[Resolved] Bitinstant

[Bjork]

EDIT: Was resolved  April 18th, 2013.  I will leave this up anyways.


Here are two deposits I made on April 8th
quote ID:c5c31bbb-478e-4c5c-865f-cc98cfb6786b (btc never received)
event ID: 00443194-f318-4463-a95c-a0b27644605b
and
quote ID: a024fe8a-c8b2-4edf-a792-e5811bc5d466 (this one went through)
event ID: 3d733dc1-f1df-4624-bc60-3fc95d657606

Both of these were destined for this btc address: 1fiY3FCc8TVDufmxB7q7Hxhz8dHsaLajT
The transactions say "resolved" on bitinstant.com BUT CLEARLY ONLY ONE DEPOSIT WAS MADE TO THIS BITCOIN ADDRESS!!

Here is a thread where HUNDREDS, IF NOT THOUSANDS of people are complaining about having their money stolen by bitinstant!
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=128314.msg1777115#msg1777115



Timeline of my (recent) experience with bitinstant.

April 8th: between 2:20 PM and 2:40 PM Central time I deposited money at a local CVS Moneygram as per the instructions from Bitinstant.com.  I have used Bitinstant many times in the past and am very familiar with the process (no error was made on my part).  I made two deposits, one for ~$400 and another for ~$500 USD.

I went home and realized that I had only been sent ~500 worth of BTC and that the other order did not go through.  I waited a couple hours.

Naturally I tried to get some support from bitinstant.com.  Unfortunately NONE EXISTED.  There was no phone number listed (except one stressed "ONLY FOR EMERGENCIES" and it went to voice-mail) and a button for "live support" that was broken and actually did nothing.  I believe I sent an email to their customer support at this time (if not, I sent one on April 9th... regardless I got no response...not even automated).

Next I found my way to the support forum here...
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=128314.3680    I also PM'ed URSAY and Yankee about my problem.  Here I was assured, by URSAY, that "i was on a list" and that "my order would be escalated.

I waited 1-2 days.  Nothing.  

April 11th (2-3 days after I emailed them...)  I received this:

Thank you for contacting BitInstant support! We are working hard to process your order and resolve your problem. If we need more information from you we will contact you. Otherwise we will process issues in the order in which we received them.

Please understand that increased volume, both on our site and on our partner exchanges, will influence the amount of time that it takes to complete your order. But please rest assured, your funds are safe and will be queued and processed securely. You should expect your funds within 12 hours of depositing
your cash or initiating your transfer. If you have still not received your funds within 24 hours of your transaction time we will escalate this issue for immediate attention.

Please refrain from sending multiple support queries regarding the same issue, it will not expedite our ability to help you and might requeue your request in our system.

Thank you for your patience! Be sure to follow @bitinstanthelp on Twitter for updates about our system queue and any problems we might be having.

I continued to watch the forums for updates, and continued to communicate with URSA and Yankee.  No money for the next couple days.

April 13th  I received this email


Hello Wufoo,

Sorry for the delay. We've been experiencing some technical issues resulting in slight delays. I'm going to forward this over to tech support where they can manually process your order. Please allow for one business day to resolve. Thank you.

---
Sincerely,
Mandrik

This was odd, because my name is not Wufoo.  He also gave me a link to my "open ticket" which is basically a list with all of the information about my failed order. Anyways... So I waited some more.


April 15th

I had continued to communicate with URSAY, Yankee, and the "live support" but nothing was being done.  So I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau of New york and the Federal Trade Commission.  The BBB said they were waiting from a response from Bitinstant, and I doubt Bitinstant intends to respond.  Ironically BBB and FTC replied to my email (an automated response, but still) immediately... something it took bitinstant 2-3 days to do.


April 18th
EDIT: Recieved coins today at market rate after 10 days. fee was charged.
Resolved by Mandrik, thank you

[Maged]

Honestly, just keep trying. They're overloaded, certainly, but they haven't shown any sign of actually scamming people.

[Bjork]

Honestly, just keep trying. They're overloaded, certainly, but they haven't shown any sign of actually scamming people.

I'm not sure how taking people's money with false promises and refusing to return it isn't scamming???  They deserve a scammer tag, at least temporarily.  Open your eyes.

[Mandrik]

Hey, Bjork, I processed this order an hour or so ago. Check out the btc address you provided - you should see the funds.

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

Hey, Bjork, I processed this order an hour or so ago. Check out the btc address you provided - you should see the funds.

This is why you make a scammer accusations thread.

Also, what's with the Fee: 0.0003 BTC?

[Bjork]

Hey, Bjork, I processed this order an hour or so ago. Check out the btc address you provided - you should see the funds.

Confirmed, although I'm not sure why I paid a "fee" when it took 10 days.  But consider it a donation, I'm just appreciative to have my coins.  Thank you for resolving this.

[Bjork]

Hey, Bjork, I processed this order an hour or so ago. Check out the btc address you provided - you should see the funds.

This is why you make a scammer accusations thread.

Also, what's with the Fee: 0.0003 BTC?

Value at time of transaction was ~390 on a 400 deposit, so I think the normal fee was included.  I have no energy left/desire to dispute this however.

[Gareth Nelson]

Hey, Bjork, I processed this order an hour or so ago. Check out the btc address you provided - you should see the funds.

This is why you make a scammer accusations thread.

Also, what's with the Fee: 0.0003 BTC?

Value at time of transaction was ~390 on a 400 deposit, so I think the normal fee was included.  I have no energy left/desire to dispute this however.

Is 1fiY3FCc8TVDufmxB7q7Hxhz8dHsaLajT still a valid address?

[Bjork]

Hey, Bjork, I processed this order an hour or so ago. Check out the btc address you provided - you should see the funds.

This is why you make a scammer accusations thread.

Also, what's with the Fee: 0.0003 BTC?

Value at time of transaction was ~390 on a 400 deposit, so I think the normal fee was included.  I have no energy left/desire to dispute this however.

Is 1fiY3FCc8TVDufmxB7q7Hxhz8dHsaLajT still a valid address?

yes