Consumer complaint received 2021-12-07
Company: Coinbase, Inc.
State: PA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2021 i contacted COINBASE with a simple question. 

How did they justify their unusually high fee system when buying cryptocurrency in smaller amounts? How is this fee system fair and not tilted towards larger transactions out of reach for many if not most Americans using COINBASE. 

Example. 
You want to buy 10 dollars worth of crypto.

Coinbase charges .99 cents or roughly a 10 % fee.

When you buy more 1001 or over. Its 1.5 %.

I asked how that practice isnt discriminating against people with little to invest with every month.

If i can only afford ten bucks a month at a ten percent rate of fee i would have to wait a very very very long time before i could see any return. 
On top of that. 
The fee goes both ways buying or selling. Granted the selling fee will be less once sold 15 years from now, when after inflation you make a 3 percent return? Maybe?

That seems like a long con to me. 
They responded with a cut and copied preplanned answer that had little to do with my question. 
Here it is below. 

-Thanks for contacting us. 

To ensure that transactions are processed on cryptocurrency networks, outgoing transactions to external cryptocurrency addresses typically incur a " mining '' or " network '' fee. This fee is paid to cryptocurrency miners, which are the systems that process the transactions and secure the respective network. Coinbase incurs and pays these fees directly. Accordingly, Coinbase will charge a fee based on our estimate of the network transaction fees that we anticipate paying for each transaction. In certain circumstances, the fee that Coinbase pays may differ from that estimate. All fees we charge will be disclosed at the time of your transaction. Coinbase does not charge network fees for cryptocurrency transfers from one Coinbase wallet to another.

As crypto begins to gain broader adoption in applications like XXXX, payments, and other projects, networks are now busier which leads to longer wait times and higher fees as users compete to get their transactions confirmed faster. 

Regards, Coinbase Support- Later this evening. They removed my banking info claiming i do not have the funds available ( i have more than needed ) to purchase XXXX dollars worth of crypto that i had purchased a day prior and in fact i need to make a payment or they will sell my current virtual currencies to satisfy the debt. 

Wow. 

All in one day. 
Thats the definition of retaliatory practices if I have ever seen it! 

So on top of seriously limiting the ability of me to meaningfully invest in my future COINBASE went out of their way to delete my bank information which somehow put me in debt to them. 
I guess they thought that was funny? 
Not sure. 
I would say it was just a mistake if I had not contacted them today about a question they had no actual answer to. 
Just a predictable copy and pasted company line that I read in the faqs already. 
I asked specifically how they. COINBASE. JUSTIFIED. ( Key word there is justified. ) Their fees.

If the fee system is par for the course and nothing can be done than I suppose the problems is a very weak US financial regulatory system not keen yet on crypto.

Which is likely a big part of the reason they are doing this to begin with.

They charge fees and offer no real time customer support.

How do multi billion dollar companies who. Make no products. And are 100 % a customer service industry have limited or no customer support staff to speak of? 


So right now its just a cash grab for COINBASE until the government catches on it seems. 

I have no recourse other than this which will likely be ignored or dismissed as well. 

Can someone make a crypto exchange not totally out to make just a few ceos rich and create no new jobs or products to speak of in this country? 

Too much to ask?

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation