Topic: Unofficial Coinbase user2user support/discussion thread (Read 5514 times)

So, I've got a problem and I'm seeking thoughts and ideas from those who are using Coinbase.  The long story is here:

  https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/hu-wells-fargo-acct-coinbase-issue-sscams-577378

The short story is that the volumes and use patterns I've been doing are causing problems with at least Wells Fargo, and probably I'll have the same issue with other typical banks.  Wells Fargo is as I understand it among the most 'bitcoin friendly' of the typical mainstream banks in fact.

I don't think my 'cat-n-mouse' idea of using all the local banks will work.  The problems I predict would be a possible total freeze of all of my assets which have mainstream counter-party risk.  This would be a giant hassle.

Even if I did not experience mainstream financial freezing, it seems likely that Coinbase themselves would ban me.  In my communications with them I felt that their assurance that I was welcome to be a customer was somewhat lukewarm.

In short, I think my best bet to continue to use Coinbase would be to find a more specialized bank which is both used to dealing with significant-ish amounts of money and also works well with Coinbase.  If anyone knows of such an entity, and especially if they have some experience with one, I would be grateful to know of it.

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As an aside, I have long harbored some suspicion of the usability of our mainstream financial and regulatory systems for 'the 99%' (compared to the likes of Jon Corzine where it works exceptionally well.)  This was one of the factors that got me interested in Bitcoin in the first place in fact.

I chose to employ a strategy of complete compliance in my financial activities.  This was easy because I understand the needs to monitor for criminal activity, have no philosophical problem with taxes, etc.

This strategy did not work and I am experiencing annoying and blocking issues in spite of my strategy of working within the system.  Obviously it has further weakened my confidence in the mainstream systems and strengthened my contention that alternative solutions such as Bitcoin are necessary and appropriate for non-criminal parties.

For the P.O. Box, try just entering the P.O. Box # without using the words "P.O. Box" anywhere ...  that credit card billing address verification can be pretty finicky especially with people who live on numbered streets or streets with north/south/east/west

Replying to my own post above about Level-2 verification in case anyone is interested.  Note that this applies to ME and THIS TIME.  Of course I cannot vouch for what will happen to others at other points in time.  I happen to have a pretty spotless record and have no need to try to be deceptive.

I entered the basic name and the last 4 of my SSN on the first page.

The second page had a series of questions which I won't relate here (to preserve the utility of Coinbase's methods), but I will say would have been pretty difficult for people to answer had they not researched my life extensively.  The most tricky one for me was choosing a list of names which included one of my ex-girlfriends.  I decided that that was probably accidental and did not select it.  Guessed right.

There was no third page.  That was it.  That part of the verification is checked off and green!  Now I just have to wait 30 days for my bullshit .001 BTC purchase to season.

If things chip along in steady state, I actually would be fine just taking out $3k per day with the schedule thingy these guys provide except that if the price of BTC jumps it could put my scheduled sale over the limit.  I do want the flexibility to move fast, however, (Bitcoin being fairly volatile ya know) and that is the main reason I even bother to go to Level-2.

Quick question for anyone who has gone to level-2 verification.  I'd been happy with the level-1 verification until now that they've bumped the sell limit from $50k to $3k  I have no interest or desire to link my credit card or do anything 'instantly'.  This is a negative, but only just now did I see that it might not be required for level-2.

I just bought .001 BTC to start the 30-day clock.  This is the first BTC I've purchased since 2011.  Since I am trying to be very detailed in my records for tax reasons, it's a hassle to be forced into buying any more.

Coinbase does the old trick of starting one out on a page with a 'next' button with no roadmap of what one will find behind the curtain.  I hate it when websites do this.

The first page of the 'verify your identity' starts out with a screen asking for an address.  I'm wondering what kinds of things the next screens will ask.  Does anyone who has been through the process know?

Also, my official address on my bank is a P.O. box.  My drivers licence contains this P.O. box in addition to my physical address.  My bank account and credit card accounts have only my P.O. box.  Most of my utility bills are on-line, but the phone one is mailed to me (again, through my P.O. box.)  The simple reason for this is that my mailbox is isolated.  It gets vandalized regularly and mail is sometimes stolen.  I, like many others in the area, are pretty religious about using the community post office for this reason.

Anyway, has anyone had troubles associated with having any reference to a P.O. box on anything sent to Coinbase?

Nothing but glowing reviews on my end.  My one and ONLY hiccup I experienced was a single btc transfer request that took around 3 hours (though customer support was quick to reply and assure me it was just a random, unexpected delay from high volume of requests).  The rest of my transfers and purchases have been virtually instant.

Still have another week to go before my 30 day trial is over, which is very exciting as I've been dying to find a reliable method to buy and sell btc without headache.  My first non-instant purchase for over 1btc should be approved by tomorrow, so I'll keep this thread updated with how that goes.

Loving it so far though!

I've just set up an auto-sell schedule for shits-n-giggles.  Hopefully it will lessen my compulsion to check the charts every few of my waking hours (and maybe sleeping ones to, for that matter, since when I wake up in the middle of the night I often have a peek.)

If nothing else it should l help Coinbase front-run me, though I did make the sale value small enough so that it should not be worth the bother.

Hello all -- I'm working on setting up Coinbase merchant tools, specifically a payment page, and I have also been messing around with the Coinbase API. I'm currently using the API to update exchange rates on my site.

Right now I'm working on my Instant Payment Notification (IPN) page, written in PHP. I have some questions and perhaps some suggestions, but I'm net getting a response from Coinbase support.

Any others here working with the Coinbase merchant tools and API? I would like to get in touch with other users for mutual support.

I'm not sure that almost anyone from any company has an 'official' presence on this forum, and that probably makes some business sense.  A guy named 'olaf' seem up-front about being an employee or associate of Coinbase, and furthermore he seems helpful and polite.  Hopefully he is still around.

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In other news, while I'm here, I've done perhaps $70k worth of sales through Coinbase since the OP and I don't recall a deposit every being delayed beyond the estimate.  Many have come in much sooner.  Some of the deposits have been in excess of $10k which is supposed to trigger some activity on the part of the bank, at least, I believe.  I saw no difference in these from my side.

I have one outstanding ticket asking for a proactive white-listing so that my sales plans don't go awry.  I got a note back that they at least acknowledge my ticket and are trying to get to it.  Since I've not had any problems yet in being flagged, I cannot complain to much.

I do hope that Coinbase continues to perform to the level they have in my case.  It sure makes my life easier.  I've been waiting since last summer for my $5k wire from Mt. Gox and it has not arrived yet.

Does Coinbase have an official presence on this forum?

Thanks

Just an update, bank deposits from coin sales are working quickly again.

Just wanted to post an update.  I added a credit card successfully a couple days ago.

...or could be if there were a significant price difference.  Actually though, even a very small difference could provide an opportunity if the legendary 'lack of friction' that Bitcoin is noted for could be employed.

Whatever the case, if I as participant in the Bitcoin ecosystem living under U.S. jurisdiction can achieve fair BTC pricing and convenience, I'm as happy as a clam.  So far, so good with Coinbase.  For me.

BTW, here is the article I mentioned:

  http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/10/btc-china/

A recent wired article pointed out that Lee of Coinbase and Lee of BTCChina are brothers however, and being siblings seems like on of the few reasons to trust someone in Bitcoinland.  Or at least work with them relatively more closely.
[/quote]

An interesting find. If they are actually brothers, the odds that they work with each other are pretty high. At least they can be arbitrage partners

Every time I've looked since I've been a customer (last week) it seems like they've been between Mt. Gox and Bitstamp.  I like this because I feel that Bitstamp is probably depressed as a function of the amount that Mt. Gox is inflated.  BTCChina seems to display the same middle ground.  I kind of wonder if perhaps BTCChina is not being used by Coinbase for settlements.  But there is no real reason to suspect it.  A recent wired article pointed out that Lee of Coinbase and Lee of BTCChina are brothers however, and being siblings seems like on of the few reasons to trust someone in Bitcoinland.  Or at least work with them relatively more closely.

When did Coinbase change their exchange rate?  They were using Bitstamp's rate, but I just noticed today that they are now $3-$4 higher than Bitstamp.  I tried to compare their price to the current bid, ask, 24-hr avg, etc of multiple exchanges, but nothing matches.

This reminds me that I should have done an update.

They got back to me within a few days.  They agreed that the mail they sent about the status of my level-1 achievement was premature and apologized.

I personally am satisfied with the interactions I've had with them, but I've had pretty good luck.  Like everyone, I want immediate results if I can get them.  I'm inclined to cut them some slack at this point.  Start-ups tend to have limited resources to fill many demands in my experience with them (both within and without.)  I do hope that they are making good use of the feedback that they can get to factor into decisions about where they focus their efforts.

I have sent them 3 emails total since I've been with them. The response time has always been between 1 and 2 weeks. Very slow, but at least it exists.

I have the same card verification error. Let me know if you figure out a workaround or if it gets fixed 

Anyone else having problems verifying a credit card?  I keep getting the error message "Error: Card verification failed - CVN".

Update on 'ticket' turn-around:

I'd queried about my 2-factor issue when signing up last Friday night.  Thur morning I received a custom response.  Although they cannot or will not disable 2-factor auth on an individual basis, the support person made suggestions which would have been valuable had I not anticipated them.

I consider the turn-around on this issue to be satisfactory, and I also understand and accept the failure to be able to act upon my wishes.  The issue is a nuisance which I can work around.  The problems would be corner-case things which I can deal with as long as the 2-factor system works in an anticipated manner.  An unanticipated re-set could in some circumstances cause me a headache.

I hope and expect that a real ticketing system will be employed in the future.  It would be doing both Coinbase and their customers a favor in my opinion.

Update:  I have made a BTC sale, recieved money in my incomming checking account and moved it to my real checking account.

I started the sign-up process late Friday night, and the transaction was achieved by mid-day Wednessday.  Less than three business days...which was still time enough to do my share of whining, carping and snarking.

The best news is that I did not have to give up scans of my identity documents to a Bitcoin start-up and risk having them exploited somehow.  I did not expect this.

To top things off, I got what I consider to be a fair price.  Somewhere between Mt. Gox which is pulled high since they are having trouble being an actual exchange, and Bitstamp which is inundated by desperate souls who will take a loss so they can buy something to eat.

So far I have to give Coinbase very high marks.  I've got no response on my various queries, complaints, requests, and suggestions, but at the end of the day the platform worked as I needed it to.  I'd have been aggravated by a long delay in support if it were actually blocking me from what I wish to achieve.

Yup.  I found it but forgot to update this note.  I was sure it had to be there but sometime I can miss the simplest thing.  They had this option in an obvious place but I just missed it.

So far Coinbase seems simple (which I prefer) and includes most of the necessary features.  I'm pretty hopeful that it will prove to be a good solution for my needs and it is on track to be.  Linking to my checking account is a dream come true in fact.

One missing feature which I would very much appreciate before I could use it as a wallet-type service would be to have the ability to sign things.  It may just not be applicable under their structure of dealing with addresses.  I am personally not adverse to using a different service as an on-line wallet to just keep the spending money I need in the immediate future though.  Coinbase may in fact prefer that users do just this.  I've not enough experience with their service to determine what, exactly, the utilization space they wish to target is.

Go to 'Buy/Sell' and then 'History' where you can download your account activity reports as csv files and have them send to your email.

New Question:

Has anyone found a way to download activity reports?

This is critical to me as I need to keep precise records of my involvement in Bitcoin.  Most of my BTC came through Tradehill and I was able to download activity reports which had good precision.  This will form the basis of my cost inputs when I do my taxes, but I need also the other side of the books.  Coinbase seems to be targetting professionals so I would have expected such reports to be integrated as a foundation of their service design.  But I cannot find them in my scan of things.

Update:

This morning the two small deposits appeared on my Wells Fargo on-line account.

I insert the values into the Coinbase UI and the web site immediately changed my status to level-1.

I sold a couple of BTC and it appears from the web site anyway to have gone fine.  If/when the money is actually deposited in my bank account in a way that I can verify, I will call success.

It seems that in less than two business days I have managed to get an account going and solving the problem I needed solved.  If indeed I can sell BTC at will, quickly, and for a fair price, that is my main goal.  At this point it seems that I don't even need to provide this Bitcoin related start-up with sensitive identity documents to achieve my goal.  This would be better than I expected.

Intuitively it seems that if fiat is going through an official bank account, any problems with identity and reporting should be solved and thus supplying identity docs to an un-trusted start-up should not be necessary.  From what I can see so far, Coinbase is demonstrating this.

I suggest that the problem I experienced yesterday was a bug in that the e-mail sent by Coinbase 'jumped the gun' a bit.  Possibly they sent a success mail when they managed to make the tiny deposits.  Possibly also Wells Fargo does not update certain kind of inputs on their UI quickly.

Certainly I have sent them an e-mail which is the only mode of support that I can see.  It is only reasonable to allow at least a day for a response, and that period of time has not yet elapsed.

I agree that only Coinbase has the ability to explain the discrepancy between the automated e-mail they sent, and their web site.  In this case I just wanted to find out if anyone else had noticed the phenomenon since this particular failure mode seems notable to me.  The main reason being that it will help me choose the appropriate attempts at further interactions with them.  That is, if this is a common problem that is automatically resolved then I won't bother to try to follow up.

I do hope that someone at Coinbase would notice this thread and participate in it since it would almost certainly help both myself in overcoming initial issues, and also very probably would help others in seeing the quality of their support efforts.

For this kind of issues no one but the guy from Coinbase can help you out (you can find him around in this forum). Just send him a message to see if he can help.

Ya, your comments help though generally it is what I was able to infer from my experience so far.  Thanks for the input!

The main thing that I am still wondering about is the mis-match between what automated e-mail from Coinbase says and what the rest of their system believes to be true.

I'd still like to know if anyone else has noted such a mis-match, and if so, was it transient and self correcting, or was further interaction with Coinbase's support required to rectify the problem?

If you keep browsing with the same browser on the same laptop/desktop, the 30 day save will work until it expires or you clean the cookies on your browser whichever comes first. Switching IP addresses will not change the 2-factor verification code already saved on your machine.

As for the phone numbers, you can set which one you would like to receive calls/SMS as primary phone that way you know which phone you should use. You signed up an account with them less than 1 business day ago, so you should wait 2-3 more days to see if a verification transaction shows up on your bank account (in case you chose to have some tiny amounts of funds deposited onto your account, I actually don't know how the verification works if you gave them your account login credentials to instant verify). Verification is required if you want to buy or cash out some bitcoins with your bank account. Sending and receiving BTC are basically free and ready to go as soon as your account is created.

My 2 cents hope that helps.

Now an actual real question:

I received an automated e-mail saying specifically that my bank account was both linked and verified and wishing me congratulations.

I logged on to my on-line banking and could see no activity.  Normally Wells Fargo does display all activity on the same day I believe, but there may be a status change that occurs between business days.

On Coinbase, my account still shows that I am at the 'need to link an account' phase, and my limits are set for level-0.

Has anyone else experienced this?

(BTW, I was able generate a BTC addy, label it, and send in a token 5 BTC.  It took me a little time to find the right tab to do this.  But my balance showed up within minutes.  Funding came from my blockchain.info spending money account.)

About the phone and 2-factor issues associated with having a cell phone but living out of cell phone range as per the thread which in the OP:

My thought to do a 30 day save on my secure travel laptop and activate my cell phone from the road worked.  I was worried that the 30 day save would be re-set if I switched IP addresses or something like that.  It was not, and I believe I now have my cell phone added.

I sent an e-mail request to dis-able 2-factor auth since I consider it a security regression in my case.  I don't know if they will or can do this yet.  I don't recommend it for people who are not pretty familiar with access security and/or plan to hold more funds in their Coinbase account or linked bank account than they can afford to lose.

As for the issue that both my cell and land-line end in the same last two digits and phone numbers are represented on the UI as xxx...xxNN, I won't know if/how the coded that issue until and unless I need to 2-fact again.  Hopefully if the numbers appear identical on their UI, I'll at least be able to infer which is which by the order in which the appear.

 - edit - clarify.

Reserved.

I just want a thread to toss around ideas and experiences with other Coinbase users.  I really didn't see a likely thread in my forum search.

I find it interesting, valuable, and often efficient to handle certain things in public, and if an official support person participates then things are that much better.  At this point Coinbase seems to new to have a ticketing system, and I've not received any feedback on specific questions or problems I've had or experienced via their e-mail support framework.  I signed up less than one business day ago, so it is a bit to early to bitch about ineffective support, but I've seen some complaints about that being an issue.  It's understandable for new and/or popular services.  Hopefully an active thread such as this can help take some load off, and will not be abused to excessively by competition or those holding a grudge.

Information about how the Coinbase service works is pretty lite until one initiates the sign-up process.  Even then when one gets access, there are still some things which are not obvious or well explained.  I say 'valuable' above because I hope that people who are trying to decide if Coinbase is right for them can gain some benefit from such a thread and use it to augment other information they may dig up.

I started this thread as an extension of some conversations here:

  https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/best-exchange-as-of-right-now-oct-2013-to-buy-bitcoins-313802

 - edit:  fix embarrasing spelling mistake in post title.