Today I have waited 32 days for a bitinstant transfer.
My first complaint to bitinstant was made 31 days ago, which ultimately ended with support telling me "Direct your questions to Charlie, he is the only one that can help you now. Best of luck!", that was 25 days ago.
Charlie did not respond for another 8 days, and countless emails, from me and the exchanges' support people. Charlie then stated it should be fixed shortly, in less than an hour. It was not fixed.
Another 8 days later, I contacted them via the new channel and got the auto-reply that, "Please rest assured, ---, I should expect the funds within 12 hours ..."
Since then I have heard nothing. No transfer completed.
I have yet to hear any sensible statement from bitinstant explaining their complete incompetence in fulfilling their promise, and as they are still accepting new unsuspecting customers, I find no other explanation than to believe they are fully fledged scammers.
It's a ponzi scheme. Simple as that. It likely didn't start out that way, since it used to be instant, but it certainly is now. When enough new orders come in, your order will be funded out of those, and those people will have to wait for more orders to come in. They have thus far done an amazing job of silencing most of the public complaints by having Ursay just reply to every complaint in the thread saying that he has "pushed" their order for the 20th time. That way Bitinstant appears to be responsive even though they are still way behind with no end to this problem in sight. I guess if they keep talking, regardless of whether or not they actually deliver orders, no one will go to the authorities. It's working so far anyway. The site is still active and promising "instant" bitcoin transactions.
From
https://www.bitinstant.com/faq :
"Funds can be available in as little as 15 minutes and are typically available within one hour at the exchange or other merchant selected by the Customer. All payments are processed automatically." I wonder when the last time was that one hour was "typical" of a Bitinstant transaction. Additionally, there are 320+ pages in their support thread showing that payments are far from automatic. In just those two sentences, there are two fraudulent statements designed to induce people into sending them money under false pretenses. In legal parlance Bitinstant has deployed a "scheme or artifice to defraud" in violation of 18 USC Section 1343 (Fraud by Wire, Radio, or Television).