[Note: Coinbase has confirmed that it is refunding all the 25 customers with direct ACH transfers.]
Coinbase has reportedly decided to compensate the victims of its double billing glitch with Bitcoin.
According to an email acquired by the Altcoin Press, the San Francisco-based company lately had a technical issue on its platform, due to which it started charging customers twice for each Bitcoin purchasing order. The error affected around 25 Coinbase customers between August 28th and September 1st.
But instead of reimbursing the wrongly debited funds back to their rightful owners, Coinbase decided to process the duplicate order — a forceful sell — and credit the users’ accounts with Bitcoins. Following is an excerpt from the mail sent by the Coinbase Support Team:
“Because the initial ACH debit and the duplicate ACH debit have both processed on your account we will be crediting your Coinbase account with the correct amount of bitcoin for each order from both the initial buy and the duplicate buy. This credit will take place early next week when the ACH transfer has completed.”
The Bitcoin community was quick to react, arguing how a company can possibly process a order without a user’s permission, and return a product whose value is relatively lower than what it was at the time of double billing.
“If you buy a couch and they somehow charge you for two couches, would you expect your money back for the 2nd couch, or would you expect the delivery guy to show up at your house with 2 couches,” a Bitcoin member stated. “They tell you that you have to return one of them to get your money back… but wait, that couch is on sale now so we’ll only give you back 80% of your money.”
Michael B, the premier support manager at Coinbase, however rubbished the email obtained by the media houses, claiming it is incomplete and wrongly represented. He blamed the Bitcoin channels for hiding the refund process, and stated:
“We are refunding this [funds] immediately and directly to the customer bank accounts. It takes a few days to complete because ACH takes 2 business days (for credits) and this weekend has a holiday on Monday [US Labor Day].”
NewsBTC is trying to reach Coinbase for additional comments.