My experience with the alt-coin exchange, CoinEx. Having spent in excess of 3 months attempting to gain access to my coins that had been deposited on this exchange, raising multiple support tickets, exchanging multiple emails them, they’ve failed to return them losing me 0.149BTC (at the exchange rate of the coins at the time).
The loss of the coins became secondary to finding out if this exchange was actual capable of dealing with problems, while it’s a decent amount of money that’s not to be sniffed at, there will be others who could lose far more and/or not be able to afford the loss of this money due to electricity bills and the like.
Below, are all the message exchanged between ourselves throughout this along with links to the best evidence that what’s written here is accurate (screen shots of the emails in my Gmail). I’m not a lawyer and I’m not trying to bring a legal case here, I’m simply sharing the experience I’ve had, it’s entirely upto those who read this to decide whether to use this exchange or not. Given the recent collapse of Mt. Gox, I believe it’s important that we all share information of these exchanges so that we’re better able to decide whether to trust them and hopefully improve their standards when it comes to dealing with the safety and security of OUR money, which they profit from.
The times should not be considered exact as some are taken from ticket times (their timezone) and email reponses (my timezone), I’ve tried to correct them to be the same timezone, but due to how Gmail orders and formats everything, I may have made some mistakes. Just getting (hopefully) every email listed here AND in the correct order has taken quite some time.
Ticket raised by me Jan 04 20:41
Hi all,
Installed new ROM on phone and hence lost my Google Authenticator. Could you remove the TFA from my account so I can set up again please.
Also, Just noticed the price of MOON went through my asking prices today, yet my coins remain for sale. Could you let me know how this happens please.
Thanks
Response from CaptainFuture to above ticket Jan 05 02:24
To disable TFA from your account we need a copy of your ID or the exact account creation time.
trading question: not sure. if you have f.e. a buy order at 3 and many others too, it will processed first come first serve...
My Response Jan 05 02:33
Well, ID won't won't help because I didn't set anything up on the account
that's shown on any ID and as for exact account set up time, that's
ridiculous, noone knows that especially as you don't have email
confirmations when setting up accounts.
Response from CaptainFutureJan 05 02:35
ID = copy of passport or driving license
My response Jan 05 02:41
Which doesn't have my email address. That's all the information I've
provided to you.
You don't have my name, address (which is different to my D.L anyway) or a
photo of me, so all you're going to achieve is to get that information
without confirming whether I'm the account holder or not.
Is this really the solution you have for people to change/disable TFA on
their accounts? Whoever thought this was a good solution needs to be fired
and have sunflower seeds implanted in their toenails.
The only way you're able to verify an account holder is through email which
is happening here. Please just disable TFA on my account and put resolving
this issue as a top priority before others feel as I now do about your
service.
Response from erundook (coinEX)
Jan 05 12:24
Hello,
Okay, since you don't want to go our default TFA resetting way, we can go BTC-e way for your account. It will be locked down for two weeks. In that period we look for confused emails about account being locked from the original owner, so we can verify that it wasn't a random guy hacking into an email account and asking us to reset the TFA for it. If you prefer this way, this is not a problem. While you're being rude and think your issue is more important than everyone's else tickets, this seems to be a perfect way.
Thanks.
N.B. As I’ve since come to realise the confusion, I’d like to point out that I intended for them to work on a decent system for disabling TFA as a top priority, not for them to prioritise my issue. I have seen a few decent alternatives than asking for I.D that cannot be validated or locking someone out of their account for two weeks (which turned into 3 months).
It also seems that they’d started sending account creation email confirmations since I’d initially set up my account however, they’ve shown concern that it’s possible for someone to hack a users email account, which would then give them the account set up date and time making that a useless security check aswell.
Me
Jan 05 18:29
Do that then please.
erundook (coinEX)
Jan 06 13:19
Done.
I then started trying to log in from around the 17th or so (I don’t know when exactly) and have password reset emails starting on the 19th as I wasn’t sure if I’d got it wrong or it had been reset during the lockout. I acknowledge this may have caused problems for us with me trying to gain access to the account, however it’s therefore another problem they should be acknowledging and addressing.
New support ticket raised
Jan 22 17:44
This is a follow-up to your previous request [redacted] "Need to disable TFA"
Hi.
Can you unlock my account now please, it's now over the two weeks
previously stated.
I didn’t receive a response to this ticket so I emailed:
24 January 2014 15:55
I have yet to receive a response about unlocking my account and it doesn't [appear] to be unlocked.
I've tried changing the password in case I'd been putting it in wrong, having waited 2 weeks, so I don't know if I'm caught in a reset loop or something.
Again, no response so another ticket raised
Feb 03 20:48
It appears my account remains locked, a couple weeks after it was due to be unlocked. Please unlock my account I have coins there I'd like to liquidate.
Thanks
Still no response so ANOTHER ticket raised, it’s clear I’m getting angry (but it worked)
Feb 06 18:03
Issue: (ticket numbers listed)
If I'm unable to access my account and funds or at least receive a response from yourselves on this matter by Tuesday 11th February 2014 (over 5 weeks after my initial problem), I will be taking this matter further.
Loewen Brad Coinex (coinEX)
Feb 08 15:41
Hi
We are very sorry for the delay and any inconvenience this issue may be causing you. You are on our list for processing.
Thank You
captainfuture (coinEX)
Feb 16 11:46
This request was closed (feb 03 21:48) and merged into request #redacted "Re: [coinEX] Re: Need to disable...".
captainfuture (coinEX)
Feb 16 11:46
More [redacted] merging
Thanks
captainfuture (coinEX)
Feb 16 11:47
can you provide us any informations that this is your acount?
for example account creation time, or trades or withdrawals you id, or miner settings, or a copy of your ID ?
My email response 16 feb 11:59
The whole point of you suspending my account was because that was the only option provided that made sense to validate my email address hadn't been compromised.
ID is of no use, you hold no information that can tally with any ID I can provide.
No-one's going to know exactly when they created their account as there was no account verification or welcome email upon account creation.
All I can say is that I sent 1.5m MOON on 2014*01*03 @ 17:39 UTC. Those coins were in the wallet held by yourselves until 2014.01.31 when they were moved out according to block explorer. I don't know if they'd been sold as I don't recall what prices I had them for.
On that account should be (unless 'hopefully' sold):
1.5m MOON
~1GLD (my first mining attempt).
I believe you misunderstood my message previously when you called me rude and selfish. I wasn't demanding you deal with my MY problem before everyone else's, I was suggesting you look at the 2FA issue as people will lose their phones and need 2FA disabling.
Loewen Brad Coinex (coinEX)
Feb 18 16:30
This is a follow-up to your previous request #the threat ticket.
Hi
We are very sorry for the delay in processing your request, but it should be taken care of now and TFA on your account should now be disabled. If you have any more problems, feel free to let us know and we will attempt to take care of it as soon as possible.
Thank You
Me
Feb 18 17:12
Hi Brad,
Thanks for getting on to this. While I believe you've done what's
necessary, I fear I may be in a password reset loop now.
I've tried resetting the password so many times now without knowing if it's
been working, that when I've just tried the password I believe it was
previously, it failed and setting new password's also not allowing me in
"incorrect email/password"
I seem to be doomed to never get back in and just be "one of those users".
Loewen Brad Coinex (coinEX)
Feb 19 03:55
Hi
This is a know issue and we are currently trying to figure out why it's happening. To solve your issue though, simply log in from the root page:
http://coinex.pw instead of from one of the trading or mining pages.
Thank You
My Email response 19 feb 20:09
Still exactly the same thing.
pretty much always have trying from
https://coinex.pw/ (with 's' that was missing from the address you gave).
Tried another two resets, getting sorter and simpler each time in case it's a known issue of password complexity, but it seems I'm not still not permitted access to my own coins, now more than 6 weeks after trying to disable 2FA which should have been SIMPLE.
If this is occurring with everyone, I can understand why it's taking so long for these tickets to be responded to.
Sorry, but either Coinex or I deserve this
http://i.stack.imgur.com/jiFfM.jpgLoewen Brad Coinex (coinEX)
Feb 19 22:06
Hi
That is very odd. I just tried personally logging in from several different pages. They all work just fine and I'm not receiving an incorrect password error on any of the pages. I honestly don't know what's going wrong here. We will keep investigation this issue. Oh, and thank you for the double facepalm. I laughed when that popped up on my monitor.
Thank You
My Email response 19 feb 22:14
Thanks man.
I created a different account a few weeks back using @googlemail instead of @gmail (so same email but not as far as a computer will see it).
Not had a single issue with this other account (except the prices still don't go the way I want).
Would you be able to just transfer the balances across or something?
Just trying to find a way to get this sorted, it's taking up so much time on both sides of these convos, I'm sure you guys n girls have had more than enough of me
Thanks for persevering, I'd pretty much given up with you guys, but I'm feeling more confident gradually
Loewen Brad Coinex (coinEX)
Feb 19 22:06
Hi
That is very odd. I just tried personally logging in from several different pages. They all work just fine and I'm not receiving an incorrect password error on any of the pages. I honestly don't know what's going wrong here. We will keep investigation this issue. Oh, and thank you for the double facepalm. I laughed when that popped up on my monitor.
Thank You
Me
Feb 19 22:14
Thanks man.
I created a different account a few weeks back using @googlemail instead of
@gmail (so same email but not as far as a computer will see it).
Not had a single issue with this other account (except the prices still
don't go the way I want).
Would you be able to just transfer the balances across or something?
Just trying to find a way to get this sorted, it's taking up so much time
on both sides of these convos, I'm sure you guys n girls have had more than
enough of me
Thanks for persevering, I'd pretty much given up with you guys, but I'm
feeling more confident gradually
Loewen Brad Coinex (coinEX)
Feb 19 22:17
Hi
Doing a balance transfer is something that is possible for us to do. I'll forward this ticket to erundook so he can take a look at it.
Thank You
Nothing then happened, so I raised a new ticket
Mar 13 20:03
It's now been over 3 months and still I'm locked out from my account, my coins have not been transferred, I've not received a message about this transfer having been told "erundook" could do it and I'm just amazed at how you treat users.
Yet, I still persist in giving you a chance after chance, after chance after more chances because I'm clearly a moron!
No response again, so I gave them a final chance
Mar 15 22:27
As I've now had several requests from folks as to why I recommend avoiding CoinEx, I've started writing a post detailing every interaction with yourselves while trying to get my coins back.
This will be posted on several forums and linked to in as many places as possible due to your continued ignorance of this matter.
I've tried being reasonable with you guys over this (what I now consider) theft of my coins but you've continued to show utter ineptitude, arrogance, ignorance and general lack of respect for a user of your service.
As such, I'm stating for the final time. Resolve whatever the issue is with my [redacted]@gmail.com account or transfer the coins from there to my [redacted]@googlemail.com account by 2200 UTC Monday 2014/03/17 to avoid these interactions (and lack thereof) from going as public as I can make them.
Empty promises and apologies will not cut it, which is all I received the last time I threatened this.
THE END
I’d like to make a special mention of “Brad Loewen” here, he’s the only one that I would consider a decent customer service rep, he showed patience, humility and decency which put me at far more ease making the interactions smoother and more pleasant for (hopefully) both sides.
Captain future on the other hand is shockingly bad at customer service and should not be in this role, he reminds me of myself, I’m not good at customer facing roles either, I get impatient which shows to the customer and is just bad, hence I try to avoid this role.
I’m quite happy to acknowledge I myself could have handled this situation better but as a customer who felt he was ‘usually’ dealing with people that shouldn’t be in the role they have, was consistently ignored, told things would happen that didn’t and having to repeat myself several time, I know full well that my responses were pretty average as I’ve read several transcripts in my time as a human being.
As I’ve stated above, I leave it up to each of you who read this to make up your minds as to whether you chose to use CoinEx’s service or not, I’m not trying to tell anyone NOT to use them, just reporting my experiences, partly because it’s been requested by several people when I’ve stated I no longer use them but mostly because businesses like this should be held to account.
I wish you all a good day and happy trading!
