Intersango aren't a scam. They're having trouble with their choice of UK banking partner - Metro Bank - again. Quite why they continue to use these guys, given their continued account lockouts and the range of excuses given, is hard to tell. One thing to note is that Metro Bank appear to be an independent UK retail bank - i.e. not a subsidiary of a giant insolvent foreign bank, or owned by Lloyds Banking Group and hence ultimately the government. Going for a small independent bank makes *some* sense to me, but Metro *really* have to raise their game, since it's impacting Intersango in a material fashion.
Why should anyone listen to me? Well, I'm not linked to Intersango in any way, and have no reason to cheerlead for them, but since I started using them back in the Britcoin days they've *always* eventually come good when there have been any problems.
As of today, I've received four of the five outstanding withdrawals, so that's over £500 confirmed. Add that to the list of successful withdrawals
Their customer service is surprisingly good - from the trolling on here, you'd think that they never communicate with customers. Nothing could be further from the truth. Perhaps they don't have an employee sitting on these damn forums 24/7 replying to trolls, but that should be acceptable from a *genuine* business.
I've made my concerns known via their ticketing system, and had prompt and personal response from senior Intersango staff. Not a template response, but a considered reply to my queries.
Why would a scam company operate like this? They've had multiple chances to cut and run - but they have not. None of the freezes have been due to Intersango system failures - they were *all* due to Metro Bank account control lockouts. And if your chosen exchange provider has a technical problem with a partner bank, would you rather your money be *frozen* or handed back totally to the exchange operators? Think about it.
No, it's not great that Metro Bank have had so many issues coping with Intersango's business, which is not so insanely high volume that it's out of Metro Bank's level of competency. Intersango should have more than one UK bank so there's no single point of failure. But from their point of view, which has always been 'security' IME, having a single UK banking partner makes cashflow control easier and reduces the number of possible attack vectors for security threats.
Basically, the FUD being thrown around here is nothing more than a direct claim that Intersango directors have no integrity and are thieves-in-waiting. There is no evidence for any wrongdoing. Hence any claim that people should pull their funds from Intersango, due to what is *known* to be a problem with a partner bank, is simply a slur on the honesty and integrity of the Intersango team. If you compare the anonymity and track record of Intersango's directors to the anonymity and track record of those spreading FUD here, hopefully you'll come to the right conclusion...
The Bitcoin world is bigger than just this forum and the loudest voices here. Intersango is a large exchange and deals with a large volume of business. Why should they devote an entire FTE of staff cost to managing their image on a chat forum?
As a customer, if you'd put in a support ticket, you will have received a reply. My queries were replied to in detail and completely satisfactory answers given. And now my money is flowing back, as expected.
The Intersango guys appear to be in Bitcoin for the long run. They're putting a lot of effort and all their resources into Bitcoin and should be applauded. I know that many scams have taken place in the BTC economy... but accusing *every* successful business of being a potential fraud doesn't help new entrepreneurs wanting to make a splash in the market, does it?
The precautionary principle is all well and good, but accusing everyone of being a criminal is going FAR too far.