Silk Road forums
Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: Smashmouth on January 19, 2013, 09:29 pm
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I've created this new account to talk about an issue I'm having with Bitinstant and to reach out to any other members of SR who are having a similar problem.
I recently turned a 500usd transaction through Bitinstant. They reported my coins as deposited to my wallet, but never actually sent them. Naturally I checked the blockchain and no, they did not send my coins.
So I contact Bitinstant customer support via their channels. I sent a "live chat" query and received no attention. So I sent an email to support, and received no attention. So I sent an email to the account which delivered notice of my transaction being executed... and received no attention.
Several hours ago, I called Bitinstant's hotline. If youre not familiar, youre connected with a voicemail system that tells you to only make contact if its an emergency and that Bitinstant will call you back. I received no contact back.
Bitinstant is not trustworthy and I would not do business with them again. I wanted my coins fast, and instead I've been robbed.
I am not a criminal enterprise and I will fight for my funds shamelessly and without anonymity if necessary. I have all the evidence of my transaction.
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lol. Bit Instant, takes about an hour or more sometimes.
i thought it was quick flash , jett fast too ! but na' its just the name they use. lol
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lol. Bit Instant, takes about an hour or more sometimes.
i thought it was quick flash , jett fast too ! but na' its just the name they use. lol
I don't think you understand. This issue isn't limited to an hour and Bitinstant has already declared my transaction as executed and my funds as deposited, via their order status page and an email they sent me.
This is hit and run business with a company I took to be reputable.
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I haven't ever hard a problem with them. Did you check blockchain?
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I haven't ever hard a problem with them. Did you check blockchain?
Yes, I checked the blockchain and their was no transaction. Their automated system claims to have sent the funds but they definitely were not sent. I've double verified all the values, especially the receiving address.
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Awareness bump!
I know lots of noobs are reading through this subforum and you should know about this. If Bitinstant isn't your only option then you should avoid them.
I still haven't received any contact from Bitinstant. Super shady? Yep.
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Bitinstant is bad.
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Bitinstant is bad.
Did you have a bad experience with them to?
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I've been doing THOUSANDS of dollars through Googleyed. Number 1 btc vendor in my opinion. They don't even charge a fee.
They are the only group I trust when waiting for my coins.. not uncommon to send out 3k+ and they will have all the coins in shortly. They are gods.
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I've been doing THOUSANDS of dollars through Googleyed. Number 1 btc vendor in my opinion. They don't even charge a fee.
They are the only group I trust when waiting for my coins.. not uncommon to send out 3k+ and they will have all the coins in shortly. They are gods.
Thanks for your suggestion. I've heard great things about Googleyed too. Still no response from Bitinstant.
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Yep I'm pissed.
In the meantime, BEWARE of BITINSTANT.COM. They steal coins.
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How recently did you send them money? Also, you need to just keep trying to get in touch with a live person via their support number. They aren't scammers and they WILL make it right for you - keep trying! You can also find the main bitinstant guy on bitcointalk.org as Yankee, I believe.
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How recently did you send them money? Also, you need to just keep trying to get in touch with a live person via their support number. They aren't scammers and they WILL make it right for you - keep trying! You can also find the main bitinstant guy on bitcointalk.org as Yankee, I believe.
Thanks for posting Scout. I don't want to just keep calling their emergency line, but I am going to be checking for their reply regularly. I can't see how this situation could be a clerical error and I'm very concerned.
I'll be involved in this thread to whatever resolution may come, and I'd really like to see things workout positively. I really wanted Bitinstant to be a good service.
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Yeah, I hope (and believe) that things will turn out well for you. Usually, if the mistake a result of an error on their part, they will refund you the fee as well, but sometimes they don't do this unless you mention it or ask for it.
Back when I used them, I almost always had problems and had to contact them and bug the crap out of them until someone there would finally push the transaction through. It was frustrating, and I'm sure many, many people have lost money simply because they tried calling once or twice and then gave up .... but if you are persistent about it, they will eventually be moved to action.
Especially if you go on bitcointalk.org and start a thread saying you didn't get your coins and that support hasn't responded. That seems to get their attention pretty quickly, and also seems to have a better chance of resolution. (sadly, it might be because they don't want others to think they are scammers - so when you post publicly there where the main bitinstant guy posts a lot, it tends to motivate them to fix the issue.)
I'm trying to be a little more polite so I've edited my first statement from my original post. What I wanted to say, is that I find a pattern of bad business through my experience and even through your explanation. It seems like selective scamming.
New buyers need to be protected. They need to know to NOT trust Bitinstant.com and to find another way to get their coins.
Bitinstant IS NOT safe. FIND ANOTHER SERVICE!
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Hmm good to know.
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Thanks. I wish I'd had a proper heads-up before I found myself thrust into this position. It sucks to be the guy with the "I got scammed" thread. Especially after taking the time to lookup some reviews and read through the Bitinstant website. I'm very offended.
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Did you do what I recommended and start a thread on bitcointalk.org?
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I had this same type of thing happen to me. I attempted to do 2 $500 transactions in one day and the second one never showed any evidence in block chain of being completed, despite zipzap and bitinstant confirmation emails.
I emailed their technical support multiple times in the following 2 days and never got a reply. Then I sent a message to their support directly from the bitinstant page. In a day I was able to talk to a customer service representative and I gave her my info and she forwarded it to the technical department and they pushed the coins through.
Overall it took about 4 days to get my coins...I wouldn't worry OP, Bitinstant is trying to build a reputation as a reputable business and are not out to scam SR users.
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hey guys just wanted to know if you resolved this problem with BITINSTNT. reall y it should be called BIT NOT SO INSTANT lol. anyway just curiose. Id love to know what is the best instnt to use.
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I was so convinced that they found out I was sending the coins to my SR wallet and decided not to send them because its not like I could go to the cops or anything. This is not the case. They want your business now and in the future. Just keep sending messages to their customer service people and once you finally get a hold of one they will make sure that your coins get through.
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Bitinstant is horrible. Very easy to lose your money.
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I was so convinced that they found out I was sending the coins to my SR wallet and decided not to send them because its not like I could go to the cops or anything. This is not the case. They want your business now and in the future. Just keep sending messages to their customer service people and once you finally get a hold of one they will make sure that your coins get through.
I can imagine how it may have felt that way. You should know that the destination of your coins doesn't prevent you from going to the cops. I'm not even sure that they can tell its an SR wallet specifically, and even if they knew for sure, who's to say you're going to buy something illegal. I haven't bought anything illegal off SR and I wanted a lot of money in my account... Go figure.
I hope they get in touch though. I'd like to work thing out as efficiently as possible.
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UPDATE: Bitinstant support told me they would be sending out my coins. No coins sent, AGAIN!
So I've been taken for 500USD by Bitinstnat.
I know that their is a lot of talk about Bitinstant here but seriously, to all the newbies reading this, DO NOT TRUST BITINSTANT.COM
They claim to be fast, but I'm over 5 days and their support takes more than 24hrs to reply to me once.
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UPDATE: Bitinstant support told me they would be sending out my coins. No coins sent, AGAIN!
So I've been taken for 500USD by Bitinstnat.
I know that their is a lot of talk about Bitinstant here but seriously, to all the newbies reading this, DO NOT TRUST BITINSTANT.COM
They claim to be fast, but I'm over 5 days and their support takes more than 24hrs to reply to me once.
Get on their case! If they said they were sending again and they didn't, call their support number until someone manually sends the payment. Make sure they also refund you the 4% fee because taking 5 days is UNACCEPTABLE.
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is aurumxchange reliable ?
i bought 40 btc and they said it take 24 hours to move them to my bitcoin adress :D
3 hours left :-ss
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I've made about 10 transfers so far through BitInstant to Blockchain but never had a problem until Sunday afternoon. Received the zipzap confirmation almost instantly, waited about 3 hours, then e-mailed bitinstant. Next, morning, nothing. Sent another e-mail. Around noon, still nothing so I tried their "live chat" which is really just e-mail, but they responded in about 20 minutes. They said the server crashed and caused a bunch of transactions to stall, and support would send it through in a little bit. About two hours later the coins were in my wallet.
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In my experience, Bitinstant is very professional and you will always get your coins eventually. Just keep working with customer service until you get your coin. Bitinstant is one of the most legit BTC merchants around. They are a decent sized legitimate business, not some shady anonymous dealer. A few hundred bucks is in no way worth them taking a hit to their reputation. Personally I've used them many times for amounts from around $100 up to about $1000 and I always get my coin within a few hours. Keep calm and work with them if a problem arises.
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I'm so tired now... I'll definitely be back to make a better explanation
I did finally receive my coins. Customer support was useless and I never got any real attention.
I really do think that Bitinstant is selectively scamming buyers who match a certain profile.
They'll tell you that your payment processed as fraudulent, but you can verify that claim yourself. In my case it was not true.
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oh shit im sorry man...i am gonna just buy a moneypak and exchange for BTC thru someone
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Ok OK OK this thread is confusing the crap out of me. OP you said bitinstant didn't send your coins? Can you elaborate a little please or at least elaborate to a message to the mods if you don't want to give away info. Bitinstant... if I am not mistaken is a funding company that funds your exchange for you to buy the coins... not directly send them to you... am I wrong here??? does bitinstant also do a funding and direct deposit of bitcoins because they have always just funded my exchange account THEN i was able to buy my coins.... Am i the one retarded here, does bitinstant really do direct bitcoin deposits to an address?
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oh shit im sorry man...i am gonna just buy a moneypak and exchange for BTC thru someone
I think that would be best. You're going to be safer using one of SRs trusted sellers.
I haven't wanted to detract to this point but....I'm reasonably concerned about Bitinstant's security. I wouldn't be surprised if they cooperate with law enforcement. BUT I'm not levying any evidence and thats not an accusation. I've just had to spend a lot of time thinking about their company and doing research the last 5 days and this is one of my realizations.
I sent cash which was changed to BTC. To the user who posted right above me.
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Hmm... I did not know they exchanged cash directly for BTC, they've always just funded my account IN ORDER for me to buy off an exchange
And yes they probably do submit to court orders or subpoenas or warrants or whatever pressure LE could lay on them, they are a company that works out in the open legitimately so I'm sure their hands are tied on that (however does anyone know where bitinstant is based in? if it is based in America then yes I would expect them to help LE when pressured however i don't know) If you do get your coins tumble them and/or send them sporadically around to different addresses if you are that paranoid. i'm not saying don't be paranoid but too much can cripple you here. There are many ways to obscure who and where the coins came from, which is the beauty of BTC. I think I'll start a post about that actually, since my knowledge of obfuscating coins is also pretty limited
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oh shit im sorry man...i am gonna just buy a moneypak and exchange for BTC thru someone
I think that would be best. You're going to be safer using one of SRs trusted sellers.
I haven't wanted to detract to this point but....I'm reasonably concerned about Bitinstant's security. I wouldn't be surprised if they cooperate with law enforcement. BUT I'm not levying any evidence and thats not an accusation. I've just had to spend a lot of time thinking about their company and doing research the last 5 days and this is one of my realizations.
I sent cash which was changed to BTC. To the user who posted right above me.
Buying bitcoins with MPs is a good way to get scammed. Use only reputable vendors or services for your bitcoin purchases:
RxKing
Chronic Crew
Sugar Mama
Blue Sky Traders
Bitcopia
For ease of use, try using one that accepts cash deposits in their bank account(s).
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I'm really getting fed up with bitinstant as well. I've made about 8 successful transactions so far with them, but my coins never dropped in my wallet from almost a day ago even though I got confirmation from the bill to company.
And so in case you don't get your coins it's like you might as well go fuck yourself because good fucking luck getting one of their customer service reps to get back to you. Their so called "live support" is a fucking joke because it's dead. The only thing "live" about it is that you submit your request using adobe flash technology instead of a html form page. woohoo.
God what a fucking deadbeat owner. He needs to open up his fucking wallet and hire a decent support staff. Not like he's not making enough.
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Ok guys i am another one the people that seams to be being scammed by BITINSTNT. I just bought 200.00 BTC 2 days ago the moment i suspected that it wasnt going through..'the next day" i started PM ing everyone from YANKEE supposed CEO of BITINSTNT and alll to no avail..This company as of now is UNTRUSTABLE STAY AWAY.. I finally got a PM from someone at the support part and they send a pre fab message saying we are very sorry blah blah blah and that they have pushed your coins through..This is not true. Next i was asctually able to speak with Yankee and he said something about a GLICH in the system and this was happening to alot of people..
I have a block chain wallet so i figure that when i went to deposit cash that BITINSNT was good to go.I have many trans. with them that went flawlessly ..any thought guys Im ready to start really posting at every place i can about how bad this co. is..
I really dont want any problems but i cant just shake off 200.00 every 5 transaction..Im more than upset with the lack off support on their part.Thanks for listening .
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The support staff finally got back to me after the steady stream of more and more abusive support requests I made over the course of 6 hours, basically to ask that I not spam them over and over again with ONE stalled order. Which really if they knew anything about customer service, really didn't have to happen had they replied to me to first time about the "server delay" that had caused the stall for many users, but that she would ensure my order would be the first to be pushed through and she would do it herself if she could but would ensure later that it was done, blah blah blah
10 minutes later chaching.
Moral of the story? Spam them with as many abusive support requests as possible if you want to get dialed back in sooner and until their cheapskate owner hires a support staff competent enough to write a customized letter to those affected by server stalls on their end. ::)
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I've been doing THOUSANDS of dollars through Googleyed. Number 1 btc vendor in my opinion. They don't even charge a fee.
They are the only group I trust when waiting for my coins.. not uncommon to send out 3k+ and they will have all the coins in shortly. They are gods.
I tried looking up Googleyed but couldn't find anything. Am I missing something?
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I've been doing THOUSANDS of dollars through Googleyed. Number 1 btc vendor in my opinion. They don't even charge a fee.
They are the only group I trust when waiting for my coins.. not uncommon to send out 3k+ and they will have all the coins in shortly. They are gods.
I tried looking up Googleyed but couldn't find anything. Am I missing something?
Googleyed seems to no longer need to sell coin, but was most trustworthy imo.
Best way to go is to find a vendor that sells coins that you can form some trust with and stick to them. I used to grab from too many randoms and got scammed. DocGonzo is trustworthy.
Bitcopia is good for USA !!
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Hey I have read about checking the BLOCKCHAIN but I am not sure what that means. Could someone explain? Do you put your sr wallet # in and have them check?? Any help would be appreciated..
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I had a successful transaction recently, I thought the coins were a little short but it was real close and took an hour or two total.
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Hey I have read about checking the BLOCKCHAIN but I am not sure what that means. Could someone explain? Do you put your sr wallet # in and have them check?? Any help would be appreciated..
Go to website blockchain.info in the search bar, type in the address of the wallet where your coins are sent to
then you will see the transaction history of that address...
remember if you send coins directly into SR wallet and do not tumble to routinely change your SR address if you are putting many thousands through.. don't want to leave a timeline of your illegal purchases ;)
happy tripping
~foxy man
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Hey I have read about checking the BLOCKCHAIN but I am not sure what that means. Could someone explain? Do you put your sr wallet # in and have them check?? Any help would be appreciated..
Go to website blockchain.info in the search bar, type in the address of the wallet where your coins are sent to
then you will see the transaction history of that address...
remember if you send coins directly into SR wallet and do not tumble to routinely change your SR address if you are putting many thousands through.. don't want to leave a timeline of your illegal purchases ;)
I am having the same issues. I went to blockchain.info and the address says the wallet is funded and a button says 3 confirmations so at least i know something is happening. This is the first time I have had trouble with them. Almost always takes about an hour to direct fund a wallet.
happy tripping
~foxy man
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Looks like it went through finally. Took forever.
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then you will see the transaction history of that address...
remember if you send coins directly into SR wallet and do not tumble to routinely change your SR address if you are putting many thousands through.. don't want to leave a timeline of your illegal purchases ;)
SR has its own tumbler. So once it hits SR the coin will be effectively anonymized anyway.
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something has to be done before sr becomes a playground for scammers
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something has to be done before sr becomes a playground for scammers
You're kind of late with your concerns. SR has decent protection against scamming. It's called Escrow. Those that don't use it are taking their own risks. They also raised the price of vending accounts to $500 back in December, which seems to have helped keep scamming to a minimum.
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Just so everyone knows. If you havent got your BTC after 1 hour of your deposit at Bitinstant, get on the bitcointalk forum, newbie section, and post in the Official Newbie Bitinstant support Thread and get this guy URSAY to acknowledge your problem. Write your QuoteID (you got this immediately after the purchase, they dont even email it to you) to him. Keep spamming till he sees your post. After he acknowledges you, wait.
While you're waiting, find the exchange rate at the time of your deposit
After they convert your $ to BTC at the CURRENT RATE (ugh), its probably gonna be too expensive. You should have gotten more BTC than what you got. Say thank you to that guy and start spamming him again. This time say that Yankee the CEO of Bitinstant said Bitinstant would honor the exchange rate at the time of the deposit CLEARNET WARNING **** https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=128314.msg1776479#msg1776479 **** CLEARNET WARNING
Calculate the BTC you should have gotten using the actual exchange rate, and tell that to URSAY, PM or whatever. Get him to acknowledge, and then wait
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I've only used bitinstant once but they messed up my transaction in my favor. I deposited 150 USD and got 300 out.
Anyone else experience this before?
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I've only used bitinstant once but they messed up my transaction in my favor. I deposited 150 USD and got 300 out.
Anyone else experience this before?
Do it again lol. Deposit $1000 and get $2000 out ;D
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Thx for the warning
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seems shady
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Just so everyone knows. If you havent got your BTC after 1 hour of your deposit at Bitinstant, get on the bitcointalk forum, newbie section, and post in the Official Newbie Bitinstant support Thread and get this guy URSAY to acknowledge your problem. Write your QuoteID (you got this immediately after the purchase, they dont even email it to you) to him. Keep spamming till he sees your post. After he acknowledges you, wait.
While you're waiting, find the exchange rate at the time of your deposit
After they convert your $ to BTC at the CURRENT RATE (ugh), its probably gonna be too expensive. You should have gotten more BTC than what you got. Say thank you to that guy and start spamming him again. This time say that Yankee the CEO of Bitinstant said Bitinstant would honor the exchange rate at the time of the deposit CLEARNET WARNING **** https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=128314.msg1776479#msg1776479 **** CLEARNET WARNING
Calculate the BTC you should have gotten using the actual exchange rate, and tell that to URSAY, PM or whatever. Get him to acknowledge, and then wait
It's hilarious how many people are complaining in that thread. Definitely doesn't make me faithful in BitInstant. When an exchange has this many problems, I figure they're just waiting to be hacked.
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Just so everyone knows. If you havent got your BTC after 1 hour of your deposit at Bitinstant, get on the bitcointalk forum, newbie section, and post in the Official Newbie Bitinstant support Thread and get this guy URSAY to acknowledge your problem. Write your QuoteID (you got this immediately after the purchase, they dont even email it to you) to him. Keep spamming till he sees your post. After he acknowledges you, wait.
While you're waiting, find the exchange rate at the time of your deposit
After they convert your $ to BTC at the CURRENT RATE (ugh), its probably gonna be too expensive. You should have gotten more BTC than what you got. Say thank you to that guy and start spamming him again. This time say that Yankee the CEO of Bitinstant said Bitinstant would honor the exchange rate at the time of the deposit CLEARNET WARNING **** https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=128314.msg1776479#msg1776479 **** CLEARNET WARNING
Calculate the BTC you should have gotten using the actual exchange rate, and tell that to URSAY, PM or whatever. Get him to acknowledge, and then wait
It's hilarious how many people are complaining in that thread. Definitely doesn't make me faithful in BitInstant. When an exchange has this many problems, I figure they're just waiting to be hacked.
Yup, it makes you even angrier when everyone else is also complaining and no one seems to be listening. Their shitty automated systems broke and now theyre doing all the orders by hand lol. And its taking fuckin forever and pissing people off even more. They really should just hire more people. There's just one customer support guy on that thread responding to people bitching and hes typing like 400 wpm, to every comment, for 14 hours, then he goes to sleep, and all the posts start complaining that no one is responding. he wakes up to a bunch of angry people and starts all over again. Haha thats the life
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I don't even know why anyone even uses bitinstant anymore. I had nothing but problems last couple times I used them. They also charge way too much.
The best way to get coin is bitfloor.com by just going into any bank of america and making a cash deposit. It's instant, no ID required, and you can even hit them from TOR if you want. The best part?
It's DIRT FUCKING CHEAP.
1%
The 7%+ bitinstant charges is fucking highway robbery.
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oh snap. instawallet got me for a lil bitjingle. BTW whats my recourse?
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oh snap. instawallet got me for a lil bitjingle. BTW whats my recourse?
I got resolution after 4 days. I got this by going onto bitcointalk and posting my order id and issue. USRAY is a bitinstant rep there and helping people. i asked that my issue be escalated and i followed up 2 times before getting my money finally. Check the link below.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=128314.4400
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I don't even know why anyone even uses bitinstant anymore. I had nothing but problems last couple times I used them. They also charge way too much.
The best way to get coin is bitfloor.com by just going into any bank of america and making a cash deposit. It's instant, no ID required, and you can even hit them from TOR if you want. The best part?
It's DIRT FUCKING CHEAP.
1%
The 7%+ bitinstant charges is fucking highway robbery.
How do you do this. Do you just go to the bank and start the process by filing out paperwork there with your cash in hand????
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I don't even know why anyone even uses bitinstant anymore. I had nothing but problems last couple times I used them. They also charge way too much.
The best way to get coin is bitfloor.com by just going into any bank of america and making a cash deposit. It's instant, no ID required, and you can even hit them from TOR if you want. The best part?
It's DIRT FUCKING CHEAP.
1%
The 7%+ bitinstant charges is fucking highway robbery.
How do you do this. Do you just go to the bank and start the process by filing out paperwork there with your cash in hand????
Well, this won't work anymore. Bitfloor is gone forever. But yeah, Bitinstant is a ripoff compared to what Bitfloor was. And Bitfloor was much much much easier than Bitinstant, and much less of a headache waiting for customer support filling out tickets and wasting weeks of your time.
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What the FUCK HAPPENED TO BITFLOOR? FUCK!
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What the FUCK HAPPENED TO BITFLOOR? FUCK!
Bitfloor RIP
Bitinstant is still a bunch of slackers.
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What the FUCK HAPPENED TO BITFLOOR? FUCK!
Bitfloor RIP
Bitinstant is still a bunch of slackers.
Bitcopia = easy breezy if you have a wells fargo to deposit at. Used it last time after bitinstant took forever and stopped working from a proxy I was using.
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Used bitinstant the other day....coins hit wallet before I even got home...impressive! Usually takes a few hours.