eXch - instant exchange BTC / LN / XMR / LTC / ETH / ERC20

[fillippone]

Customer support is an highly underrated feature of any service.
Common wisdom:
When everything is good, you don't even care.
When things go south, you are probably already losing a customer, so customer support is not worth the hassle.

Reality is I value a good service when they have a very good customer support.
Think of Amazon.

For an exchange, solving issues in a matter of hours is the best way to retain customers.

[nc50lc]

I can't access the clearnet website right now.
It'll either return with 502 "Bad Gateway" error or wont totally load at all.

But the onion website works although there's intermittent down times.
Sometimes it shows "The connection has timed out" unlike the usual security risk warning that can be skipped.

Is the server being DDOS~ed of something?

[NotATether]

I believe that they have not yet fully resolved the issue with the ETH node that they had at the beginning of June. (Around that time, NotATether ran a swap on the exch platform)

Let me make a clarification - it wasn't a swap, but a payout - at the time of writing, over 0.047BTC (some people made a bunch of BTC-ETH and BTC-XMR swaps).

After the debacle with Tumbler where I lost over 0.033BTC, I obviously wasn't happy with going through delays a second time.

I at least got a message from SYSTEM the other day (whatever that is):

SYSTEM / Sun Jul 7 17:23:11 2024
This question is now on hold, we are working on it to provide a solution.

So someone has at least read my recent replies.

All they have to do is activate my account so that I can go about my way, not sure why it would take weeks to do that...

[d5000]

I confirm that currently the clearnet site isn't opening from my location too. Onion site shows the 503 message.

DDoSes happen every now and then. A couple of pages earlier they wrote that this occurred often on Mondays. Usually after 3-4 hours at most the service is back online.  If it's longer and/or there is another problem they usually write about it on https://exch.cx/status.

PS: For me it got back around 6-7 hours after the outage happened (maybe earlier of course).

[mikeywith]

SYSTEM / Sun Jul 7 17:23:11 2024
This question is now on hold, we are working on it to provide a solution.

So someone has at least read my recent replies.

eXch account on the forum was online a few hours ago (i believe it was almost a month since they appeared online), so it seems like someone is finally there.

I agree with most comments about customer support, it must be take seriously, at the same time I do understand that eXch folks are not running an average business, everything that isn't KYC based is always under pressure, I don't think they have the luxury of hiring enough employees or to operate in a nice building, but obviously, nothing is a good excuse to keep a client waiting for weeks.

Hopefully this is the last time they go unresponsive for this long.  

[GazetaBitcoin]

I don't think they have the luxury of hiring enough employers or to operate in a nice building, but obviously, nothing is a good excuse to keep a client waiting for weeks.

That was also my thought. They are doing a lot of work with very few employees, most likely...

DDoSes happen every now and then.

As a plus, if they are facing also DDoS attacks often, they channel most of their resources to deal with these attacks. The situation is not bright at all, indded, both for them and also for the customers.

I confirm that currently the clearnet site isn't opening from my location too.

I confirm, I am also unable to access the website.

[Buchi-88]

In the course of the little reminder from icopress, I have adapted the German translation and brought it up to date, additionally I have adapted the wrong image/link from F-Droid (in the original thread it is displayed as invalid image).



[ANN] eXch Exchange Tausche direkt ohne KYC BTC / LN / XMR / LTC / ETH / ERC20

I will always try to keep the thread halfway up to date.

.

[ABCbits]

I confirm that currently the clearnet site isn't opening from my location too.

I confirm, I am also unable to access the website.

I just tried it and i can access both clearnet and onion. Although i did that 50 minutes after you write that reply.

[GazetaBitcoin]

I have adapted the German translation and brought it up to date

Thank you for this observation, Buchi! I did not realize the changes made to OP and I saw them only now, after you made this mention...
As a consequence, I also updated the Romanian version of the thread with the new information from OP.

Having this in mind, I would also like to add this kind reminder, to update their translations, to the other users which translated this thread: safar1980, sabotag3x and blue Snow.

I just tried it and i can access both clearnet and onion. Although i did that 50 minutes after you write that reply.

Now it works for me too... I tried also the reserve domains and they are also functional.

[Buchi-88]

@eXch

I got the following questions from the German thread:

Sinnvoll wäre noch die Option im Vorfeld zu hinterlegen das man für 100 Euro oder Dollar Bitcoin in Monero tauschen möchte.
Ohne vorher auszurechnen wie der Kurs gerade steht.
Oder einfach ich möchte am Ende Monero für 100 Euro haben, was muss ich an Bitcoin inklusive aller Gebühren einzahlen.
Und warum sind eigentlich bei BTC->XMR 5% Gebühren?

Translated into English it means the following:

- It would also make sense to specify in advance that you want to exchange Bitcoin for Monero for 100 Euros or Dollars.
Without having to calculate the current exchange rate.
Or simply, I would like to have Monero for 100 Euros at the end, what do I have to deposit in Bitcoin including all fees?

- And why are there actually 5% fees for BTC->XMR?

THX and regards

[LoyceV]

I'm fully aware that service desk costs money (personal and time)

I don't think money is a problem here. They've recently donated quite a lot of money, and there's this:

Bisq is one and the only truly decentralized exchange which we often recommend to our customers without any greed feelings, since our primary goal is not to make money but to defend some cypherpunk ideas instead.

My guess, and that's just a guess: if you're in the privacy business, you can't easily hire people. You'll need to completely trust someone with access to your system. You can't just hire someone from Indeed.

I'm fully aware that service desk costs money (personal and time), but a serious business should meet some reasonable SLAs, at minimum don't celebrate the art of silence. And frankly, a customer shouldn't need to guess why they have trouble to respond to tickets in a timely manner.

You can be reliable and trustworthy for years with your business but you can also drive loyal customers away quite fast.

When I contacted an unknown instant exchanger, they responded within hours. You can't compare Coinbase, I have much higher expectations from small businesses that are personally active on Bitcointalk.

[paid2]

I got the following questions from the German thread:

- It would also make sense to specify in advance that you want to exchange Bitcoin for Monero for 100 Euros or Dollars.
Without having to calculate the current exchange rate.
Or simply, I would like to have Monero for 100 Euros at the end, what do I have to deposit in Bitcoin including all fees?

IMO, he just needs to calculate how much XMR or whatever coin he want and he should use Flat Rate instead of Dynamic Rate, like this the amount he'll receive will be the same as the amount he entered when creating the exchange.

- And why are there actually 5% fees for BTC->XMR?

I will quote eXch:

The service fee increase is a loss prevention mechanism of our exchange and usually only affects highly volatile coins, which in that case was XMR. Don't forget that we don't resell Binance like other swappers, so charging 0.5% which often causes a loss of our own reserves is not always an option.

The first service fee spike for XMR pairs was caused by OKX delisting XMR.

The second service fee spike for XMR pairs was caused by Binance attacking XMR by delisting announcement and price manipulation involving various techniques not obvious to most people (except ones who have been here enough to know how all this speculative market works and has nothing in common with tech)

As a service that provides its own liquidity for trades, we have to protect our liquidity from extreme volatily in order to prevent losing our capital.

If we increase a price by 5% 10% or 22% it means we only do it to protect ourselves from some factors currently affecting the coin's price and not to make extra gains.

We are barely able to make any profits even with a current 5% service fee but it's at least a good (and only) mean of protection against high volatility.

However, we are considering to keep 5% on selling XMR in future because our service is now used by many other services with a purpose of mixing, therefore it's absolutely inconvenient for us to work hard acquiring XMR then give it away for nothing to some other service that makes considerable gains based off our hard work acquiring XMR. Same for users who only use eXch for mixing their BTC through XMR - we don't consider it honest when some of them complain about 5% for the level anonymity they will take from our service without recurring to chaining their funds flow through different services that might cost them far more than just 5% (and who are often eXch's resellers).

I wonder why recently some pairs BTC-XMR for example charge 5% fees on eXch when just few months ago it was 0.5% fee ?
OP does all the pairs will soon be at 5% fee? or it will stay only for ETH-XMR BTC-XMR ?
It's sad this eXch was the best in the industry until it became overpriced just recently..

I understand i just hope this 5% fee will not apply to all the pairs in the future, and it is indeed for re-balancing the liquidity.

A price increase of 5% on XMR won't make us worse for sure, because first of all it's justified and secondly we are the only service offering a set of unique privacy/anonymity options and features.

And no, we do not plan to impose a 5% service fee to other pairs unless it becomes necessary, like it was/is in case of XMR.

[examplens]

Let me make a clarification - it wasn't a swap, but a payout - at the time of writing, over 0.047BTC (some people made a bunch of BTC-ETH and BTC-XMR swaps).

After the debacle with Tumbler where I lost over 0.033BTC, I obviously wasn't happy with going through delays a second time.

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see earlier that it was about affiliate earnings. If it is the first withdrawal, they may have additional checks before approval, although I'm not sure why additional checks are needed because affiliate earning is calculated only after a successful transaction.

In order to have withdrawals enabled, we will request to provide description of your project or social activity

[paid2]

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see earlier that it was about affiliate earnings. If it is the first withdrawal, they may have additional checks before approval, although I'm not sure why additional checks are needed because affiliate earning is calculated only after a successful transaction.

In order to have withdrawals enabled, we will request to provide description of your project or social activity

Because they ask to check proofs of public posts which includes the ref link, only public affiliation is ok as per their conditions.

[JollyGood]

It is a welcomed sign they are active again, the last time being 8th July 2024.

If these things become repetitive they hamper and tarnish the company name therefore when eXch return to post here along with an explanation about their absence (and lack of customer communication), I think they will take onboard all of the posts members have made related to their silence and for all we know this could be a one-off with a very reasonable explanation.

eXch account on the forum was online a few hours ago (i believe it was almost a month since they appeared online), so it seems like someone is finally there.

I agree with most comments about customer support, it must be take seriously, at the same time I do understand that eXch folks are not running an average business, everything that isn't KYC based is always under pressure, I don't think they have the luxury of hiring enough employees or to operate in a nice building, but obviously, nothing is a good excuse to keep a client waiting for weeks.

Hopefully this is the last time they go unresponsive for this long.  

[Cricktor]

So how do you expect eXch, which is only taking 0.5 or 1% on most of their swaps, to offer perfect support when big CEXs such as Coinbase already fail to do so? I say this because in normal circumstances eXch has always replied to me within 2 or 3 days maximum, so if, for example, there's a peak in activity and therefore potential tickets, I'd understand that they could be overwhelmed.

I'm prepared to sometimes have to wait for a ticket to be processed if it gives me access to a swap with no log, no account, no kyc, which supports non-profit projects, and which I know will get back to me sooner or later.  

I think I know parts of service desk business a bit, been there, seen a few things. It's a business decision how you need or want to run your service desk and how many tickets you expect to get. If you offer a service, of course you're dependent how smooth your service runs. On bumpy roads, expect way more tickets to shake loose.

If exceptional things happen, you likely have to adapt or you risk drowning in tickets which doesn't make anyone happy, not the customers, not the poor service desk and business fellows.

There's rarely a perfect support, except if a business wants to surpass competitors or bind customers "at all costs". Mostly only very big business can afford such a strategy. Amazon is probably an example. On the other hand, what they invest in good support, they squeeze out in other parts of their business, employees pay their price. I digress...

Personally, I can accept somewhat slow progress with support if there're understandable reasons, when I know it's likely a small support team, a smaller business and the current misery isn't systematic, they might be caught by some surprising issues. What I don't want and like to accept is what I call "the art of silence", non-responsive no-action at all for unbearable periods of time. There's no excuse for that!

If you're drowning in tickets, you should still have the decency to send out semi-automated responses, giving the customer at least a little bit the impression that his issue isn't completely lost. I won't have this impression when there's no response for weaks, period!

It may sound funny, but really, I can wait if I know I'm slowly progressing to the point where a decent human takes care of my ticket and hopefully resolves it in a constructive way or to my satisfaction. I'm willing to be patient, but only if I know that within somewhat reasonable time, my ticket will be definitely being worked on. A few waterlevel pings can do magic. YMMV!

[fillippone]

Hopefully, with clearnet and onion websites back online, acktivity on the forum bay the eXch account being online again, things will resume going north again.
Still, a few clarifications on what happened would be more than welcome.

[BitMaxz]

It seems they have an online chat on SimpleX they confirmed my request after a day of waiting to be connected to them the only problem is they don't reply maybe because my message is not very important.

I just tried it and i can access both clearnet and onion. Although i did that 50 minutes after you write that reply.

The clearnet is accessible on my side. I think the reason why the Clearnet has been down recently might be because of the recent Cloudflare maintenance.

[nc50lc]

I think the reason why the Clearnet has been down recently might be because of the recent Cloudflare maintenance.

eXch's clearnet website do not use Cloudflare, you can read it in the OP or even in the website's banner itself.
It says "→ Cloudflare-free" on the upper-right hand side of the page.

Whatever the reason was, it had something to do with their server.

[dkbit98]

A .onion site without https isn't insecure. See HTTPS for your Onion Service

Please show us some example of onion websites that are using HTTPS instead of HTTP.
Most onion websites I know are using HTTP.
Mempool.space has http, OrangeFren and Trocador is using http, Mullvad VPN is using http, and I can give many more examples.
Are you saying that all of them are insecure?

I've also a ticket from mid June, still unanswered. I tried to contact OrangeFren (as he's often in contact with eXch), and he told me that he does not have heard from the team either unfortunately. Apparently a batch of tickets was solved recently, so I guess it is only a matter of time for ours.

I am sure they have very small support team, and they grow a lot during last year, maybe it's time for them  to hire more people as support help.
They should also try to be more active in bitcointalk forum.