Localbitcoins is intentionally trying to lowkey steal from its customers (me)

[Mosperian]

This crooked backwards run no good doesn't care one bit about its users ass site directly told me via big ass notification on my account that my wallet was active and I could send BTC as normal. It did NOT tell me I couldnt trade until I contacted support and went through a whole long process. What it said wa s I'd need to verify my phone number and given that it said my wallet was fine and I'd be able to send BTC aka withdraw ifsomething went wrong i went ahead and deposited, which it let me do just fine with zero indication of wallet issues. Well when I tried to verify it said THEN that I couldnt do the thing the note on my account said I needed to do and I had to deal with "3-5 days response time is our best case scenario"  support. Ok that's a little annoying and a bit of a waste of time but oh well not the end of the world. I'll just send the BTC back to myself and sell them another way. WRONG. That giant note encouraging me to deposit and assuring me my wallet is perfectly fine and I'll have no issues sending BTC apparently is a flat out lor at best and an intentional mislead to get my/your money locked into their thieving site at worst. Now my BTC is stuck there until I can deal with support (go check the localbitcoin reddit for an idea of how quick painless and productive that is) and I was told by the site specifically that I wouldn't have this problem.

I'm ok with the forced vacation shit if you say I got hacked. I can go through the hoops to get my account back fully active and open back up trading. I can accept all that. I cannot, but no choice but to accept, that I have to go through all this time and all these hoops just to get my own coins which they said I could send and which it happily let me deposit without a single hint that I shouldn't beca[Suspicious link removed] coins were going to be A)useless for quite awhile and B) stuck on this stupid crooked site for an extended time and that it was acrually worse tHan pointless because it's actively denying me my assets and making me go through a process that at this point with how unsatisfied I am I don't even care to go through because I'd just as well never login that gross shady website ever again (and I've been a member 6 + years) but unless I wanna donate to them for my troubles ill be forced to jump through all these stupid hoops just to send my own BTC which I already am supposed to be able to send back to myself and then log out once aND for all from localbitcoins aka the first business to ever, in 34 years, make me feel righteous indignation. I will be copy pasting this on every social media I can think of who might remotely know what localbitcoins is and while I may not accomplish much you better believe I'm gonna try. And since I'm just screwed on the thing I needed my to sell those coins for when I finally do get them back I'm going to use the money to buy ads anywhere i can and through ad words in general highlighting how shit this company really is.

If I'm you and my experiences with them have always been good then I'm quiting while I'm ahead and moving on to something new because localbitcoins doesn't care about you even a little bit.

Ugh.

[Mandoy]

I have also read these issue on reddit and you are the second person who have a complain against localbitcoin.com. The reason I guess is that possibly localbitcoins.com is still recovering from the hacking few months ago. Their system was compromised and that many users who used the forum of localbitcoins.com was redirected and became victim of phishing attacks. Because of that event there are quite a number of users who withdraw from the site.

I also found a third person who is complaining about the site when he cannot withdraw - https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.localbitcoins.com- that the website is holding his withdrawal and the support is not answering.
 

[Mosperian]

Yea the more I looked for info on getting help the more examples I found of them being like this. Being unable to withdraw is bad enough on its own but to put a big notification specifically telling me that i can withdraw and letting me deposit only to turn around immediately and not let me/keep my coins is some thing else and i honestly can't believe they did it. That notice is still on my account saying my wallet is active and i can send withdraw as normal by the way



It's messed up man and they've put me in a bind. I'd have been upset no matter what just on principle but it's worse cause of the issues it's causing mr and they just don't care.

[adeandro]

I'm not at all surprised, many people want to steal from their customers and do not even try to hide it

[nicecrypto]

I genuinely don't like any site that will lure users to deposit and then give such strictness to get your money out, such actions just display lack of trust and shady, why does it have to be so stressful when you want to get your money out, even the customer service not very helpful according to the post, I think people have should be aware of this to be careful.

[hahahafr]

This crooked backwards run no good doesn't care one bit about its users ass site directly told me via big ass notification on my account that my wallet was active and I could send BTC as normal. It did NOT tell me I couldnt trade until I contacted support and went through a whole long process. What it said wa s I'd need to verify my phone number and given that it said my wallet was fine and I'd be able to send BTC aka withdraw ifsomething went wrong i went ahead and deposited, which it let me do just fine with zero indication of wallet issues. Well when I tried to verify it said THEN that I couldnt do the thing the note on my account said I needed to do and I had to deal with "3-5 days response time is our best case scenario"  support. Ok that's a little annoying and a bit of a waste of time but oh well not the end of the world. I'll just send the BTC back to myself and sell them another way. WRONG. That giant note encouraging me to deposit and assuring me my wallet is perfectly fine and I'll have no issues sending BTC apparently is a flat out lor at best and an intentional mislead to get my/your money locked into their thieving site at worst. Now my BTC is stuck there until I can deal with support (go check the localbitcoin reddit for an idea of how quick painless and productive that is) and I was told by the site specifically that I wouldn't have this problem.

I'm ok with the forced vacation shit if you say I got hacked. I can go through the hoops to get my account back fully active and open back up trading. I can accept all that. I cannot, but no choice but to accept, that I have to go through all this time and all these hoops just to get my own coins which they said I could send and which it happily let me deposit without a single hint that I shouldn't beca[Suspicious link removed] coins were going to be A)useless for quite awhile and B) stuck on this stupid crooked site for an extended time and that it was acrually worse tHan pointless because it's actively denying me my assets and making me go through a process that at this point with how unsatisfied I am I don't even care to go through because I'd just as well never login that gross shady website ever again (and I've been a member 6 + years) but unless I wanna donate to them for my troubles ill be forced to jump through all these stupid hoops just to send my own BTC which I already am supposed to be able to send back to myself and then log out once aND for all from localbitcoins aka the first business to ever, in 34 years, make me feel righteous indignation. I will be copy pasting this on every social media I can think of who might remotely know what localbitcoins is and while I may not accomplish much you better believe I'm gonna try. And since I'm just screwed on the thing I needed my to sell those coins for when I finally do get them back I'm going to use the money to buy ads anywhere i can and through ad words in general highlighting how shit this company really is.

If I'm you and my experiences with them have always been good then I'm quiting while I'm ahead and moving on to something new because localbitcoins doesn't care about you even a little bit.

Ugh.

OMG, has it come to this now with localbitcoins. Hence my hate for developed escrow services, i would rather trust a certified centralized institution to cash out my cryptocurrencies than to sound all greedy in the name of higher rates and get involved in stuffs like these.

[Wintersoldier]

I genuinely don't like any site that will lure users to deposit and then give such strictness to get your money out, such actions just display lack of trust and shady, why does it have to be so stressful when you want to get your money out, even the customer service not very helpful according to the post, I think people have should be aware of this to be careful.

well it is for us to decide whether to take advantage of the offer or not. It depends on our decision but right now, the idea of lowkey steal by localbitcoins I can see is, local apps that converts bitcoin to fiat currency and vise versa, there's a chance that they might deduct a small amount of bitcoin, more than the standard transfee. A small amount isn't noticeable, but if they will take away from more people, it is a big money to consider.

[Mosperian]

I genuinely don't like any site that will lure users to deposit and then give such strictness to get your money out, such actions just display lack of trust and shady, why does it have to be so stressful when you want to get your money out, even the customer service not very helpful according to the post, I think people have should be aware of this to be careful.

that's exactly what bothers me so much. I really think this is purposeful to get people who might otherwise have just moved on than bother with all the hoops to be forced to go through them because your other option is to surrender your BTC to them so once you fall for the false information they present telling you that youll be able to take your BTC back if you decide its too much and make a new deposit then they win no matter what. Either you go through the hoops to get your BTC back and many likely end up using the site longer when they would have just left or you decide to surrender your funds. Either they retain customers they would have lost or if they lose them they get some BTC from them on the way out.

It's too perfect the way they feed you the information and how it benefits them to be an accident. In my opinion this is deliberate behavior designed to benefit them at the cost of their users and in spite of what the users in question may actually want. I dont think anyone paying attention should continue using their site/service because I've been around the BTC community since 2011 and in my experience this type of behavior always precedes the famous "we recovered 10% so here are pennies for your dollars" exit scam posts
 I believe without a doubt that the day is coming and im very irritated I have to choose between playing their game for however many days or weeks going forward and letting them keep my BTC freely. Sucks

[Kyraishi]

Yeah, the site has definetly gone down in quality ever since KYC was forced, then the seemingly random removal of cash trades, and now their tier verification bullshit.

I had a similar issue where the ID I was posting wasn't being detected and it was being declined automatically, it had all the right things but was still being declined. Waited 2 weeks for support to get back to me after making numerous claims and they finally updated me, not good enough for a trading escrow site.

PS: should probably move this into service discussion.

[Mosperian]

If I posted in the wrong place my bad feel free to relocate it to its proper home. I just needed to vent and wanted to warn others.

[Anonylz]

I think the bigger problem is the part of customer service, if the customer service are more active and responsive to the varying issues users are encountering in the site it will make things easier, if they want to keep their reputation they better do something about customer service otherwise they could be given wrong impression to users.

[Mosperian]

I think the bigger problem is the part of customer service, if the customer service are more active and responsive to the varying issues users are encountering in the site it will make things easier, if they want to keep their reputation they better do something about customer service otherwise they could be given wrong impression to users.

Yea the lack of customer service and reliance on tickets and being deferred to the ticket staff and just having no good way to get information anytime money is involved and even more when your site/service clearly isn't built to a high standard of accuracy...it's just a recipe for disatisfaction

[CryptoBry]

This crooked backwards run no good doesn't care one bit about its users ass site directly told me via big ass notification on my account that my wallet was active and I could send BTC as normal. It did NOT tell me I couldnt trade until I contacted support and went through a whole long process. What it said wa s I'd need to verify my phone number and given that it said my wallet was fine and I'd be able to send BTC aka withdraw ifsomething went wrong i went ahead and deposited, which it let me do just fine with zero indication of wallet issues. Well when I tried to verify it said THEN that I couldnt do the thing the note on my account said I needed to do and I had to deal with "3-5 days response time is our best case scenario"  support. Ok that's a little annoying and a bit of a waste of time but oh well not the end of the world. I'll just send the BTC back to myself and sell them another way. WRONG. That giant note encouraging me to deposit and assuring me my wallet is perfectly fine and I'll have no issues sending BTC apparently is a flat out lor at best and an intentional mislead to get my/your money locked into their thieving site at worst. Now my BTC is stuck there until I can deal with support (go check the localbitcoin reddit for an idea of how quick painless and productive that is) and I was told by the site specifically that I wouldn't have this problem.

This is something that LocalBitcoins has to seriously look at because this drives at the very center of the platform...and that is the deterioration of its services to its loyal customers. I understand that this can be an isolated incident but if the same problem can also be happening to others, then complaints will certainly piled up and many will be venting their frustration in different social media and that is something that LocalBitcoins must avoid at all cost. I am hoping that this problem can be solved as soon as possible.

I think the bigger problem is the part of customer service, if the customer service are more active and responsive to the varying issues users are encountering in the site it will make things easier, if they want to keep their reputation they better do something about customer service otherwise they could be given wrong impression to users.

I agree. This is a big failure on the customer service system and maybe of people manning this department. I am not actually passing judgement on LocalBitcoins just based on this incident but if this platform will not arrest a problem at its inception then something like this can grow and have a life of its own. I am sure though that people behind LocalBitcoins are not allowing the goodwill and reputation they worked for years to go to waste.

[Casdinyard]

I am sure though that people behind LocalBitcoins are not allowing the goodwill and reputation they worked for years to go to waste.

But they seem reluctant and quiet about the issue. If they really care about their reputation and considering this isn't the first time, they should have at least a control team that handles this kind of issue. Honestly, implementing KYC is becoming the escape goat of fraudster.

Though not really fan of LB, and just use to buy some satoshis before, hence not used on storing my coins in any exchange site.

[Mosperian]

You're rant isn't very clear but my understanding is that you're saying they have extremely strict kyc and it's essentially locking you out from withdrawals? Local bitcoins built their reputation on anonymous face to face transactions and now it's just a shitty exchange. I would definitely not use them but you're probably going to have to bend over backwards with private information to get your coins back.

i haven't done any selling of bitcoin in a long time and when I did it was using LBC for face to face transactions (like I said on another site i made a thread on I have been a member of LBC for almost 7 years) so when I needed to quickly sell some for venmo or paypal I went with what I knew and had previously has good experiences with. But yea this is where I think they're dping it on purpose and bring shady because bow I have to either play their games (which I wouldn't have bothered with I'd have just gone somewhere else) or surrender my coins to them so either they get a customer to invest time into satisfying them which for many because of sunk cost fallacy will lead people who would have left to stick around and use the service or they get surrendered BTC. This is why I think they hide then lengths you're ron na have to go AND tell you youll be able to withdraw if you decide its not worth it. Without both of those things I'd never have deposited my coins.

Let it be clear in the beginning of this my account told me I just needed to verify my phone number basically to turn trading back on. I started my deposit and then began the process (as most would i think since it also says you can withdraw no problem so by the time you can trade your coins will be there) and it wasnt until I went into my settings and tried to add and verify my number that it told me that no, I can't even go through verifying my number because of this forced vacation shit. This is when I said oh nevremind and tried to withdraw my coins. And here we are. And i am really unhappy. The CM on reddit, who i private messaged, asked for my ticket number several hours ago and i haven't heard back from them but based on how they've responded to others (80%of the posts on the LBC subreddit are similar complaints) im not expexting much.

All I want is a transfer initiated of my coins back to the address they came from. This shouldn't be a problem at all. But it apparently is a huge deal and I think it's for the reasons i said. A deliberate effort to put me and others like me in a bad position where me must invest time into their site or surrender our coins.

I fully intend to use the proceeds from those coins if it takes me days or weeks to get them back to purchase ads everywhere I can linking to threads like this one and highlighting how poorly and unfairly this site is being run.

[Slow death]

I stopped using this site because one day I woke up and when I tried to login said my email and password were not correct, the end my account had been hacked, I desperately sent a ticket to the support who were quick to answer me, to to my surprise they asked me for my passport, proof of residence, asked me to write some things on the paper and take a picture holding the paper along with my face and computer screen. I did it all and my account was recovered. I was relieved, the next day my account was hacked again and I made the same procedure and my account was reactivated.

A month later my account was hacked again, I got tired and gave up of my account.

[DooMAD]

It's certainly disheartening to witness LocalBitcoin's fall from greatness.  Back in 2013, it's unlikely I would have got seriously involved in Bitcoin if they had operated then the way they do now.  I'm also a little surprised about the lack of contenders looking to fill this gap in the market.  I would have thought it would be fairly lucrative to launch a service similar to how LocalBitcoins used to be, without all the KYC.  Is it likely that such services are having issues with the fiat transfer side of things where banks start blocking transfers to and from the escrow accounts if there's no KYC in place?

[Mosperian]

It's certainly disheartening to witness LocalBitcoin's fall from greatness.  Back in 2013, it's unlikely I would have got seriously involved in Bitcoin if they had operated then the way they do now.  I'm also a little surprised about the lack of contenders looking to fill this gap in the market.  I would have thought it would be fairly lucrative to launch a service similar to how LocalBitcoins used to be, without all the KYC.  Is it likely that such services are having issues with the fiat transfer side of things where banks start blocking transfers to and from the escrow accounts if there's no KYC in place?

honestly I think its just a matter of them not being competitive in the market and the niche they used to fill back in 2012/2013/14 era of facilitating face to face transactions is just not really needed so much these days as it has become so much easier than back then to purchase and sell bitcoins. You can sell them directly to cash app or on plenty of exchanges you cash deposit them into poker sites and withdraw cash you can use them in way more ways and for way more things now so actually converting to fiat isn't as necessary even at the basic level. Paxful seems to be a better service in the same vein as far as a dedicated site for facilitating online payment for bitcoins person 2 person so even in this one role they've fallen behind in my opinion.

This is all my opinion having been around and watched things come and go in the bitcoin world/community. It used to be the wild west and even acquiring bitcoin used to be a challenge for people outside of the community but that is just no longer the case. If they didnt have my coins there is zero percent chance I would even consider going through these verification processes to use their service because it's just not necessary enough and doesn't provide enough unique value to warrant that kind of time and effort. Like I've said a few times here and elsewhere in my other threads I believe they know this and that's why they're using shady tactics to get clients to make the time investment to comply with their verification processes in hopes that peoole will then sunk cost fallacy themselves into using the service/sit simply to make the effort and time they invested complying in order to get their coins back feel more worth it. This isn't logical but it's and commonly exploited psychological tic in how humans think and while I don't see anything wrong with companies using psychology to their advantage I do see something wrong with how LBC is going about it.

I just want them to return my coins to my wallet that I sent them from and then they can delete my account for all I care. I am doing and will continue to do whatever I can to avoid having to go through this tiered prcoeds just to get my coins back because honestly after this experience there is zero chance I ever login to LBC again after this is resolved.

[Kyraishi]

I think the bigger problem is the part of customer service, if the customer service are more active and responsive to the varying issues users are encountering in the site it will make things easier, if they want to keep their reputation they better do something about customer service otherwise they could be given wrong impression to users.

Agreed! I've never really had issues with the platform (eg, forced vacations, it's mostly been with the support staff. Doesn't seem fair or viable even to have your customers wait 3-4 days for a response, and then wait another couple days for another one.

They have definetly not been very competitive in the market recently, especially considering they where the best option for OTC trades for such a long time.

Might be time to move over to paxful...

[Mosperian]

I think the bigger problem is the part of customer service, if the customer service are more active and responsive to the varying issues users are encountering in the site it will make things easier, if they want to keep their reputation they better do something about customer service otherwise they could be given wrong impression to users.

Agreed! I've never really had issues with the platform (eg, forced vacations, it's mostly been with the support staff. Doesn't seem fair or viable even to have your customers wait 3-4 days for a response, and then wait another couple days for another one.

They have definetly not been very competitive in the market recently, especially considering they where the best option for OTC trades for such a long time.

Might be time to move over to paxful...

i learned that I couldnt withdraw my coins while trying to send them to paxful actually. Not only is it a better service from what ive seen but I had several buyers ready who were giving a 12k valuation.

Is anyone in here with enough empathy for my situation to help me with a BTC or fiat loan against my coins that are locked up for the next few day to two weeks (going off threads on reddit complaining of how long it takes).

It's not a lot of BTC so.not a large loan needed but it was a lot to me at this time because all of my resources except those coins are tied up in a small personal business im in the midle of launching (moving company. I ran someone else's for a long time and am going to do the same job I've been doing but for 4 times the money).

Anyway I know it's unlikely but I was selling those coins for food and to live so...can't blame me for trying to live and eat.