all they need is a picture of a check, so maybe they just need the account/routing numbers like a pay-by-check sort of deal. You shouldn't need that until the account is created, then I am guessing they will call you with your account number and to help you fund the account. Once you have your new account/routing numbers you can submit them to Bitfloor's ACH withdrawal request form. And then it will simply be a matter of waiting for the dispersal to occur.

From what I gathered from my talk with Kathy yesterday, I believe the plan is that at some point Roman is going to provide IAFCU with a list of accounts and amounts to send to each. So, ultimately it will be a question of when Roman will submit the refund list to the credit union, which I can only assume will be done once everyone has submitted their account infos to him. I dont think it will be a first-come-first-serve sort of thing or a question of IAFCU customers being processed first or last or whatever. I think everyone is going to get their money at the same time.

[ProfMac]

I just filled out the online form in iafcu.org, but I didn't find out how to fund the account. Am I suppose to send them a check?

I have over $3,000 refund due.  I did not give them a check for more.