After a three day support nightmare at Coinbase, I'm out! It's all about Bitpay now! [A Coinbase Warning Tale]
Hey again, steemitizens!
Rant time. 
I started using coinbase awhile back to make paypal access to bitcoin easier. I have used all sorts of online and offline wallets over the last ten years, but coinbase offered one of the easiest paypal integrations to my paypal merchant account so despite well known issues and concerns with using them, I tried it anyway.
Boy was it great at first! I could buy bitcoin with the instant proceeds from my online paypal merchant account income, which also arrived instantly after invoicing my clients. So I could get paid, buy bitcoin and move it to bittrex to trade with, easy peasy! Yay!
Until it was time to get some out. Somehow, after being a buyer on coinbase only for about a month or two, and having done one small test withdrawal without a hitch, I picked the worst time ever to try and do a larger profit pull from bittrex, back through coinbase and into paypal. A week when the coinbase site was melting down. Again.
Allegedly all of this is supposed to be instant!
Yeah. It's not, when coinbase is having their 19th nervous breakdown this month. My paypal withdrawal got hung and did not promise by the published date in my wallet, then another day passed, and another. Coinbase site was briefly down. Customers irate on twitter and support pages. Nobody is moving any money and no one at coinbase is talking.
Once I pulled the withdrawal trigger on my coinbase account to payal, the option to depost and withdraw disappeared from my coinbase account pages.
I opened a ticket. I bumped the ticked with more info once a day for 3 days. No reply, nothing, from coinbase on the ticket.
Then I noticed something. I could STILL send BTC from my wallet to another wallet. Even though my paypal deposit still said pending. Hallelujah, a way out! So I sent my money back to Bittrex for safety for a moment, and it worked! Screw that paypal withdrawal - let it fail on coinbase's side with my now emptied coinbase wallet unable to fulfill. They can bite me!
On the recommendation of a trusted friend from here on Steemit, I ordered a Bitpay Visa card just now, and that should serve my future bitcoin/steem conversion access to cash USD requirements, and not for very much money either? Not as much as coinbase was sucking my blood dry for.
Coinbase can screw off. I'm done with them raking the highest fees in the game, and then being down, closing accounts (so I've heard and keeping the money, its in the news) and other shenanigans with zero support and relative impunity and anonymity.
BUHBYE FELICIA!
I'm a https://bitpay.com/ guy now!
And just like that, this post is over!
Full Steem Ahead, Steemitizens!
I am the creator of https://steemchallenge.com
The world's first steemit user's contest, games and challenges directory!
Follow me at https://steemit.com/@sircork for news, views and entertainment!
Good read and I totally agree. I hear lots of people saying bye to ethereum the coin when the crashes haven't been eth fault at all. All the fault is in exchange servers that cannot withstand the crazy traffic ethereum is generating. It's a shame that these exchanges lead to a bad rep for various coins.
BitPay, i am excited to get my card. Our experiment continues Mr. Corky the "high tech red neck". ROFL
You lookin' to wrastle with me kid? Cause that's how you get wrastlin' with me! Now where's it gonna happen? On the rocks or on the grass, dandelion?
I think i weigh like 3x what you do!!! I am 6'4" 250 pounds. GOOD LUCK!
AND YOU STICK ALRIGHT!
This post received a 7.0% upvote from @NicNas thanks to @NicNas! For more information, click here!
Thanks for the info...
Crap exchanges will die off the strong will survive ....
and more crap comes behind them! thanks for reading my posts!
i tested bitpay and found that they have a minimum withdrawal amount of 500USD to bank accounts - which they didn't word clearly during signup - so I had to manually request that they reconvert my funds to bitcoin to allow me to transfer them to a different exchange that doesn't have that limit.
Didn't know that but it won't be an issue for me, I'll have the bitpay visa and an ATM handy.
Does BitPay work in the 🇬🇧?
No idea. They have a FAQ at bitpay.com - but not sure.
So PayPal sucks (heard they wont even deal with BitCoin anymore), Polo sucks, and now CoinBase.....I think I'll just sit for awhile before I open any accounts anywhere. Im too new to this to mess up. PP has already been on my hitlist for awhile anyway. Ive heard Steem to BlockTrades or Bitrexx to BitPay....is that right?
I really like bittrex. No complaints there. Trade there a lot of volume. I'm happy with signing up for bitpay, it was 5 minutes and done. We'll see how it goes using it.
Paypal has sucked for me in the past decades ago, but it's been my main merchant account for many years with just fine results, and never a problem.