Sent coins to expired wallet

[harrystiles99]

I sent coins to a vendor who uses an auto generated wallet address and did not have enough coins so I let the order expire and made a new one for less goods but did not realise that the wallet address had changed. I sent it to the wallet address on the 1st order but the vendor says that wallet expires once used and they cannot return my coins because of this.

I checked the blockchain and sure enough the coins are unspent.

Have I lost the coins? I read somewhere they get returned after 30 days but I don't see that now.

I also read someone who said "wallet addresses don't expire and as long as you have access to the wallet that sent them you are ok" but didn't explain why/how I was ok? Was the poster meaning ok because they will be returned?

Any help appreciated.

96c06cff2cf038c1378d84997e8c6bebacd50184bf78151c6d9f8d2b4993e3bc

ELECTRUM 3.3.8

WIN7 64BIT

HUNDREDS OF CONFIRMS
STILL UNSPENT 15HRS LATER

[jackg]

The vendor is lying to you. They have your funds most likely.

Ask them if they use a payment provider or a wallet to process the funds and ask them to check if they've received them and if they haven't it's going to be a problem on their end if the coins have confirmed (it's not your problem if they can't handle btc)...

[harrystiles99]

Jack thanks for the reply.

The vendor is very honest Jack I have had lots of business with them. I think its more likely they don't know how to sort this its a very new shop and system they use where you put items in a basket/cart and when you finish and click "make order" it comes up and tells you the amount of bitcoin to send and gives you a wallet address.

If you don't send the btc within 15 mins the order gets rejected.

I just didn't realise the address changed with every new order.

I will send them your second line of advice and keep it friendly to see what they say.

Thanks very much for your help I will let you know what happens.

If the coins do remain unspent do they get returned?

[nc50lc]

If the coins do remain unspent do they get returned?

May I?
No they won't, sent bitcoins are irreversible once the transaction was confirmed (yours currently has 251 confirmations).
If you have posted earlier when you've just sent the txn, there may be a chance.

This is useful when you accidentally sent to the wrong address again:
Since you're using Electrum, I'd suggest you to upgrade to the latest version 4.0.4 from the official site (and verify the file's signature).
That version has an option to "cancel (double-spend)" an unconfirmed transaction if it's marked as rbf (default: on).

[farrellronald]

they are most likely lying. as long as i know, they usually don't expire unless you change some basics.
ask them about their wallet

[DaveF]

If you don't mind telling us what vendor?
If they are using some 3rd party service like coingate or bitpay you might have to go through the processor to get your coins back.
If they are doing it themselves then yeah what everyone else said, they have your coins.

-Dave

[mocacinno]

You say they're honest, but are they competent? Seems like they have no clue about they payment method they're accepting...

From your point of view, it doesn't even matter all that much whether they used a third party payment gateway or not, you are the customer, they (or a third party working for them) generated a deposit address for you, you deposited funds to said address, they (or the third party working for them) now have access to your funds. That's it, end of discussion.
The only way this discussion would be able to continue is if you were victim of a copy/paste virus or a phishing site...

It IS possible they work with a third party, and they have little understanding of what's actually going on, but that does not excuse them from giving false information to their client. Least they should have done is contact the third party provider themselfs to sort things out, that's just good customer service. This, however, could be qualified as bad customer service IMHO.

[jackg]

The vendor is very honest Jack I have had lots of business with them. I think its more likely they don't know how to sort this its a very new shop and system they use where you put items in a basket/cart and when you finish and click "make order" it comes up and tells you the amount of bitcoin to send and gives you a wallet address.

If you don't send the btc within 15 mins the order gets rejected.

Yeah it looks like they'll just have to contact the third party/payment processor and the funds should be returned by them to them.
If you've used him before also you've got less to worry about too as you'll be more likely to come to an agreement imo if something did happen and the payment processor won't return funds (although they should).

[HCP]

I sent it to the wallet address on the 1st order but the vendor says that wallet expires once used and they cannot return my coins because of this.

Wallets don't "expire"... this confusion is all created by payment processors requiring that a transaction be "sent" within a set timeframe (ie. 10-15 minutes) and claiming that the address will "expire" if it isn't.

The short answer is, your coins were sent and received. So, whomever created that address (vendor or payment processor) has your coins. They either need to refund the coins or honour the purchase.