About two months ago I posted how my dumb mistake may cost me 3,000 STEEM. Today, I got my STEEM back, minus a minor withdrawal fee.
Over 50 days ago, I opened a support ticket. I waited. I pinged the ticket a few times. I asked about my ticket every few days in the now-gone trollbox. You can see the helpdesk conversation here:
Appologies are great, but how about an explanation?
I have to wonder, did this tweet finally get me some attention?
I was searching around on Twitter and elsewhere to find any Polo employees who actually respond to tweets and found MickD whose Twitter profile describes him as CXO @Poloniex - UX & IxD Strategy. That tweet was sent on the 28th and the very next day on the 29th my support ticket got a reply.
Coincidence? Maybe.
As soon as I saw the STEEM in my Poloniex account, I wanted to tell you all about it, but I decided to wait until they re-enabled the wallet so I could get everything off of there completely.
So why am I writing about this? Mostly to say thank you to all those who have been asking me about this over the past two months. In addition, I want to reiterate how important the first rule of cryptocurrency is:
Control Your Own Private Keys
When you send money to an exchange, you no longer own it. You are at their mercy. This is another reason I'm such a big fan of BitShares and OpenLedger. Decentralized wallets are the future, but that future will only get here if we stop using centralized exchanges.
The second reason for writing this is to reinforce an important principle.
We, the customers, have all the control in a market-driven system if, and only if, we take that power and use it.
That's why I won't be using Poloniex any more, and I hope you don't either. They went almost two months without responding to my customer support request which is unacceptable. I'm not the only one to experience this from Poloniex.
I run my own business, and I can't imagine treating users this way. We don't need government regulations or someone to use threats of force to make Poloniex behave. What we need to do is ignore them. Use other exchanges and decrease their profits, something they will have to listen to or go out of business.
This is the part we usually mess up. We get greedy. We take on risk in spite of our principles. We think we're making a rational choice because of lower fees or more liquidity or some other reason which may mean more profits for us. We have to stop and factor in our long-term goals.
True rationality considers the importance of timescale. How long will we put up with companies like MtGox and Poloniex who clearly demonstrate a disregard for the value of their customers? If that's not part of the long-term vision for what this space should look like, then we need to start making changes now.
If possible, do your trading on a decentralized exchange and don't give your business to an exchange which doesn't value you. That's how we can help create the future of cryptocurrency we all want to see.
Created with ChainBB to help support that project.
Congratulations!
I never forget that all businesses that charge me fees and all government employees that are paid with my taxes ARE MY EMPLOYEES!
It is my responsibility to manage them and promote or demote them accordingly.
Upvoted, re-steemed, inspired :)
That's exactly right. They work for us. Glad this inspired you.
Ugh...that's frustrating. I'm really starting to hate Poloniex too. I just transferred about $1000 of Peercoin from Bittrex to Poloniex, and it's been 3 hours and still not there..I can't imagine those months and how annoying that was for you. I opened a support ticket, but reading what you went through, I can't imagine I'll be hearing back anytime soon. Awesome
Did it eventually go through?
It did! Took 4 hours but it did. That part is ridiculously frustrating and causes a ton of anxiety. Can't imagine how people feel when they're doing like a 50 btc transfer!
It took me about 12 days to get my Steem back after I accidentally sent it to a bitcoin wallet. Still learning my way around this brace new world. 😀 Kept updating my ticket with new asks and then, finally, out of disgust, I opened a second ticket with Poloniex and it seems that they responded to that one. Seems like they were back logged or something. Just glad I didn't lose that Steem!
Ah, good idea to open a new ticket! I wonder if that was the key for you. Glad you got your Steem.
Congrats bro!!! From now on this is the way we are treating poloniex
Glad you got your steem back.!!
What do y'all think about exodus wallet?
Comment below.
I haven't used it yet, but it looks pretty sharp. Have you used it?
Oh wow 3k steem stuck in limbo.. I would have been a nervous wreck over that lol. Glad to hear it turned out ok for you.
@lukestokes . Great writeup, many of us are experiencing the same pain with Polo. I believe my failed deposit happened when I made the transfer while the Steem deposits were disabled at Poloniex. Seems to be no retry logic on that process so it just sits in @poloniex account until the support tickets are picked up. My ticket is 2 weeks and counting.
The one think I like about this community are people like you who help others by writing solutions based on your experiences.
MickD may be getting a lot more support tweets now!!!
Congrats. 3000 steem is a lot of Power!
Congrats, that is really big amount and finally you have it back. I am happt for you @lukestokes
HappT! :)
Thanks.
Congrats, Luke! Messing up those memos is easily done. I did it myself, transferring to openledger. They are supposedly looking into it, but so far nothing.
Hopefully that team can help you out... or at least communicate with you.
I think the tweet got their attention, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. It made them look bad. I won't go near Poloniex anymore. I'm just waiting for the headlines about the owner raiding people's wallets and running off to China.
Maybe. I tried tweeting at @poloniex before and got no response. This time I tweeted a human. Maybe they did something about it.
I still haven't got mine! I'm about to raise a new support issue! :[
Good luck! I hope they get their act together, I really do.
What could possibly be the explanation? I have some thoughts on it so I wrote a post about it. Also mentioned your name and voted for you as witness. Keep up the good work mate :]
Thank you!
Ahah good news, you must be so happy. In your place I wouldn't have slept peacefully with 3000 steem in nature. Anyway I'm happy for you. I will follow you because I like to be informed about the crypto.
Thanks. It's easy to sleep when we treat everything in life as a gift. :)
Two months is far too long to wait for a customer support claim... but at least you got your steem back! That's better than a swift, but not helpful, response.
Getting STEEM back is definitely the goal, but a response throughout this process would have gone a really long way. They could have explained the situation but instead, through their silence, they communicated I am of no value to them. I understand sometimes things break and sometimes things take time. What I can not understand is being treated as worthless by a service provider.
Congratulations! Super glad you finally got it and wow, that's a nice settlement if you considered it to be a "write off"!! Hope you enjoy it!
I have some things I want to invest in in the future. Hopefully that will include cheap EOS. :)
Thats a project i dont intent to touch sadly.
Wow man, good to hear you got it back. I really was expecting to hear about people eating losses.
Me too. Life is a gift. :)
at least you got your steem back
That would have been a pain.
Glad it is sorted now.
Finally.
Same here sir, this was my first time experience when I used poloniex and my first payout stuck at poloniex. I mean whatever the SBD I was trying to transfer and this happened. Who can think better at that time? I was quite angry at that time. Well thanks for telling us about this, hopefully I get mine too. 😂😄
you overcame a nightmare:P de-motivated real bad i think untill you saw ''recieved''it gave you a extra boost :)
Only 50 days wait on Polo ticket? :D Your persistence paid off brother, that's how we succeed! :) thanks for sharing, I'll avoid to send Steem to polo at all cost. @lukestokes
Good to hear you got it back!
@lukestones wow bro thats messed up but im glad you got your coins back
AHHHH!! That's gotta feel like the initial G force from taking off on Falcor! Congrats on getting it back and for the update. I am heeding your advice and am going to stick with open ledger now, seeing as I already have an account there.
DEX all the things.
Glad you got your coins finally! Money is a sensitive issue and we want it to work how it's supposed to! These issues make it hard for crypto to grow, hopefully they get worked out sooner rather then later!
Its good news............
Glad for you, and your point is well taken, which is why I'm using my Trezor more often!
@lukestokes,
I heard a lot of negative stories about Poloniex and thanks for you today I could hear a Positive story as well.
As a result of lots of negative stories I have decided to stay with Bittrex.
Once my Ripple balance was missing at Coinpayments.net and they managed pay 55% back.
So after all negative minds we can believe those guys are still trying to do a professional work here.
Thanks for sharing this useful information friend!
(My voting power is drained, so I will upvote this post in 48 hrs and already clicked FOLLOW - @lukestokes)
Cheers~
Thanks :)
You are welcome friend! Keep posting... I will be a big fan of yours!
Cheers~
Yyessss. Finally! Time to transfer the remaining of my SBD to Bittrex.
Nothing bad has happened to me on Polo YET, but better safe than sorry.
Why not OpenLedger or BitShares? DEX = future.
No idea. I am a noob when it comes to these things. Most of my friends use Bittrex and also Steemit seems to be a fan, so why not? ^^
SO crazy, I had enough of poloniex... closing it down and went to bittrex and genesis lol
Problems at one centralized exchange, and you want to run right into the arms of another. Why do so many people insist on being the mole in what amounts to a game of whack-a-mole? If there was no alternative to centralized exchanges, I suppose it would make sense...
Why not try OpenLedger / BitShares? DEX all the things!
Glade you got them back it's a long wait 2 months
i got my steem back on an exchange i messed up on too for polo!.
I am currently using bittrex and thinking about getting into cryptonia!
Why not the DEX? Liquidity could certainly be better, but if everyone who is sighing in relief right now moved a portion of their trading to it as a hedge against the problems centralized exchanges are inherently prone to, it would improve significantly.
Glad to hear you got it back, that is a long time to wait for that much STEEM. Good advice about private keys and I will check out the decentralized wallets. Now time for a decentralized exchange!
Perseverance paid off - worth fighting for in this case. It's so often the case that customer support (service?) is one of the first things to degrade once a company starts running into trouble. Either that, or the company explodes in popularity and can't scale quickly enough. I genuinely hope that Poloniex is the latter - it wouldn't be good for the Crypto world to see another collapse.
Yep, you are right I ditched poloniex the day I discovered blocktrades haha
Great, I have got my money back too
Excellent!
my 1000 steem are not deposited still...
Ugh. Sorry to hear that. I'm done with them.
yup, using bittrex now, and bitshares DEX if possible
Lucky.. I'm still waiting on a response on my ticket.. Maybe I should try the same.
Good luck, man.
Great news. I recently made the noob mistake of sending SBD to my BTC address. Thankfully, it was only pocket change and I'm sure I'll recover it. As Jim Rogers says, it's good to make the mistakes early with fewer zeros.
Always double check withdrawal addresses before submitting the request. If it's for a significant amount of money - triple check.
I've definitely learned that lesson.
Around a month now and my SBD is still unaccredited.
Sorry to hear that. :(
That is by I always check all exchanges before making trades, but you couldn't have guessed that.
Bittrex is the way to go!
Any centralized cryptocurrency exchange can be prone to problems of this nature. What makes Bittrex different? You still have to exchange your money for IOUs from them to trade there. Unless those IOUs are insured by a 3rd party, that mean enormous counterparty risk.
I'm not saying for longterm storage, but for transferring as an alternative to Poloniex. Poloniex is CONSTANTLY being overloaded with SBD and STEEM (I believe they receive ~80% of all SBD and STEEM trading/transfers). Bittrex is just much faster for exchanging things like SBD and STEEM. The best place to store these is in your STEEM POWER (:
I think Bitrex is better than most, but a DEX is the future.
This is re-assuring as i have some ETC that has not arrived in my Poloniex account - 4 days so far and no sign of it or reply to support ticket, my wallet and blockchain both say it has been received (this is not my 1st deposit)
Disclaimer: I am just a bot trying to be helpful.
How about an open-source, fee-free and 100% transparent exchange platform, supported by donations from the different communities? I think we can do it if we want to do it!
bitshares
"This outta shut him up!"
Poloniex sucks but has the greatest volume, no way around it! We want pumps, don't we?
No, we want a long-term marketplace to build wealth and transition to a new paradigm of finance. The way around it is to take that volume elsewhere.
3000 steem is a lot of Power! Good for you!
Two months is too long to wait for a customer support claim. Poloniex doesn't deserve ay business!
It's really good news! Happy for you!