They paid one of my two outstanding transfers with a re-routing to Mt.Gox. If they have given you that offer... and presuming they have significant reserves there, I suggest you guys take them up on it.
If they had significant reserves at Mt. Gox, then they would make a withdrawal of Bitcoins from there, and be able to fund all reserves at all other places with those Bitcoins. They would then instantly turn on the Cash to BTC function since they would have Bitcoins to send. Since they haven't done any of this, it's pretty clear that they do not have significant reserves there or anywhere else. This is further evidenced by the fact that you, along with all the people that have posted here and many others that don't even know about this thread, still have outstanding, unresolved orders.
The proof is in the pudding - this could all be resolved within a day if they actually had funds, in any form, to back up any of the transactions. Again, the fact that this thread exists and people continue to send them money, followed by shock that their order hasn't arrived, is mind boggling to me. I suspect even the Bitinstant people themselves are stunned that money keeps coming in.
And they paid off that other outstanding BTC-E payment with a Gox transfer. Thanks Bitinstant. That said, for anyone who is transferring funds that they would consider it a hardship or even significant emotional loss if the funds (sent with Bitinstant as the middleman) were to be lost,
I'd recommend for those folks to stay away. This game isn't for you. For those (like myself) who have a very low overhead cost and am not going to sob over a few k, only then continue, and for now stick with Bitinstant to Gox transfers. Don't have a Mt. Gox account? It takes 5 minutes to create one. I have at least forty accounts. There's no reason to sit around waiting for 'reserves at BTC-E' or waiting for their cash to BTC address service to come back on line.
Note to Charlie (and anyone else who want to make Bitinstant like business... take a look at the Remit2India business model. It's a billion $ business. That's something you guys might want to look into. There's no reason you couldn't take a big bite out of those 'remit' or send money home market segments (hint: focus on Indian, Filipinos, and well... all of Central and South America). Huge potential on fees and making interest on the float (maybe offer 'fee free' transfer for 3-5 day service to go alongside the $3.95 + X % that you are already charging for 1 hour service). Whip out that calculator and see how much you can make interest wise on say a modest 'few' hundred million US$ float.... all for operating a 'free' service with the added bonus of 'pseudo' BTC anonymity. If you guys came up with this thing and we were living in the same dorm or apartment complex, I would front the funds myself to cover any cash flow issues like this... alas, college was 15 years ago (sigh) and now I much prefer sipping my Maker's Mark surrounded by tanned honey bunnies. And THEN... if things really still go tits up.... THEN you can really check out and live out your days in Costa Rica (or Thailand, like myself).