HN Explorer

Ask HN: Help Coinbase ate my $5,000.00

54 points by redm ↗ HN
About a month ago I wired $5,000.00 to my Coinbase account. A straight forward process, they provided wire information and a reference number so they can attribute the funds to my account. The wire went through, but the funds never appeared in my account.

No problem, Coinbase is slammed, having outages, busy, etc. I waited. After about a week I sent my first email to their customer service. No response.

No problem, I sent another email after about ten days. I waited. After 15 days I got a response to my second ticket, not my first (which I assume is lost). It read: "This is an automated email. As we experience rapid growth, we are also experiencing a high volume of support requests, and we regret not being able to answer your inquiry in a reasonable amount of time."

No problem, I will wait. After about 20 days I re-read the email. Apparently, they close the ticket automatically, even though they never actually responded and you have to respond to re-open it. "If you require further assistance, please reply to this message with a note that you still need help." So now I responded saying that I still needed help.

Problem. Now we are are passing 30 days, no real response, no money in my account, and no way to contact Coinbase.

Any ideas?

22 comments

[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 44.2 ms ] thread
Zekio
could contact your bank and try to get them to reverse the transfer
redm
It's worth a try; that would require the receiving bank to return it from the Coinbase account. Maybe they would have a better line to Coinbase then I'm getting.
sharemywin
Phone: 415-843-1515 548 Market Street #23008 San Francisco, 94104 California, United States

Read more at CB Insights: https://www.cbinsights.com/company/coinbase

redm
I tried the number 3 times to make sure: "Your call cannot be completed as dialed, please check the number and dial again."

I had a friend go to the office on Market Street but since it's in a high-rise, there's no admittance to their floor from the lobby.

djb_hackernews
Email the CEO: brian@coinbase.com
redm
Done.. I'll update if I get a response.
redm
I did actually get a response from Brian's email indicating I would get transferred to priority support. We'll see what happens.
jamesjguthrie
Coinbase is horrible. Their customer service is none existent. I waited 6 weeks to get my bank account verified so that I could make withdrawals to my bank. They say send at least 6 EUR to their Estonia account. I sent 10 EUR and it never got verified. I e-mailed numerous times, tweeted their support account, and tweeted the CEO. No response from an actual person at all.

Moved my ETH and LTC elsewhere and sold to a private buyer.

redm
I had a very similar experience getting my bank account verified. It took 3 weeks and two attempts. Through it all, I too never got a response from Coinbase customer service. I guess that should have been an indicator but I've heard Coinbase is the biggest in the US and had have taken $25+ million in funding; I figured they were a pretty safe choice.
mdotk
At what point do you consider it theft? 6+ weeks had to be up there...
askafriend
AMZN had a solid run in the past 6+ weeks. The opportunity cost of not having your money for that long is just too high. Especially if it's in limbo and not in some kind of strategic investment.
1ris
Send them a invoice of USD 5000, for the service you hoped to get, but didn't receive. Include a dead line. Send via registered mail. Probably nothing will happen.

Go a small claims court and pay probably not more than USD 200.

Most other suggest to ask nicely. You already did, nothing happend and from history i doesn't seem like it ever will.

soloadventurer
Coinbase is a UK company. To take them to small claims court, you will need to file in the UK.

Interestingly, Coinbase UK Ltd. has no share capital and the 2015 financial statements show a going concern. [1]

[1] https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/09083955/filing-h...

EDIT: I just realized connecting from outside the US shows a contract between Coinbase UK, whereas when using a VPN from the US shows Coinbase Inc. So please disregard.

[dead] revmoo
Please post an update in a week. If they haven't resolved this I intend to pull all my funds.
kilimchoi
This happened to my friend too. It seems like a regular thing
[dead] kilimchoi
This happened to my friend too. It seems like a regular thing
DanBC
In England you'd write a letter before action. This would set out what happened, why it's wrong, and what you want them to do to put it right. You'd give them a time limit - maybe 14 days. You'd send it by mail, by signed-for delivery.

Then if they haven't put things right in the time limit you'd go to court, which can be done online now.

I think a similar process exists where you are, and would focus coinbase into fixing the problem.