How I Was Robbed Numerous Times This Week In Crypto, And No I Don't Mean in Trading, Actual Robbery!!
A Week of Frustrations
It's been a while since I had a moment to update everyone on how life has been and what's been new with me and the family. Overall work wise, everything is great...solid and moving forward quite well. Everyone has been really excited about Thanksgiving and the holidays coming up our way, we have plans to have the whole family together under one roof this week and that is a huge blessing because its a rare thing to have happen every year.
With all the great things happening, sadly I have to report so many fails in crypto this week for my family that I am honestly in shock with the greed and financial losses that hit myself and my family for our limited financial holdings.
You might want to read this in detail so you guys are protected and maybe avoid the issues that hit our family through crypto this week, some services you may use that we all have trusted...even myself seem to be slipping into a realm to be very careful about!!
The Bitpay/Amazon Fiasco and Financial Losses Due to Incompetence
This past week I was so excited, finally saved enough mining earnings for the last few months to finally get on the famous Bitmain waiting list for a new Antminer L3+ to kick up this families earning potentials for the future of crypto rising like we firmly believe will inevitably happen.
....sadly that excitement turned into my first crypto horror story!!
Due to the long wait and having to deal with customs to get my shipment in from China, I decided to go ahead and pay up a little more to find a US based local reseller of the L3+. I spent 2 days really researching and asking around but settled on a seller on Amazon that seemed to have the miner I needed locally here in the USA.
So I placed the order for $3200 via my Bitpay card and spent a day or two happily content that I just invested something that may help this family rise a little more in weekly income before the holidays got close. Then to my horror I come to find a few days later that the shipment for this never was sent out. So after digging around my Amazon message center I found a message from the seller asking for more money for customs and also asking me to fudge on the paper work to make it cheaper on them and on myself?
The whole point in ordering this was because these people listed having these miners IN HAND here in the USA but clearly they were reselling off the back of orders they had coming in from Bitmain and located in some undisclosed location outside of the USA, needless to say that was not the deal I signed up for so I had to cancel the order.
I think this image says it all, Bitpay once stood for crypto crytpo users..now no different than your average traditional banking system about the greenbacks over its customers!
We had a slight headache getting it cancelled but eventually the seller honored this and expressed that they understand they should have been more transparent about the location and fact they didn't actually have the miners in hand. But then came major issues and a loss of our $3200 and we can't figure out if its Bitpay or Amazon screwing us at this stage.
Between phone calls back and forth all week, we found out that on PRE-AUTHORIZED HOLDS Bitpay has a very strange policy that even regular fiat banks don't do. They require a 30 day hold on the funds unless the merchant hand faxes a release of funds with all our personal info. On Amazon's side they will not do such a thing due to the rights of privacy for its customers. So what I found out this week about Bitpay is this. A crypto based company is more invasive about privacy than a non crypto company. I also come to find out when it comes to refunds or violations of purchases scammy sellers that Bitpay will not easily honor your funds to be returned. They have become worse than any banking system I have ever dealt with and I warn people if they use their service to be very cautious what payouts you initiate because getting your funds back may be next to near impossible to have returned.
As of right now Bitpay will not help us out on this matter, they feel its not their business to help us out with our funds even though they have received all the proof that Amazon has fully cancelled this hold on our funds. Now they literally hang up on us when we call their customer service number, not one cross word from us has remotely come about yet so there is a huge lack of competence in that company all the sudden to care to do what is right. At this stage I have no clue if we will ever see that money back, way they told us its basically none of their concern if Amazon won't release info of ours via fax so we are out the $3200 and seriously looking into other legal routes to obtain our funds, which will probably cost more than that money is worth.
This is one point in crypto where greed vs what crypto is meant to be about is being lost. I have been with Bitpay a good while, spent a lot of money to help them out financially but to be dealt with such a large amount of funds stuck in a state they know clearly should be returned to us is beyond infuriating for us at this stage. So as of now we can see our funds locked up, might return after XMAS but they have literally ruined the coming holidays for my kids, so I am a done customer for life and will make sure people are aware of how they work from this point on.
Then Came the $30 Bitcoin Transaction Fee
We all know Bitcoin has been having struggles, the Segwit2x issue has been a mess. The amount of people jumping all over Bitcoin has slowed the network down. But as much as a purist Bitcoin advocate as I am, after all this mess with Bitpay and then a day later to find out I moved $60 bucks and got only half of that transaction on the other end due to a $30 miner fee is really making me wonder what is really going on lately in crypto.
There is a serious need right now that Bitcoin gets its act together and do something for the users. I already feel pretty robbed of my $3200 locked up mess in Bitpay but to have that kind of miner fee hit me for simply moving from an exchange to my wallet was like the kick me when I am down moment I did not need this week.
We had the exchange look into the matter and they provided the fee info that was attached to the TX and sadly it was what it was, an overly high miner fee just happened to hit us during a mempool issue spike.
I don't know right now if its greed, or just some growing pains here but if we don't remember those roots to do this for the individual, then I really don't even see the point of us keeping at supporting Bitcoin anymore when there are so many other options not doing this to users. Maybe its time I realize that Bitcoin is only good as a horders coins, a store of value for savings because its obviously no longer at all valid for day to day transactions like it was when I first got into this space.
I pray Bitcoin gets these things under order soon, consider my $30 a donation to the cause to lowering these damn fees soon!!!
Lets Just End This Bad Week By Stealing Also My Mining Earnings!!!
If all that wasn't enough, it continued to hit us in crypto with even more bad luck.
Most of you on here know I am also a miner, hence the loss I am dealing with through Amazon/Bitpay lol. Lately I have been mining through Nicehash and using a reuse address from Shapeshift to convert on the fly to LTC in order to save myself from the BTC fees lately. The reuse address I been using from Shapeshift has been working like a charm for well over a month, never missed a beat and funds came in no issue ever.
Well as of Friday that too no longer works and my usual extra $100 a week from mining ended up not showing up in my LTC wallet. I checked and rechecked the address and even the TX on that sent funds from Nicehash but all checked out fine but Shapeshift just didn't exchange it for some reason.
So I put in a ticket and finally got word back from Shapeshift that they don't do exchanges like I am doing and that is why I didn't receive my funds. I kind of get it but its odd because I never seen a word on their site about not doing it from mining pools to them and I been doing it this way for months with no issue but that is their official stance on it.
Shapeshift is a good company so I am not really complaining about them, its just kind of the kicker to the way our week has been going financially in crypto but Shapeshift stated they will do a refund. Not seen this refund now over 24 hours but I do have faith in this place seeing I have been using them for well over a year now but I wouldn't be telling you the truth if I wasn't sitting here sweating it right now with the way our week has been.
So What In The Hell Is Going On Here With Crypto??
Listen I wouldn't be just questioning this out loud if I was just basing this week's experience alone, but What in the hell is going on here with crypto? See its not just this week alone, I also have cloud mining issues with HASHFLARE, they cut out the lifetime contracts on us, then I go to make my first payout and they rose the minimum payout higher so most of us lower guys can't use even our funds on there (which would be nice seeing this week I been left with no money at all in hand due to crypto). I also got scammed on 2 other fake cloud mining contracts out there that friends suggested but turned out a few days later them and myself got scammed due to the sites being taken down. Not a huge loss but financially every dime counts around this time of year.
I am starting to question crypto hard right now, and I work in a crypto project so if I am seeing these issues on myself I can only imagine what might be going on out there to other users. Bitpay, well they screwed us and I clearly have lost trust for that company. Maybe if they did us right and returned our funds and changed their policy to a more reasonable state like even banks do with a 7-10 pre-authorized hold, then maybe I might use them again. Right now though I am just not so sure who I can trust in crypto with my finances after the week of insight I just had.
CRYPTO IS MEANT TO FREE US, NOT FURTHER ENSLAVE AND ROB US
If you know me you know this, I am fiat free in my life. I came to crypto for the movement against the federal reserve, I also live 100% on crypto. I work in crypto as a marketer, I have lived and breathed this movement early on with lots of sacrifice to be one of many to support the movement so we can get this to the mainstream.
I am concerned though right now about the whole space here. It looks to me we are turning right back to the old systems I am highly against. We are manipulating, using it to scam, we are stealing, and we are getting way too greedy in how we conduct business on average joes in this system. I know its not every where like that but I think we as a community better get the issues I am seeing in check or we will see serious regulations go into play and this opportunity before you could very well be a thing of the past for us as individuals.
Will I survive this past week? Yea I survive everything but I am concerned very much for other users after seeing what I seen in Bitpay so I felt its time I spoke up because this is definitely wrong what is being done to my family. Bitpay is actually withholding funds meant to be used towards income so its even more than what is being with held from us, its also stalling us from earnings as well. We will survive though, might be a very simple Christmas for the family but eventually we have hopes the money will return but if it doesn't I guess we need to head into the legal stage seeing that is our money no matter how they view it. I just hope everyone is careful with companies like this and reads more about their policies, though I think this one is a bit over the top for holds.
Just be very careful with your finances here, seems we might need to always be on our toes and not trust even the trusted companies in crypto anymore....
Growing pains with Crypto. Sorry to hear about the frustrations. $30 transaction fee is ridiculous!
Yes I agree lol. Probably wouldn't have bugged me so hard if all the other junk didn't happen, have seen friends get these $20 hits on BTC now and then, figured I was due soon lol. Hopefully they get this mempool issue in check, we need it bad.
Not to be insensitive, but all I read was a bunch of whining from someone who barely understands how these companies work.
You'd have to be a special case of stupid to get robbed on Amazon since their policy is the buyer is always right. As for Bitpay, you don't seem to understand how their holds work. It takes 30 days for refunds to be processed.
Sure it sucks, but it's their policy and it's clearly written in their POS.
You'll get your money back, so chill out.
Definitely insensitive but its all good. Maybe you will have to find out the hard way yourself because its not about the policy....because we actually jumped through hoops by their terms of service to have our account unfrozen but they still didn't comply. Fax, requirements from Amazon's end because they have long since sent the required electronic kick back the system needed. Issue is, right now many users are complaining about this with Bitpay, some have had holds then their accounts closed out without receiving funds so maybe you might want to read a little more before shooting for the negative on someone dealing with some serious issues going on.
And I never said I was robbed by Amazon, I said Bitpay is not honoring our well proven kick back of cancellation that i got fixed from Amazon. So basically what is happening is we won't get our money back most likely, because if we have already had everything put in place that is required for funds to be returned and have the documents in our hands per policy, then maybe there is a reason for me to be on here stating a warning to other users. Bitpay has been going downhill lately, read out there a bit more what is happening to users and you might gather why its a concern.
But hey, your not in our shoes so of course you see no big deal, get in our shoes and maybe you might troll less and have a bit of compassion for others. Not asking for money here, not even trying to tear crypto down which I have been in a long time and actually make a living with in a project. No what I am doing is warning people about this system turning into the same FIAT system it was designed against.
I'm not your enemy bro. The same thing happened to me that's how I know. It's just one of those weird terms that only bitpay has.
I do agree bitpay has been getting shittier cause their fees seem to be taking a bigger chunk of my transfers.
As for your money, you'll get it back in exactly 30 days as their policy states. I'm sure that sucks. but there's no getting around it.
I apologize for being cold about it. But you were being a bit overly-dramatic. Your headline was: How I Was Robbed Numerous Times This Week In Crypto, And No I Don't Mean in Trading, Actual Robbery!!
Actually there is more to the list, just didn't go much more deep into it, also got scammed out of a few "cloud mining" startups but figured call those guys out with the class action going on for a bunch of us....its just been a bad week. I think why it sounds like whining maybe is this, I have a bit of disheartened feel about stuff going on in crypto. I been in this very early and remember a much simpler time when this was more about fixing a broken system but noticing the system and old ways sometimes is encroaching on crypto. Money for me isn't everything, still bring in enough to cover the losses but I just have concerns more for other users to get hit by issues like i am starting to see.
We are good though, not meaning to present to you that we are enemies, just a frustrating situation and stressful so it may come out that way.
Not so sure about the money coming back though, hopefully it will but actually found the electronic release done via Visa and its long overdue for the release. Hopefully in 30 days its back and I can relocate all the funds over to Shift, after this I will be avoiding Bitpay like many are starting to do. Guess we need more options in the USA, but it will take time.
Sorry to hear about your week. You'll feel a lot better when you get your money back.
Most definitely my friend lol....luckily I work in Visio and they really helped a lot the other day to elevate the losses for now. Guess all works out eventually. Maybe it was meant to happen, if it pops back up around the 11th of December as I believe it might, then I am all good for XMAS maybe still.
Weeks getting a little better, just frustrating to have issues like this come out of nowhere unexpected.
What a bunch of unfortunate events. I hope you get your funds released soon. I had the same problem with hashflare when they switched over. I had just bought about 4 TH/S and they up and changed their contract to only a year. I wish I had kept the money and to put it into Genesis instead, had I known they would screw all of us like that.
I am sticking off cloud mining at this stage, I avoided it for a long time and always had my own hardware but decided on Hashflare just to kind of stop so much heat in the house lol. They literally changed the contracts a week into it for me lol...so first attempt at it showed me time to just get more ASICs or GPUs but that isn't turning out to well either. We will get through it, but I will tell you what, if we don't get some form of decentralized debit system in this, those banks are gonna manipulate everyone after what I experienced.
Yo, I’m sorry to hear about your hell of a week! Prayers go up to you and your family!
Its alright man, just been one of those weeks I guess. I am sure it will all right itself but I definitely need to reconsider where I lay my finances in this game. Luckily I also hold a few other crypto debit cards, learned a long time ago, you get burned once you will again so I am just shifting to other providers. Worst part though is this is not just my fiances involved, got kids here and a family and you can take from me but when it comes to taking from my kids mouths, thats when I don't lay down quietly.
But we are working on the issue, I think after what I just read on Amazon in a message, I got enough evidence now showing that Bitpay is purposely not complying to the electronic release provided by Amazon, so I think I got em now lol.
Oh yeah that should definitely be enough evidence to get your cyrpto back! I just hope they don't make it a long drawn out legal process, especially considering your kids man!
It's dope that your fully dependent on crypto though! Definitely dangerous, but the freedom is well worth it!
Basically what is going on is the actual hold via Amazon is long over, been getting this info on the cards side that it hasn't been but just seen an email from Amazon showing that has been kicked back. So what I will do is just wait and see, they got the 30 days but then I got to go other routes if it goes past it. Sucks though around the holidays but maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel.
I switched back to Shift over at Coinbase, hate coinbase but its less fees and issues with Shift so I got that covered. Bitpay used to be amazing but i have had a lot of headaches with them in the last month, even have $20 I can't move in my Bitpay wallet lol...always says insufficient fees on that amount so there is more to the story here with me and them.
I been a year now fiat free and solely living on crypto, can be done and I am actually doing pretty well minus this recent headache issue. Just have to be careful it appears....feel things out and adapt when there is issues because the game changes a lot in crypto on us all. Took a lot of time before hand to feel secure in going full in but I know its well worth the leap.
It is really shocking to hear...i hope ypu get your money back...And i thought Only Amazon was trustworthy in online marketing!!!
Honestly, Amazon done the basics on this. I get the fact they won't release our info to Bitpay to get this hold off as a kind of policy protection for users. For all they know I am just some guy on the phone posing as the account holder so I get that part. But what I am not getting is the need for so much bull to put back funds that have already electronically been kicked back as a cancelled order. I am talking well past it, I have Amazon now telling me my funds should have been lifted but still nothing has happened. So Amazon kind of did the minimum of what they are required to do. Bitpay, they are not doing anything....just dodging every thing when we call, hanging up on us mid question and kind of just saying maybe 30 days.
I am sure come 30 days it will be there or we up our legal action from there, got enough docs on all this showing its our money and should be returned but really bad timing for stuff like this to keep hitting us in numerous areas. I been in crypto a long time now, seen it grow around me, been working in it and went full time living from it for quite awhile. Just never seen so many issues at all till recently. Probably due to the rapid growth happening but I hope we get it together before things get targets on it from regulators
Wow, what a week for you. Yea I think we are still in the early stages of companies using the Bitcoin system and fine-tuning the process when it comes to e-commerce. Just be vigilant and I'm sure you'll get ur funds back. Just have to be patient. I had weeks and months on some of my crypto woes dealing with some services.
I agree, its really just growing pains and companies coming in trying to treat a decentralized system more like the old ways of centralized systems. I have been lucky up to this point so I kind of figured it would find me one day with issues lol.....but I definitely think we need to start building some fiat to crypto gateway that is decentralized there as well, hard to do with the laws in place but I think the policies of companies in a crypto related environment won't fly long if they stick to the old ways like Bitpay and its Visa provider are trying to pull. Funny thing and why I am most upset, the need for so much personal info to simply return what is mine, Amazon on their end oddly want to protect that for us here and did their part fully, why the funds still haven't returned, beyond me other than the fact Bitpay wants basically access to our Amazon account to release....not normal even with average debit systems I have dealt with. Its okay though, I will make it through, relocate to my Shift card 100% after this experience and part ways with Bitpay as a lesson learned.