Don't let this be your story, losing BTC b/c of company statements....please

[humblebtc]

Ok well this whole scenario just makes me irate but I figured I'd share for those who are unaware, as I was. For some this might be old news but I'm quite confident there's many that will benefit greatly by not making the same choice.

I typically use cavirtex.com which is a great bitcoin exchange for Canadians.  However, I felt it was time to play some various exchanges and find some "theoretically" good ways of making some extra BTC to hold on to for the long haul.  Well, what seemed like a good approach was to buy some BTC, sell on mt gox....rinse and repeat to generate some cashflow to purchase more BTC.  After contacting mt gox, because I had heard of withdrawal issues for USD, they assured me they were only a couple weeks back logged and would be caught up shortly and wires would resume naturally. 

The real frustration was that they assisted me in setting up all my bank wire transfer information so that I was assured it would be correct, never once did they inform me there was a massive delay in withdrawing funds to my account. "Sure we will take your money, but you aren't getting it back"  is basically all I got from them

The question I sent in was quite self explanatory: "Just curious if there are ways to withdraw cash to my canadian bank account and how long it takes?"

Well, wasn't that a big lie......After countless emails I always got the same response which was that they were backlogged and catching up is just around the corner.  Over 2 months of waiting and receiving the exact same responses went by and it was clear this wasn't going to happen. 

I'd like to hear if anyone in recent months has received anything when withdrawing funds, I ended up losing 6.5 BTC which for me was huge especially with 2 kids and xmas just around the corner.  Anyways, do more research before you take such adventures as I learnt the hard way even with direct communication with "Michael" from Mt. Gox.  Clearly they don't even believe in having the professional courtesy to say hey there's an issue with withdrawing funds so we highly advise you withdraw BTC for the time being...

Hope this helps for those that are thinking of similar strategies......sometimes even doing your research ahead of time results in deceit.

[Mylon]

Yea sad but very true, seen multiple of these stories. (they seem to becoming more frequent for Gox)

Getting money in, is usually pretty easy, getting dollars out... Not so much. To be honest I think the safest way is still localbitcoins, transfer btc for cold hard cash.

Anyhow they are still holding on your cash (since you never got it) wouldn't you be able to trade it into BTC again, and then move the BTC out? Because I think that would be your best bet now. (don't store the btc in a webwallet, don't store them on a PC where your kids are also on. As a matter of a fact get a livecd of tails https://tails.boum.org/ or one similar and whenever handling bitcoins put in the livecd, boot the OS from livecd and do your bitcoin transactions there. Do keep in mind though, that with a livecd, no data gets stored on your PC, so you should attach a USB stick or an external harddrive to store the actual wallet. And don't forget to make backups!!)

[humblebtc]

By the time I went to convert my cash to BTC after it was sitting there for so long in queue for withdrawal, I lost the 7.5 BTC into 1, hence a 6.5 loss.  If I hadn't taken Gox advice from their support on withdrawal times I would have never started the process.  7.5 BTC would have been nice to still have at this point, live and learn I guess. Might not be a large amount for some, but for me it was quite a lot and was proud of it hah.

I just hope others read this post and don't have to lose so much by believing their statements and misleading account setup support.

[Mylon]

Yea a loss from 7.5 back to one is a huge one, and yea 7.5 btc is a lot.

Also agreed that most companies in the bitcoin space, really need to work on their customer support, though there are some that are doing it pretty good. Though it requires a lot of homework, of reading here on the forums of other peoples experiences. And since this place is huge... it won't always be easy to find

[XBBlade]

True that, the huge delay is almost a scam as well...

[franky1]

although i feel your pain that you missed the oppertunity to profit on the rise.
technically what MTGOX done, was not a loss. you agreed to cash out when prices were whatever they were. so its not a loss, just a prevention to gain later. as long as you were made FLAT meaning MTGOX gave you the dollar to play around with that you gave them in the queue then MTGOX did not lose you any funds. it was not their decision, but for you to decide that day your happy to change 6BTC into the dollar value, which you then requested to withdraw. that was 100% your decision. just from reading your post it states that MTGOX did inform you that there was an issue(there is a delay), explained why(backlogged), and gave you a timescale(couple weeks)

you also had the opportunity to leave the queue and re enter the BTC market before the time you did, again that was your decision to stay. MTGOX are not financial advisors, it is not their responsibility to tell you what to do with your funds. nor is it good business practice to tell a customer to leave them and go somewhere else for a better service.

again i do feel sorry for your pain of missing the boat, but sometimes that is life.

now because im not MTGOX and trying to retain customers or need to worry about customer loyalty blah, here are some general 'pointers'.
only banks or court ordered businesses can 'freeze' account so although MTGox says payments are delayed, they should never prevent you from cancelling the withdrawal request to then use those funds elsewhere.
exchanges are not financial advisors so they should not tell you to buy back in, or sell off or anything else. they can or should however give you options. but sometimes these options are not clear. and definitely not designed to be treated as instructions, actions to take. simply open options, leavng you the power to decide.

if ANY business makes excuses that extend beyond your countries standard banking timescale EG 3-5 business days. then be very wary of them. usually its a sign of these things:

1. their bank is in trouble legally or atleast for a long term.
2. they have already spent the deposited FIAT (or large percentage) and are now trying to honour withdrawals using the fresh deposits of others.
3. no intention of allowing withdrawals (dangling a carrot infront your nose)

if anything takes longer then 3-5 days, go somewhere else. worse case scenario you lose small percentage on the arbitrary prices of different exchanges. but you can always play the markets to possibly gain the % while getting KYC sorted with a more reliable FIAT withdrawing exchange.

[humblebtc]

Sorry but that really doesn't make any sense.

First off, if the process had worked based on their advice, I would have been able to buy somewhere for lower and sell higher, therefore continuing to make good profit. With this in mind, it does not matter the cost of BTC as long as there is a variant in price, and there still is. Yes if it sounds too good to be true, then it is.

Secondly, I had no opportunity to re-enter the BTC market as MTGOX would not release my funds that were in queue until after multiple requests, meaning I had no money to exchange for BTC.

Thirdly, I directly asked them the timeframe on withdrawals and was given a response which was then false.

Anyways, yes it's life, nothing I can do. Hope others don't fall victim to their deceit.