FRAUD WARNING: Bitstamp is holding my money hostage and ignoring me for 14 days

[CYPER]

Made a deposit of less than 10K euros and got the usual KYC list of excessive questions, which I promptly replied to.
Since then complete silence, which is now 9 days.
9 days with no reply.

Their customer support is completely inadequate for the types of customers you are serving.
They cannot run an extremely time sensitive trading business and not match it with the same level of support. It just doesn't make sense when dealing with large volumes of currency.
I feel that trying to complaint to Bitstamp will have the same result as screaming in the middle of a forest - I won't be heard and nothing will change.

At this point I am furious as they are holding my money hostage and completely ignoring me.

In these circumstances I feel forced to file an official complaint with the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier in Luxembourg in line with their Out-of-court complaint resolution service.
Additionally based on the excessive and unreasonable level of questioning I feel inclined to also complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office as you are registered as a DATA controller with them.

But I would rather talk with them and resolve this.
I emailed the CEO + sent him a message on Linkedin = nothing

Anyone has any suggestions?

[Kyraishi]

Made a deposit of less than 10K euros and got the usual KYC list of excessive questions, which I promptly replied to.
Since then complete silence, which is now 9 days.
9 days with no reply.

Their customer support is completely inadequate for the types of customers you are serving.
They cannot run an extremely time sensitive trading business and not match it with the same level of support. It just doesn't make sense when dealing with large volumes of currency.
I feel that trying to complaint to Bitstamp will have the same result as screaming in the middle of a forest - I won't be heard and nothing will change.

At this point I am furious as they are holding my money hostage and completely ignoring me.

In these circumstances I feel forced to file an official complaint with the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier in Luxembourg in line with their Out-of-court complaint resolution service.
Additionally based on the excessive and unreasonable level of questioning I feel inclined to also complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office as you are registered as a DATA controller with them.

But I would rather talk with them and resolve this.
I emailed the CEO + sent him a message on Linkedin = nothing

Anyone has any suggestions?

Bitstamp doesn't really have a reputation for having a terrible support system, when compared to an exchange like Yobit. So this is a little surprisingly to me especially when all the other exchanges have constantly been in trouble but i haven't seen much complaints regarding bitstamp.

I can tell why you're disgruntled, since the price of bitcoin has gone up subsatntially in the 9 days that you have deposited.

As far as i know they do not have any sort of communication outside of email, support tickets, or contacting admin via linkedin which you have all tried. All you can do is wait, and hope that a temporary dip in price can come. Unfortunately this is how it works, and they probably won't compensate for the losses. Why didn't you complete KYC before you deposited such a large amount? Or are they just asking you again and again?

[SwaggaFox]

I am having a similar issue with bitstamp myself, please keep this thread updated.

[BitSat]

I am having a similar issue with bitstamp myself, please keep this thread updated.

Currently most of bitcoins related exchanges have very poor support which is worst effort from them as peoples need some good and positive response from them they are ignoring and creating problems for them time to change this tactics and give quick support

[swogerino]

I don't use Bitstamp but some people I know who tried to use it their service was very fast to answer in a negative when you couldn't pass their KYC/AML requirements because of photographs being in low resolution or not clear enough according to their standards. I believe this deny in replying is because of the surge in Bitcoin price during these last days.

[CYPER]

Bitstamp doesn't really have a reputation for having a terrible support system, when compared to an exchange like Yobit. So this is a little surprisingly to me especially when all the other exchanges have constantly been in trouble but i haven't seen much complaints regarding bitstamp.

I can tell why you're disgruntled, since the price of bitcoin has gone up subsatntially in the 9 days that you have deposited.

As far as i know they do not have any sort of communication outside of email, support tickets, or contacting admin via linkedin which you have all tried. All you can do is wait, and hope that a temporary dip in price can come. Unfortunately this is how it works, and they probably won't compensate for the losses. Why didn't you complete KYC before you deposited such a large amount? Or are they just asking you again and again?

Actually the main reason I am furious is the fact they are ignoring me.
The blocked deposit is not a big issue, because it is for less than 10K eur.
But my trading volume for the last month is close to 400K usd and I got close to 100K in fiat, so you can appreciate how I feel when the company I am trusting with my money is not replying to my tickets.

I have been verified for a long time and only when I made this deposit they asked these questions. I wasn't even aware they do that.
So instead of having a healthy business relationship I am being ignored.

I am having a similar issue with bitstamp myself, please keep this thread updated.

What is your story?

[CYPER]

I am now convinced this is not a lack of customer support resources, but I am straight up being ignored for unknown to me reasons.

I contacted Bitstamp on Facebook and after being asked and provided my customer ID I heard nothing back.

Last night I contacted the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier in Luxembourg and copied Bitstamp CEO Nejc Kodrič and their customer support into the email:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am a user of the trading website Bitstamp.net and on 26th July 2017 I made a deposit of 9093.56 EUR to their bank account in Slovenia.
On 1st August 2017 I contacted their support to check why it has not been credited to my account and was then asked to provide information, relating to that deposit, which I promptly did on 2nd August 2017.

Since their last reply to me on 2nd August they have gone silent and all my attempts to communicate with the company has failed.
My deposit of 9093.56 EUR is currently withheld by them without a valid cause and they have been ignoring me for the past 10 days.
Additionally I have a rather large USD balance with them, which I am afraid of losing. I also fear of Bitstamp closing my account as this has happened to a few other individuals who happened to be in the same situation as me.

Bitstamp actively advertises itself as being fully regulated and being granted a license in the EU as a payment institution by the CSSF.
Unfortunately their customer support is completely inadequate for the types of customers they are serving and It seems there is no accountability for their actions.

I have already exhausted all options to resolve this issue, so I am turning to you for help.
I hope that you would be able to help me because it seems Bitstamp would not cooperate with individuals such as me, so hopefully they will respond to your requests.
At this point in time I hope that this can be resolved without involvement of the courts, but I am fully prepared to take legal actions against them.

Bitstamp Customer Support and their CEO Nejc Kodrič are copied into this email.

Regards,

I sent the email with Read Receipt and today got this:

Vaše sporočilo

   Za: Nejc Kodrič
   Zadeva: Complaint against Bitstamp Europe S.A.
   Poslano: 12. avgust 2017 1:33:31 (UTC+01:00) Beograd, Bratislava, Budimpešta, Ljubljana, Praga

 je bilo prebrano 12. avgust 2017 7:27:53 (UTC+01:00) Beograd, Bratislava, Budimpešta, Ljubljana, Praga.


Final-recipient: RFC822; nejc.kodric@bitstamp.net
Disposition: automatic-action/MDN-sent-automatically; displayed
X-MSExch-Correlation-Key: AjEtpgevf0ux4QMX7yzEaw==
Original-Message-ID: <705bf802-726f-8976-9120-d41f14d33673@cyper.org>
X-Display-Name: =?iso-8859-2?Q?Nejc_Kodri=E8?=

Your message

   To: Miha Grčar
   Subject: Complaint against Bitstamp Europe S.A.
   Sent: Saturday, August 12, 2017 1:33:31 AM (UTC+01:00) Belgrade, Bratislava, Budapest, Ljubljana, Prague

 was read on Saturday, August 12, 2017 9:32:05 AM (UTC+01:00) Belgrade, Bratislava, Budapest, Ljubljana, Prague.


Final-recipient: RFC822; miha.grcar@bitstamp.net
Disposition: automatic-action/MDN-sent-automatically; displayed
X-MSExch-Correlation-Key: nQkApZDXK0C9pU9Du6wMVQ==
X-Display-Name: =?iso-8859-2?Q?Miha_Gr=E8ar?=

So my emails are being read, but consciously being ignored.
Anyone care to suggest a plausible reason why they are doing that?

[BitHodler]

Honestly, after reading through your entire thread, the only plausible reason for them to not reply to you is that they are waiting for answers as they most likely passed your information to the authorities for investigation.

I am using Bitstamp myself, and it was last month that I made a sizeable (almost €6000) fiat deposit, where I not long after that cashed it out through SEPA without any problems.

I strongly believe that if everything turns out to be all right with your deposit, they will release your funds, and you can continue with your regular trading sessions ~ patience is however required. Bitstamp isn't a thief.

[CYPER]

Honestly, after reading through your entire thread, the only plausible reason for them to not reply to you is that they are waiting for answers as they most likely passed your information to the authorities for investigation.

I am using Bitstamp myself, and it was last month that I made a sizeable (almost €6000) fiat deposit, where I not long after that cashed it out through SEPA without any problems.

I strongly believe that if everything turns out to be all right with your deposit, they will release your funds, and you can continue with your regular trading sessions ~ patience is however required. Bitstamp isn't a thief.

I absolutely agree that Bitstamp has the right to check that the money are not from fraudulent activities.
I have no problems with them checking that, but what excuse do they have to completely ignore me?
Doesn't it seem sensible to keep their customers informed?
Instead they actively ignore me for god knows what reasons, which just damages my trust and confidence in them.

Any sane person will agree that this is not how you do business.
 

[warningsigns]

Situations such as this solidify the need for every bitcoiner, novice or not, to fully understand the risks of using these exchanges as a storage for both fiat and bitcoins, let alone as one's wallet. When you and you alone have full control of the private key, risks of loss or misappropriation are substantially reduced. These exchanges are, yes, regulated and some have been around for a while and are thus safe but one should only invest or inject sums in these exchanges which are within one's tolerable thresholds.

So now they have your funds and are holding them hostage for days or even weeks at end. If I were in your shoes and this amount of money were held in limbo with no reaction from them, after having bombarded them with emails and tweets, I would be extremely angry. I would probably email them day and night, minute after minute until they finally succumb and respond. That's a seriously large amount of money. No way would I simply wait and sit passively. If you have fiat sitting on your bitstamp account and with bitcoin now at nearly $3.8k and continuing to climb, your revenue opportunities (which translate to potential losses) are piling up.

I have a fully verified bitstamp account which I used back in 2013/14 when bitcoin was about $100ish each. I no longer use the account. The transaction history painfully reminds me of what I could have made today with those 100+ btc.

 

[CYPER]

Another day without a reply or explanation what is happening.

Anyone has any suggestion on how to get any answers?

[CYPER]

Just found that BITCOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT, which means all my fiat is held hostage too.

[Kn_os]

Just found that BITCOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT, which means all my fiat is held hostage too.

Oh, i have exactly the same problem. I have 2 years old fully verified account. I traded on bitstamp without any problem, last action i did i withdrawed all my btc before 1 august btc fork, then i didn't use exchange and 8 august i deposited btc back (exactly from same home wallet i withdrawed to) to continue trading when suddently i found that all my withdraw were dissabled.

BITCOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT
LITECOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT

I sent them a ticket asking to clarify what's wrong and what was a reason for my account to be blocked. Since there were no warning or no message or anything. I got two auto respond on my ticket like "we read your ticket and will answer you later" and nothing more. Waiting a week already.
They start randomly block accounts?

PS. I never deposited or withdrawed usd or eur to bitstamp, so it couldn't be a reason too..

Answers from bitstamp:

10.8.2017 13:57:59
thank you for reaching out.

While our response times are currently longer than usual, rest assured that we shall address your issue in the shortest amount of time possible.
For more information on the matter, please see the following link: https://www.bitstamp.net/article/increased-demand/
Thank you for your patience and understanding.

12.8.2017 07:46:28

thank you for your reply.
Please accept this message as a confirmation that your inquiry has been received. We will look into it and get back to you as soon as we learn more.

[nethan1btc]

Just found that BITCOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT, which means all my fiat is held hostage too.

I think the host is more liable for it and it should need a serious actions so that withdrawals will be back to normal transactions. Furthermore the hostage fiat can be fixed if everything will become stable and transactions will be fine and no any other circumstances will going to happen like this situation, because it might create confusions to the users who had their holdings specially money is really needed for personal expenses.

[CYPER]

Dan Morehead of Pantera Capital was the first person involved with the company to respond to my emails today, but just said he has asked Bitstamp's COO Miha Grcar to investigate - the same guy that read 3 of my emails and ignored me.
So I am not quite enthusiastic. Will wait a few more days and contact lawers.
Found these guys: https://www.selachii.co.uk/bitcoin-law-firm-solicitor.html

[warningsigns]

I'm curious how you would approach the post-resolution phase of this case. If they do resolve this and give you access to your funds again, would you continue using your Bitstamp account? Or would that be the end of your relationship with them?

It's always a tricky thing when a business (or even personal) relationship is scarred by even one traumatic event. Issues solved and peace ensues but how about the aftermath of that event? Continuing to trade on their platform might seem palatable but won't you feel being watched or checked?

[figmentofmyass]

At this point I am furious as they are holding my money hostage and completely ignoring me.

Just found that BITCOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT, which means all my fiat is held hostage too.

Oh, i have exactly the same problem. I have 2 years old fully verified account. I traded on bitstamp without any problem, last action i did i withdrawed all my btc before 1 august btc fork, then i didn't use exchange and 8 august i deposited btc back (exactly from same home wallet i withdrawed to) to continue trading when suddently i found that all my withdraw were dissabled.

BITCOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT
LITECOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT

one person lodging this complaint, i could maybe write off. now two old hands are complaining of withdrawals blocked and complete radio silence from stamp. i hate to say it, but i think this is the case:

Honestly, after reading through your entire thread, the only plausible reason for them to not reply to you is that they are waiting for answers as they most likely passed your information to the authorities for investigation.

this is the most reasonable explanation for the silence. what i'm worried to find out ... aside from Kn_os with the withdrawal out and directly back in due to the august 1 fork, have you guys deposited bitcoins into your account before? or only fiat?

between the regulated exchanges like stamp and GDAX being super compliant, and blockchain analysis companies getting more and more sophisticated, i don't like the direction we are heading in.

[CYPER]

I'm curious how you would approach the post-resolution phase of this case. If they do resolve this and give you access to your funds again, would you continue using your Bitstamp account? Or would that be the end of your relationship with them?

It's always a tricky thing when a business (or even personal) relationship is scarred by even one traumatic event. Issues solved and peace ensues but how about the aftermath of that event? Continuing to trade on their platform might seem palatable but won't you feel being watched or checked?

Honestly I don't know. It all depends on how this ends and what kind of service I would need in the future.
But I fully intend to follow the legal route and go to court with these guys, who thankfully are registered in the UK.
I was the claimant in a year long trial, which ended recently with a very satisfactory result for me, so I am prepared to go down that route again. Unfortunately cannot share much information due to a non-disclosure agreement.

There will always be the bad aftertaste of their treatment, so unless I receive a personal over the phone or in person apology from the owners I will most probably not use them in the same way as before.

At this point I am furious as they are holding my money hostage and completely ignoring me.

Just found that BITCOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT, which means all my fiat is held hostage too.

Oh, i have exactly the same problem. I have 2 years old fully verified account. I traded on bitstamp without any problem, last action i did i withdrawed all my btc before 1 august btc fork, then i didn't use exchange and 8 august i deposited btc back (exactly from same home wallet i withdrawed to) to continue trading when suddently i found that all my withdraw were dissabled.

BITCOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT
LITECOIN WITHDRAWALS ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT

one person lodging this complaint, i could maybe write off. now two old hands are complaining of withdrawals blocked and complete radio silence from stamp. i hate to say it, but i think this is the case:

Honestly, after reading through your entire thread, the only plausible reason for them to not reply to you is that they are waiting for answers as they most likely passed your information to the authorities for investigation.

this is the most reasonable explanation for the silence. what i'm worried to find out ... aside from Kn_os with the withdrawal out and directly back in due to the august 1 fork, have you guys deposited bitcoins into your account before? or only fiat?

between the regulated exchanges like stamp and GDAX being super compliant, and blockchain analysis companies getting more and more sophisticated, i don't like the direction we are heading in.

I initially deposited 33BTC to trade with, then deposited further 15BTC, which I bought with fiat at Kraken.
All the Bitcoins have been obtained legitimately by me and have not been involved in any illegal activities while owning them.

[pinkflower]

After the shutdown of BTC-e and bitmixer.io, this looks like some of the other exchanges are now being paranoid. You have to understand that they are protecting themselves from the slightest mistake they could make and have Uncle Sam come after them next.

You have to be patient. They are a licensed exchange and because of that you have to understand that they have to take a few extra steps to make sure that everything is legal. But yes they are slow.

[Kyraishi]

Bitstamp doesn't really have a reputation for having a terrible support system, when compared to an exchange like Yobit. So this is a little surprisingly to me especially when all the other exchanges have constantly been in trouble but i haven't seen much complaints regarding bitstamp.

I can tell why you're disgruntled, since the price of bitcoin has gone up subsatntially in the 9 days that you have deposited.

As far as i know they do not have any sort of communication outside of email, support tickets, or contacting admin via linkedin which you have all tried. All you can do is wait, and hope that a temporary dip in price can come. Unfortunately this is how it works, and they probably won't compensate for the losses. Why didn't you complete KYC before you deposited such a large amount? Or are they just asking you again and again?

Actually the main reason I am furious is the fact they are ignoring me.
The blocked deposit is not a big issue, because it is for less than 10K eur.
But my trading volume for the last month is close to 400K usd and I got close to 100K in fiat, so you can appreciate how I feel when the company I am trusting with my money is not replying to my tickets.

I have been verified for a long time and only when I made this deposit they asked these questions. I wasn't even aware they do that.
So instead of having a healthy business relationship I am being ignored.

I see. It's really odd that they would pick up on this small deposit instead of the big ones that i assume you've had in the past with them. BTW, why did they ask you KYC questions if you were already fully verified and able to deposit and withdraw using fiat? Doesn't make sense to me.

It seems like you got a response from someone that is at least somewhat related to the company who said that he'll refer you to some other random guy who just ignored you earlier, is this correct? And have they given you any sort of official response yet?

It's clearly rude to ignore your customer, let alone a pretty big customer too. I would not use Bitstamp solely for this reason, they don't respect you when an issue arises, and this issue is not even caused by you.