Consumer complaint received 2018-06-30
Company: Coinbase, Inc.
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
I have had a " virtual currency '' account with " Coinbase '' ( a virtual currency exchange ) for over a year without incident. But, in XX/XX/XXXX I made a number of purchases using the " instant check '' feature. Unfortunately, my bank had decided that it would not accept payments to fund bitcoin accounts, so it reversed the checks, leaving me with a negative balance of {$2900.00} Within a few days of finding out about the bounced checks, I sent {$3200.00} ( in bitcoin currency ) to the account to cover the " bounced '' checks and bring my account to a positive balance. When I transferred the funds, what SHOULD have happened ( according to coinbase 's FAQ page, as well as multiple support hosts I spoke to, ) was the funds were supposed to automatically be taken from the " bitcoin wallet '' ( as opposed to the USD wallet, which is were the debt is shown ), since that had a positive balance. I waited for three days, but the funds were not transferred out of bitcoins and into dollars, despite their help information page stating that it would. In the meantime, the value of my bitcoins was dropping very rapidly, and in two days, instead of having {$3200.00} in my account, i had just over {$3000.00} and i became alarmed that the bitcoins would drop and not then be enough to cover my debt. Panicked, I transferred the bitcoins into the " vault ''. ( I thought that the vault would somehow magically keep my bitcoins from losing value, i didn't understand what the vault was, just a more secure location to store my bitcoins, not a " value freezer. '' Anyway, then just after they went in the vault, coinbase went into the other accounts ( bitcoin cash, alt coins ) that had a few dollars worth of currency in them, and took those funds, but they only covered a few dollars of my debt. ) It took me a while to get the funds out of the vault ( my phone was damaged and i couldn't log in to coinbase or get it out of the vault, I had to resubmit my id and get the XXXX XXXX. By the time I was able to get the funds out of the vault, they'd depreciated considerably in value. I also didn't know that i had to verify the request to withdraw from my vault via a secondary email, and so there were a number of days of delay when I tried to withdraw from the vault and i thought it was because i owed the XXXX. So i sent ANOTHER {$3400.00} to coinbase in bitcoins, thinking, this will cover what I owe them and then some, and they will allow me to withdraw my remaining {$3400.00} in currency now that I have the XXXX XXXX and have paid them what I owe them ( twice! ). well, that was at least 1 month ago, and I still have yet to receive any of my money back or even have my debt to coinbase settled.. they still show my account as XXXX in debt, and they won't allow me to convert my bitcoins into dollars or any other currency and they won't settle my debt from the nearly {$7000.00} i have sent them in total since this whole problem first started back in XX/XX/XXXX. 

Please please help me. I have called, emailed, filed " cases '' in their online help module, only to just be ignored and mansplained to, without any resolution or explanation. Meanwhile, my coinbase wallet which should have a value of {$6600.00} ( the total amount I've sent in payments ) but it shows just {$4700.00} in value. and that's right this moment. Every single day it loses value, and I am helpless to stop it, because they won't allow me to convert it into dollars. I sent them bitcoins because that is what I purchased with the checks that bounced, and I was told by support hosts and the information pages on their website, that it was fine to repay my chargebacks with bitcoins. But they have taken my money hostage and will not assist me in any meaningful way. thank you for your assistance in this matter!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation