FTX banned me because I showed it was a shambles
Climbing to no 3 on the crypto exchanges list in next to no time, Sam Bankman-Fried’s start-up has lots of very respectable promoters. Guy of CoinBureau describes it as “top-notch”. But it is also a shambles. Even worse, saying so, and showing how dreadful it is in customer service, got me banned from its Telegram channel. There, for once, ftx acted fast.
Look at Telegram yourself and you will see almost nothing but complaints about the difficulty of getting ftx response to problems.
It’s even worse than that.
Apart from scoring some kind of record for unresponsiveness to customers compared to my experiences with other exchanges — or the Twilio Authy app for 2FA codes, for instance — ftx has been not only slow to respond to my requests but often incomprehensible.
Gobbledygook
For example, see this message from a complaint I did not make publicly about being shafted on a margin-purchase I did not consciously make (if ever): “Please note the system will not initiate order if it is liquidation related. Referring to your IOTA-Perp, except the last 2 trade ID that it is liquidated due to margin requirement. The rest of ID comes from one open order (referring to https://ftx.com/order-history) which user has inputted a market o[r]der for 12,539 units of IOTA-Perp.”
See what I mean?
So what could I have done to get myself banned when crowd-griping seems to be the standard message on ftx Telegram?
Two months for a refund
Maybe because the failure of ftx was so egregious: it had taken two months to get a refund of a failed transfer to my bank, and I said so.
Gaslighting critics is typical behavior by confidence tricksters rather than a Benthamite vegan — “it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong” — that Bankman-Fried declares himself to be.
Reading complaints about bureaucratic foul-ups is boring. So I’ll try to be brief. Just read the details for amusement rather than attempting to follow the intricacies.
A Delaware intermediary with no company contacts?
The proceeding itself was simple. Transfer funds from my ftx account to my bank in Switzerland in mid-November. One good reason for using ftx, there should have been no charge for Swiss francs. I filled out the details and ordered the transfer.
But ftx, I learned, used company named as North Dimension Inc, which according to bizapedia was based in Delaware and founded in August 2020 with no company contacts (LINK). The transfer was through a California company of the same name. Wouldn’t that raise alarm bells in any sensible customer?
And this did not tell the Swiss bank the money came from me so they sent it back on 26 November when ftx would not provide me with documents proving the funds came from my account and not a third party (to avoid money laundering). The Swiss bank and destination (an investment company) even delayed returning the money so that I could get hold of the necessary documents.
Weird wire receipt
Over a month later, after several requests, I received a note from ftx on 20 December indicating a bank wire receipt from 16 November to me but from North Dimension Inc, not my ftx account. On December 24, Christmas Eve, ftx sent me a “To whom it may concern” note confirming that I had made a withdrawal on 17 November. The money, sent nearly a month before, should have been credited to my account, I thought. This after ftx told me on 27 November, the day after the bank returned the money, that “We unfortunately cannot provide you with an account statement.”
So when did my money get recredited to my account? On 17 January 2022, according to an email from ftx.
Barred for warning of scammers
By this time I had already been barred without notice from ftx Telegram for my complaints.
Some days earlier I’d said online that ftx might not be a scammer but it sure acted like one.
On 15 December 2021 ftx had told me on its website ticket: “Your funds will not be lost.”
I tried to show my gratitude with this message: “thanks for this. It’s the most responsive answer I have had for a month.”
Come 15 January, this was sounding like a typical scammer’s device to stop you questioning the process, as happened to me at just the same time with solar panels I ordered through Facebook. As all the crypto gurus tell you, you are on your own if something goes wrong in the cryptoverse.
Something like a minute after posting, the channel vanished from my list and I could not get access again and was told “this group is not accessible”.
I’d been scammed before
Re the solar panels, I had bought using my Paypal account and complained to it of the scam. Paypal repaid me immediately.
When the ftx funds reappeared, I immediately made a withdrawal once more, this time have confirmed with the bank that the two documents I received too late from ftx would be acceptable for a transfer to take place. And so the funds were transferred, and at no charge in Swiss francs, as promised.
FTX finally came through but I could not tell their customers
This time ftx also gave me full wire details on the same day via Silvergate, a Federal Reserve member bank.
I’ve suggested to ftx they stick to Silvergate for their transfers in future. But because I am barred from posting in the Telegram channel, I can’t tell all those frustrated ftx users about the happy ending.
