Consumer complaint received 2022-03-15
Company: Coinbase, Inc.
State: AZ
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I sent a Litecoin  ( XXXX ) transaction to a Bitcoin ( XXXX ) wallet. I was misinformed by the Coinbase pro system which stated at the time I was making the transaction that the wallet I was sending it to was a good XXXX wallet but it was not. Many websites such as Coinbase have this wallet detection option which I used because it will tell the user if the wallet belongs to a different coin network, so as to prevent money transfer issues. However, the Coinbase system failed and it incorrectly advised me that the wallet I was sending to was correct, when in fact it was not. I did not discover it was sent to a different network until after I submitted my transaction and it showed it was now pending. 


The transaction I submitted amounted to roughly {$1600.00} worth of digital currency which is no small amount to lose, so I immediately called the Coinbase customer service line to cancel the transaction as only they could cancel a pending transaction at that time. The agent I spoke with seemed oblivious at handling his job as it took him an extensive amount of time ; almost thirty minutes to simply pull up my transaction although I gave him more than enough pertinent information to locate it. Unfortunately, due to the agent 's delay in locating my transaction, my transaction went from pending to now completed on their system while I was waiting on him. This was very upsetting when I saw that happen because I stressed the urgency to the agent of canceling my transaction before it completed and had he not taken so long to simply access my account he could have canceled it. 


After I saw it was completed on my end, the agent then finally came back on the line after having me wait for so long just to inform me my transaction was completed so he could not cancel it. Fortunately, he said there was something that he could do which was that he would put in a request for someone on the Coinbase pro team to contact me to get this resolved. I waited weeks for a response of some sort but I got nothing, so I knew that agent I originally spoke to did nothing. So, I called again and the new representative I spoke to mentioned to me that the original representative not only left no notes about my issue but also never submitted a request to the pro team. I was very livid at this point but this new agent assured me that they would put the request in for me and that someone would contact me and that I would also get an email of the open request they submitted. 




They contacted me via email like they stated they would do, advising me that a case was open but no one ever actually worked on my request nor did they contact me again. After waiting for a while yet again I contacted Coinbase the first part of XXXX this year XXXX, where I complained letting them know that I wanted to open a complaint ( they sent me the email in the attachment on XX/XX/XXXX ) in which I responded saying I am making an official complaint. They then emailed me the next day on XX/XX/XXXX saying they are following up on if I am satisfied with my resolution when there was never anything done to address my issue, so I informed them that my issue was never resolved and to please escalate again. I never heard back from coinbase after I responded to their last email. 


I then called again on XX/XX/XXXX and this representative assured me that they would escalate to the Coinbase pro team. However, I explained to the representative the terrible service I have had so far and that I did not trust them or the coinbase pro team in any capacity to email me or handle this and that instead I wanted him to email his XXXX or XXXX internally to either call or email me directly but the representative refused. I clarified that I am not asking for their XXXX 's information but for them to contact their XXXX on my behalf like most companies would do if there is a prolonged issue and regular support has failed at their job. The agent kept refusing to contact their XXXX so I told him that I already made an official complaint so he could understand where I stood but he kept refusing to escalate my request to management. After the agent continued to refuse my request he went back to what he said at the beginning of the call which was I would get an email from the Coinbase pro team in regards to this matter. Of course I never got an email ; I checked my regular inbox, spam and junk mailboxes daily to ensure I did not miss their email but it's now been over XXXX weeks since that last call and I still havent heard from anyone in Coinbase about a resolve for getting my money back. 


As of today, I still havent had anyone resolve or even attempt to look more into my issue and none of my calls were taken seriously because if they were I would have been contacted. I have been a long time customer of coinbase and I have referred many people to sign up with them and they are treating me with no respect and have given me the worst customer service I have ever had even after making an official complaint to them. Coinbase is a XXXX dollar company that is publicly traded on the stock market and they can't handle basic customer service which is very disappointing. I hope to get my issue resolved with them and I am hoping with this CFPB complaint I will be taken seriously for once.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief