Consumer complaint received 2023-08-28
Company: Coinbase, Inc.
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
The Coinbase.com email and phone support process is not currently providing support to customers with funds that live in certain areas. 

I have an account with Coinbase.com. There is roughly {$700.00} equivalent in bitcoin in the account. I was advised in XX/XX/2023 and XX/XX/XXXX  by Coinbase.com that they were making changes and were closing my account on XX/XX/. Coinbase.com has decided to no longer support certain accounts. Coinbase.com going forward intends to only support accounts from citizens & residents primarily in XXXX and the United States. I understand Coinbase.com is having several problems and that I need to comply and withdraw funds. 

XX/XX/XXXX  was my first attempt to login and withdraw funds as per the XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX  emails from Coinbase.com. During login, I correctly provide username, password, and my device authentication code. I can not currently withdraw the funds in my account because the " Accept Updated Terms '' process during login is not working properly and keeps cycling through the same click box and dialogue until the session times out or webpage error dialog displays " Access to www.coinbase.com was denied ; You don't have authorization to view this page ; HTTP Error 403 ''. 

From XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/, I tried various ways to resolve matter by logging-in with different devices and with/without VPN, but none of it worked. 

On XX/XX/, I started contacting customer support by email and phone. The customer support via phone says that my account is in an unsupported area. I am a US citizen, but have been residing in XXXX for several years where I created the account. Per Coinbase.com website comments, they are experimenting with customer support, which means they are not supporting certain customers. When I send emails through their customer support, the email support tickets are automatically closed ; sometimes within one or two seconds of sending my support email ( usually within 10 minutes ). This is happening because my account email address is associated to my residency in XXXX, which is an unsupported area per Coinbase.com. 

I reached out to Coinbase.com customer support several times on XX/XX/XXXX  with the same result ( phone hang-ups, phone calls not returned, email support tickets automatically closed ). On XX/XX/, I also reached-out to a Coinbase executive officer, who I know personally from a prior employer ; no response too, but obviously all the execs are very busy with everything going on. In total, I have probably contacted Coinbase.com phone and email support about ten ( 10 ) times with no action from Coinbase.com. 

There should be no such thing as an unsupported area if Coinbase has the customers funds. It seems obvious to me that if a financial institution has customer funds and requested the customer to withdraw funds, Coinbase.com must support those customer accounts with funds whether they are or are not in unsupported areas. Per Coinbase.com emails, I have until XX/XX/XXXX  to withdraw funds, but currently Coinbase.com through their customer support process is preventing me from withdrawing funds with possibly a purposeful lack of support.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation