So people, how's it going with mtGox SEPA transfers (ie. EURO transfers).
Are you getting your money on time? When I say on time I asume what's stated on the mtGox
pages to be correct: 3 business days.
I did a withdrawal request monday this week, it has yet not arrived. There's been 4 complete
business days after this day.
I am not impatient (even if this post might speak to the opposite), but I am wonder, how long
does it take for the rest of you these days?
I think several things should be done by mtGox:
1. Keep more information about withdrawal requests available for customers, we want to know
what's happening, and what's the status of our withdrawals.
2. I think we should push for mtGox to provide proof that they actually hold all client money,
how do we know that they haven't borrowed from deposited money? I am not saying this is what
they are doing, but how would we know if they did, and how would we know if all the slow
withdrawals are because money deposited from new customers are used to pay old customers
because there's not enough money in the system?
3. Ask support crew to prioritize and deal with request concerning deposits and withdrawals
in a very serious manner. As it is now, it seems like the focus is more on just replying to support
tickets quickly, rather that solving them properly. The tickets could clearly be prioritized, and
those regarding funds should be sent to a person dealing with this and put on high priority.
At the moment we have no idea how funds are processed. Are they batch processed? Manually,
automatically? What's the limit of transfers the french bank of mtGox can do pr. day and pr.
month? Is it Mark Karpeles handling all the withdrawal requests himself?
Basically, the information provided for the customers are not good all the time, this will have
to be improved, as I see there are several other exchanges waiting to pick up the customers.
People say we need to be patient, and mtGox clearly states that payouts should take 3 business
days. Yet, there are several cases of payouts taking a lot longer. We understand there are other
things to focus on, but for the customers, payouts are what they are interested in. Most businesses
hire people to do financial work. mtGox is not special in that regards. A person should be hired to
handle all transactions. All big companies hire people to handle transactions. I understand there's
always the trust issue, but if you don't trust people, how on earth can anyone run a company? As
a business grows, tasks needs to be delegated.
And what about Merchants. A small or medium sized merchant have to wait a week or two to wait
for their funds to arrive? That's not a good sell when we try to get a business to accept bitcoins.
Merchant: Allright, bitcoin sounds exciting, and so how do I get my money converted to national currency
so I can pay my employees and distributors?
Bitcoin fan: You can sell the bitcoins at the going rate at say exchange mtGox.
Merchant: Great, and how long time does it take before I have the money in out company bank account?
Bitcoin fan: Well, err... the thing is that the people at mtGox does not really prioritize withdrawals,
the amount of time it takes to get the money deposited to your bank account can take anything from a couple
of days to a month and more, and you need to pay attention, because if you don't you may never get it
because it's been 'rejected' at the bank of mtGox's side. So if you haven't gotten them in a week, you may
have to file a support ticket. And we have no proof that mtGox hold the complete amount of client funds
deposited, and it's unregulated too, so really the Merchant have zero protection.
Merchant:!!
See.. Not an easy sell!
I've been with mtGox for a long time. But they really need to fix this, or else trust will erode. Having
a reputable accountant firm checking their records to ensure that they infact hold all client funds that
are deposited I am sure would instill more confidence among the account holders.
It's not a small exchange anymore, they need to adapt, or if they don't they'll slowly lose business.
In the end, I would ask, is there any other good alternatives to mtGox for european investors?
Any europeans used tradhill or bitcoin7 for withdrawals? What about britcoin.co.uk and bitomat (polish exchange)?
