How I lost trust (and 1 million USD) in Changelly, be warned.

in #bitcoin7 years ago (edited)

In short: I exchanged 11,711 Ethereum (worth $3,888,000 at the time of correspondence) for 7,265 BCH (worth $4,352,000 at the time of correspondence) with Changelly on the 30th of August (more detailed description below), which they failed to deliver. Which at the end of the line costed me €1.000.000,-

We have had contact with the staff from Changelly for a settlement; they have yet to respond properly.

First of all, I am an experienced and high volume day trader. I take risks where I see opportunities. These are my own risks, although the following loss is and will never be my risk/fault. Changelly states to give a cheap and secure way of trading. The story below will proof the opposite.

The first contact resulting in the loss of trust was on the 30th of August. I tried to exchange my (11,711) Ethereum Coins (ETH) for (7,265) Bitcoin Cash coins (BCH) as per the rate of Changelly. After Changelly received my 11,711 ETH, I received an email where Changelly cancelled the deal, without me receiving back my ETH. (First time they break an agreement)

As this is a huge amount of money I expected them to contact me. When this didn’t happen I decided to do this myself (all of this happened in 10 minutes after the deal was set up and Changelly received my ETH). They replied with me asking to confirm the first deal that they already cancelled and I replied instantly with a side-note if they could hurry up, as ETH was dropping in price and BCH was skyrocketing.

They once again cancelled the deal and offered me a new deal; 11711 ETH for 6217 BCH. This calculates to a loss of 1048 BCH in this second deal. Unacceptable. Sadly, it’s not over yet. (Second time they break an agreement)

I did not accept this deal and followed up with an email where I asked Changelly to return my 11,711 ETH, with immediate effect (sent at 14:07). This email got ignored. I followed up this email by sending the same mail again (sent at 18:45).
The next day (August 31th) they told me that they couldn’t refund the 11,711 ETH, as 54% (6,324 ETH) of the funds got exchanged on other exchanges. I once again replied that I insist on getting my ETH back. (Exchanged while not having any agreement)

The next day, 1st of September I received a reply.
Changelly 06:16: “The amount sent to us has been partially exchanged on one of our trading partners. Considering that, we can only complete the transaction. We are ready to fully compensate you the loss caused by technical issues and send the whole amount stated in the quotation.” (Offering compensation that never arrived)
Changelly 14:52: “Regardless of the technical error occurred, we are ready to send you full amount of 7,265 BCH”

(Third time they break an agreement)

At this point I just wanted some value back in my control as they kept breaking promises and agreements so I accepted the BCH. I got an email where it stated that the 7,265 BCH got manually sent to my wallet address.
I did not receive any of the BCH until 70 hours later. Not only that, but I only received 1,200 BCH, what happened with the other 6,065 BCH? According to Changelly they were going to be sent in batches, and it would take another 24 hours.
24 hours later: Only received a total of 2,800 BCH. I emailed them.

130 hours after accepting the BCH (where I received just 1,200 BCH for 11,711 ETH) they cancelled the fourth deal (Fourth time they break an agreement) as well with the following E-mail:

Changelly canceled the second deal: “Based on quotation you were offered 7,265 BCH. By now we have paid 2,800 BCH (approx. 38,54%) and 4465 BCH to be paid. BCH funds are in a turnover and it takes quite a long time to accumulate for payout. Exchanges has recently released our ETH liquidity and we are ready to refund you all the amount in one go 7,198 ETH (approx. 61,46%).”

Following by a payment of 7,198 ETH, the matter was solved for them.

Conclusion:
Changelly held my 11,711 ETH (nearly worth 4 million dollar) for seven days and refunded me the ETH at the lowest price possible; the same goes for the BCH.
11,711 ETH was worth €3.888.000 (September 1st)
7,265 BCH was worth €4.352.000 (September 7th)
After an apology E-mail where no compensation was offered I managed to sell the coins I got back for €3.167.000, which concludes a loss anywhere from €721.000,- €1.185.000,- All of this because they kept breaking agreements and deals…
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It's hard for many people to admit they made a mistake or lost a lot of money. Thanks for this information.

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