ARE there actually any risk free BTC Buy/Sell places?

[GooberGrape]

A) Yes I am new to this, do not even have a wallet yet.
B) I have done some research, and thus, my question.

History:

I went to find out how I could mine.  Found out that mining is no longer an option with the system I have.  Fine.  I'll go with Buy/Sell.  After reading in the same "How To" article (original link long lost), I was pointed at Mt. Gox as the place to be.  Biggest, best, etc.  You get he picture.

So I sign on and now I need to verify.  So I scan in my documents and send them off and wait.  And wait.  And wait some more.  Now well past 10 business days.  I open a support ticket.  Day or so later I get the "Hey we see you asked for help.  Here's a support ticket number".  After a couple of days I check on status.  Has not even been assigned to a support person yet.

So now I do more research and find out that Gox is for all intents and purposes, impossible to get money out of once it is in there.  I count myself lucky that I never got verified, cancelled the account and moved on to Coinbase.  Failed my first verify attempt because I have a common name is what I figure.  They listed off people I never knew and so I failed.  All the other questions I knew immediately and I know I passed them.

So while I am waiting for the 24 hours to pass to try again, I am looking around more.  A LOT of bad stories about how Coinbase will cancel your buy order, refunding the money based on the claim that it is a "High Risk" account.  Even though they have your bank account info AND CC number.  Apparently, there are those that claim the sale actually went through but they kept the difference in price for themselves after sending your cash back.

OK....BTC-e?  Didn't take long for the words "Russian Mafia" to come up.  Pass.  Slovenia based exchanges...ergh...not to be prejudiced, but as a US citizen, that looks like a no recourse option in case things go tits up.

Yes I know BTC is inherently risky.  I am willing to accept the risk of the volatile market.  And I know these places are not actually financial institutions that are regulated by a government or FDIC or anything like that.

But I am not willing to risk fraudulent or shady or incompetent or non-responsive to the point of ignoring your requests.

Given this...is there a place that I can buy/sell BTC (or other such coins) as a US Citizen and ONLY assume the risk of the actual market?

[Denmor]

BTC-e is the best market right now as Gox is slowly dying. If you don't mind rip-off fees and russians all over the place, it's a way to go. And the fees actually isn't that bad knowing that BTC-e prices are lower than those on Mt.Gox. You can also try buying some coins from people directly which can be cheaper than using a marketplace, but be very careful and always use Escrow services for big transactions. I actually managed to buy some btc with PayPal, but people don't usually deal with it because they are afraid of chargebacks. Good luck.

[GooberGrape]

Well I kind of do mind dealing with Russian mob types.  So yeah, that's not an option.  Is Coinbase as bad as it seems or is that because I am seeing just the problem accounts?  What is the signal to noise ratio there?  Is there any way to even tell?