Complaint Review: Coinbase.com - San Francisco California

For anyone thinking about registering with Coinbase, please read because you may think again:

I had just finished the long and arduous process of verifying my personal and bank information. According to Coinbase, I was allowed to purchase up to $3,000 worth of Bitcoins per day. I assumed this would be a smooth transaction, considering the fact that I had already completed 2 successful transactions on their site, I had no reason to think this would turn out to be such a nightmare experience.

I waited patiently for the price of Bitcoin to fall, and when it did, I tried to buy 7.50 Bitcoins(BTC) for $2,966.97. I received an automated email confirming the transaction, and that the Bitcoins would be in my account(wallet) by next week. I was concerned because nothing appeared on my dashboard that showed that any transaction had happened. The only thing that did happen was the 3k yanked out of my bank account! I spoke with  live chat representative "Luke" who was not helpful. He simply stated it was out of his hands and to email [email protected]. I get a response:

James MacWhyte replied:

Hurley
Customer Support Team"

I sent numerous emails and waited for days and no word from the "supervisor". This is a matter of concern for anyone who is thinking about using them because if their whole system is based around email, then it should be fast and customer friendly. There is no other way of contacting them e.g. by phone or live rep, which is questionable already.

Finally, I receive another automated response that states:

"Hi Alex,

On Oct 15, 2014 you purchased 7.50 BTC via bank transfer for $2,966.97.

Unfortunately, we have decided to cancel this order because it appears to be high risk. We do not send out any bitcoins on high risk transactions, and you will receive a refund to your bank account in 3-4 business days.

Please understand that we do this to keep the community safe and avoid fraudulent transactions. Apologies if you are one of the good users who gets caught up in this preventative measure - we don't get it right 100% of the time, but we need to be cautious when it comes to preventing fraud.

You may have more luck trying again in a few weeks. Best of luck and thank you for trying Coinbase.

Kind regards,

The Coinbase Team"

From my end, I had already done more than my due diligence giving out both my personal and bank info e.g. Social Security #, DOB, account & credit card numbers etc. All of which was verified which allowed me to make 2 prior transactions. However, when the price of Bitcoin fell and I tried to make a big purchase, is when they selectively decided the transaction would not be honored.

I've had much better experiences with other Bitcoin related companies so I was shocked at the lack of profesionalism. Integrity is crucial and considering how Bitcoin is still very new, companies like Coinbase have a responsibility to both customers and to the Bitcoin community to show good faith and erase negative stigmas. The government does not like competition and is paying a close eye. I don't know how much longer they will decide to keep this up. If they can't resolve my account,  I'm going to seek other alternatives like Bitpay.

By the way, I did a test run and tried buying when the price shot up, the transaction went through. Very interesting . . .