Quickly Losing Confidence in Poloniex
It may be time to seek out a new crypto market provider as I am quickly losing confidence with Poloniex. I was initially drawn to Polo because of its size and the large number of different cryptocurrencies it supports. I tend to explore lots of different crypto-coins and it is convenient to have a marketplace which is easy to navigate and can efficiently trade across a wide range. I figured with Poloniex earning such a large customer base, they must be doing many things right.
I have been with Poloniex for more than a few months, but seen two very disturbing themes that has me wondering if it is time to abandon Polo for one of its competitors.
“Temporarily Disabled”
Although Poloniex supports many different coins, they often are disabled. This locks up value of any coins and delays trades. I get there are times where security issues must be investigated or trading stopped, but these should be temporary. From what I have seen, the feared “Temporarily Disabled” notification could stay for days, weeks, or even longer. What is the point of having coins in a market if you can’t get to them!
Even our beloved STEEM and Steem Dollars are currently disabled. Why? They give no reasons or estimated time for access to our assets.
Phantom Support
The support is terrible! You would think that a service oriented institution would focus on quickly engaging customers on their problems and working quickly to resolve issues. Happy customers are loyal customers.
I recently had some mining deposits, which worked fine in the past, not show up in my Polo account. I provided the block explorer transaction details that show the verified transfer and submitted a support ticket. I quickly received an email confirmation that they received my ticket. Then nothing…
No response. No update. No “we are working on this for you”. Nothing.
It has been over 20 days of pure silence. I have searched their help and FAQ’s which only state to not file more tickets, even if the delay seems unreasonable. No phone numbers to call. Nothing. Just a service Black Hole.
These actions and inactions do not enhance my confidence. Instead, as the customer, I know I have a choice. I have a voice. I get to choose with whom I do business and which ones I will advocate to others. Right now, if I were asked about Poloniex, I would advise people to stay away. Find another service provider that communicates better, treats its customers assets with better respect, and works with its user-base to quickly address issues.
Competitive Options?
My experiences and concerns are quickly leading me to conclude that it may be time to leave Poloniex for good.
But where should I go?
I want a secure market that supports a lot of different coins, with reasonable fees. I don’t think that is too much to ask. Here are some options I am looking into:
What does the Steemit community recommend?
What are your experiences with these markets? I don’t want to make the same mistake twice, by choosing a poor service provider. So, I would really appreciate your insights and experiences.
-Thanks.
Hello @mrosenquist
I only use Bittrex. One of the reasons is that it is one of the safest (maybe no1) exchanges in the cryptoworld.
Safety is very important when they have your money.
One time I did something completely wrong and the money was gone. They helped me and I got the money back, fantastic.
Not many exchanges do that if any.
Have a nice day!
That is awesome! I am starting to lean towards Bittrex. It seems to support a huge number of different coins and many people say the same thing you said about good service.
Thanks for your insights!
Hello again @Mrosenquist
Thanks for your reply and the honor with your upvote.
The thing I did completely wrong was that I did send money to Bittrex without the key to my wallet with them. So there was no way they could know where to put the money they got.
When I wrote to them and told what I had done and the time I did it, I got a reply from them within one our. They told me that they had found the transaction in their log. They told me to be patient because another guy would have to do the work of sending the money back to my wallet so I could do the transaction again if I wanted to. After a couple of ours the money was back in my wallet ;-)
They also told me how to do it right. I did not need the information, but anyhow it is the right thing to do.
I have been on Bittrex for two years and they have never been down to my knowledge. If a coins wallet on bittrex is down they clearly give you the reasons. They also have other warnings like a list of coins that have too low volume so they think it is easily exposed to market manipulation.
They also tell what coin they might suspend, why and when.
I know a couple of guys that have a company that have a coin on the market. It was them that advised me to use bittrex for safety reasons.
In the future history books:
The Steemians was very found of
@Mrosenquist and his security posts.
Made by @riosparada
Now that is great customer service! Glad they put in the effort to track down the transaction to get your money back to you.
It is also nice to hear that when they do suspend a coin, the inform the users the reason. That is all anyone can ask!
In the past I've still been able to trade these on Poloniex. Deposit and Withdrawals are suspended, but you could trade for BTC and cash that out. In the past I've used this to arbitrage and increase my holdings by trading then buying back in on another exchange at a lower rate.
That is good to know.
Overall, I am just looking for a service provider that I can trust, is reliable, and will provide respectable customer service.
Good luck! I haven't found that yet. Another sign we are in the earliest days of adoption.
That is the silver-lining! :)
I'll interested to see who you go for! I'll look forward to updates on who and why you chose a certain service provider. Good luck!
Good point! I will let everyone know where I land and why.
Polo, please give my Steem back!
I've switched back to Bittrex with zero issues.
I can recommend kraken! But they might be slow at the moment because of the big rush
I hear they are experiencing growing pains! Do they support STEEM and SBD?
Unfortunately no :(
I'm having the same issue. Only difference is they actually responded to me, but basically said they won't send my deposit back to me, even though I can prove the transaction, and told me I would be credited my deposit when they figured out their problem. I just want money sent back me...
LIKE I SAID!! TIME TO GET RID OF THE (BAD) MAN IN THE MIDDLE!!!
“Many (EXCHANGES) appeared to be Middle Men who got in to position and were there to take, screw and gauge as much as possible, some were just financial mafia skimming operations doing just enough to keep the pretence going until they collapsed. There were punishing exchange rates and processing fees too.”
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@worldsoulfusion/like-i-said-time-to-get-rid-of-the-man-in-the-middle
Crypto my A?%!!
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@worldsoulfusion/crypto-my-a
If we minimize complexity, we also minimize risk!
Been using Bittrex for more than 6 months now. Have not had one single problem. Not the best interface out there, but functionally is what counts!
I will take reliability and trust over an interface. Thanks for the insights!
I'm thinking about taking the jump to Bittrex to be honest. I've had SBD tied up depositing there for days now. Getting kind of annoying . . .
I like what I see at Bittrex, with all the cryptocurrencies they support.
I haven't checked it out yet, but I'm going to have to it looks like . . .
Do they want to dig into your personal information hardcore? Or are they on part with Poloniex in that regard?
Not sure. It seems on par with others
Here is their privacy page. It has details: https://bittrex.com/Privacy.
I also found this FAQ which states they do follow KYC and AML standards.