Warning! Do not use Coinbase.com Scam Artists!

[gamer4156]

Coinbase.com is a complete scam. I know that some users have been able to succesfully buy coins, but heed my warning.

It was my first purchase, I bought November 4th @ $224.99. The coins were suppose to arrive today, Friday November 8th at 7:24am PST.

Some Details.

I Used a bank account that has been open for 3 years and has never been used to buy any bitcoins. I confirmed my phone and identity with Coinbase.

Today right as my coins were suppose to arrive I receive an email saying my order was canceled. They would send my money back to my bank account soon. So Coinbase got a small loan with 0% interest for over a week.

What I think really happened?

Well the price of the bitcoins I purchased increased by over $100.00 a piece over the last week. I believe that they scammed me, if the price had gone down in price would my purchase still have been canceled? Who knows. AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS. They are a scam artists.

*Edit*

I have contacted support to indicate that I was incorrectly labeled high risk. If they do what they should and resolve this issue I will update this thread.

*Edit*

They took MY money to buy coins @ $224.99 and then they are giving MY money back after making over 45% on MY money.

[1713919614]

1713919614

[Jandur]

I bought coins via Coinbase on 11/1 and received them yesterday (along with my nice value increase on them). Your theory of them scamming you is a stretch. I've bought from them the past several weeks and always have gotten my coins despite the consistent price increase since October.

Get level 2 verified and your worries are out the window. Or you can try to wire money to Bitstamp which will take 5 days and you won't be able to buy coins before the price increases.  You'll be in exactly the same boat you are in now. Life goes on. And I say this as someone who also had my first transaction with Coinbase flagged, losing profits as a result.

[gamer4156]

I would love to wire money to bitstamp, but Coinbase.com says it will take another 3-4 business days for them to send my money back. Throw in the fact that it is friday and I wont see that money for a week.

[justusranvier]

This has been happening since February.

Make sure you are level 2 verified, then contact their customer support to get your account whitelisted (to bypass their automated fraud checks) and you won't have that problem any more.

[pand70]

So your money arrived to their bank account and then they decided that you are a high risk customer?

That doesn't make sense...

[freeAgent]

The same thing happened to me.  I verified my bank account and phone, and initiated the credit card verification last week (the charges never appeared for some reason, though I hear that I have to use Visa DEBIT, and I used a credit card...whatever).  I figured that after all the good things I'd heard about Coinbase, I'd give them a shot.  I purchased a single Bitcoin at just above $200 very late Thursday night/Friday morning.  Everything seemed fine so far, and on Monday morning (11/4), the ACH transfer posted on my checking account.  Of course, shortly afterward, Bitcoin started shooting up in price, but I figured that wouldn't be a problem because I'd completed my transaction and Coinbase had my money.

Not so!  Bitcoin continued to rise in value, and suddenly yesterday morning I wake up to see that Coinbase has decided my order was high risk and will not be giving me the Bitcoin I purchased.  I reached out to support, but I have gotten no response back.  I have extremely good credit and a completely clean financial history.  They still have my money and who knows what they did with it.  I'm assuming they did actually purchase the Bitcoin with it to prevent risk from the floating exchange rate and now they can sell it for $100+ more to someone else, refund me, and make a quick buck.  Thanks a lot, Coinbase.  

[Pente]

Is there any possibility of a class action lawsuit against Coinbase? They are reneging on contracts.

[Olaf (Coinbase)]

Hey guys, I'm Olaf from Coinbase.

Email support! We review transactions all the time and can push them through at the original exchange rate upon request. Sorry for the friction here!

[gamer4156]

Is there any possibility of a class action lawsuit against Coinbase? They are reneging on contracts.

Yes I am investigating what we can do. Ill have a solution by the end of the weekend if nothing is resolved.

[gamer4156]

Hey guys, I'm Olaf from Coinbase.

Email support! We review transactions all the time and can push them through at the original exchange rate upon request. Sorry for the friction here!

Thanks for the response, you guys have a amazing service and I hope to be a long term customer.

[Pente]

Hey guys, I'm Olaf from Coinbase.

Email support! We review transactions all the time and can push them through at the original exchange rate upon request. Sorry for the friction here!

Thanks for the response, you guys have a amazing service and I hope to be a long term customer.

Hi Olaf,

Awaiting your reply to my PM.

[User705]

This has been happening since February.

Make sure you are level 2 verified, then contact their customer support to get your account whitelisted (to bypass their automated fraud checks) and you won't have that problem any more.

For their sake I'd hope it wouldn't be that easy.  Then again it's up to them how they run it.

[gamer4156]

If ones first transaction is flagged as high risk and they unable to buy bitcoins how can one become level 2? Why dont they require other proof of identity? I would gladly provide copy of a government ID and a bill.

Bitcoin needs a company with morals. If this was a first timers intro to bitcoin how do you think they would feel?

Bitcoin needs a company that stands by it's promises a company that believes in bitcoins.

[User705]

Bitcoin doesn't need anything.  Companies exist to make a profit.  That doesn't mean that what they are doing is right just keep context in mind.  Bitcoin is very volatile and you can't expect them to honor a price when that price might have been just a blip on some exchange somewhere else.  As a company they probably should clarify if they are selling bitcoins already owned or are sourcing them after the sale.

[gamer4156]

Bitcoin doesn't need anything.  Companies exist to make a profit.  That doesn't mean that what they are doing is right just keep context in mind.  Bitcoin is very volatile and you can't expect them to honor a price when that price might have been just a blip on some exchange somewhere else.  As a company they probably should clarify if they are selling bitcoins already owned or are sourcing them after the sale.

Are you trying to say companies DONT have to follow through with their contractual agreements since bitcoin is volatile?

Also why is there not a review period if a transaction is considered high risk? Send me an email and ask me to confirm who I am. Bitstamp requires photocopies of a government ID and a bill. Believing you have successfully purchased coins only to find out 5 days later your order was canceled is a terrible business model.

I am also curious as to when in the purchasing process their security software flags transactions as high risk.

[User705]

Yes they should.  I simply said bitcoin doesn't need coinbase.  Coinbase needs bitcoin.

[IamRichard]

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[gamer4156]

I most certainly will if I do not hear from Coinbase.com in a reasonable time frame.

[RaptorRed]

I bought BTC from Coinbase on the 4th and received it it yesterday (8th) without a problem.  I was worried that they would do the same thing so I preemptively sent a Support Request after buying the BTC asking them how I could avoid being tagged a high risk account. They replied saying my account looked fine and whitelisted me. Not sure if the sale would have gone through if I hadn't preemptively contacted them, but if you are worried about them canceling your order try to contact them before the final date. It couldn't hurt.

[Terry999]

On Coinbase, I could not get the credit card option to work (inexplicably would not recognize a Wells Fargo VISA credit card, definitely not debit) and that verify fail cost this newbie faster service. But I otherwise found an ACH-based purchase there of a single bitcoin to be a smooth, admittedly slow, process.  So here's one vote for Coinbase.  I read a couple threads elsewhere on bitcointalk about ventures that announce they were hacked, suffered a huge loss, and now will repay account-holders only a fraction of users' account value; I suppose one doesn't know how true any story here is.  Reputation is everything.  I went with Coinbase because of others' reports of successful use, including one responsible user (a national financial magazine reporter) who likely had too much to lose to be part of some scam to "salt the mine" with phony acknowledgements or testimonials.

That said, Coinbase would do well to improve communications with users at various stage of a multiday process so buyers have a better understanding of what is going on during that "black hole" period of ACH or other waiting time.  I hope Coinbase service and transparency will improve.  I would pay a higher fee to comfortably use reputable companies given the horror stories one reads on bitcointalk.  This guy Olaf jumping in on this bitcointalk thread is a step in the right direction, shows some concern for reputation management.  Even if those here with problems don't get the resolution or PM response they want, I'd still prefer to deal with a company that jumps in to engage users posting on bitcointalk than a startup that is a complete dark hole on communications.