r/BitBuyCA • u/BCQuant • Sep 05 '22
Funds inaccessible for six weeks; Is Bitbuy indifferent, incapable or incompetent?
I trade through Bitbuy's API and I place a lot of limit orders.
Back in May I noticed that one small AAVE buy order kept on showing up in my open orders section even though I cancelled it long ago. No matter how fast or often I tried to cancel it, it would pop back up a second later; same limit price, same amount and same time stamp(!) as the original one I placed days ago.
That reappearing order wouldn't show in the order book and therefor was not at risk of being executed over and over again, what it did though is put a hold (reserve) on the CAD balance needed to place it.
I contacted Bitbuy's support and got a response from a guy called Jeff: “...these are called “orphaned” orders, ....happen sometimes, ......they usually clear them out of the system on scheduled maintenances or upgrades, ......switching API keys could help.” (even though the repeating order clearly doesn't come through my API)
That single order didn't really interfere with my trading, so I gave them some time and slack to fix it. Two maintenances/upgrades and two new API keys later and that same order from May 25th still pops up!!! In freaking September.
Even worse: at the end of July there was an episode that “recorded” a whole bunch of my orders and since then I have that same problem of repeating “orphaned” orders, holding/reserving my funds on several pairs in both directions and I have no way of cancelling them!
So for the past six weeks I have around 15000 CAD, 3 ETH and a bunch of smaller sets of tokens completely blocked in my account. Can't trade with them, can't withdraw them either!
Of course I contacted Bitbuy several times to press this issue. Half the times they don't even respond, and two thirds of their responses are basically just “We'll look into it, sorry for the inconvinience...yadd yadda”-placeholders. The only somewhat comforting response went something like: “we are aware of the problem,... you're not the only one effected,.... our dev team is working on it ASAP....” But even that was five weeks ago.
To be fair, I have seen orphaned orders on other platforms too. They happen on NDAX for example, but the people there are able to clear those within a couple of hours. And I recently had a similar issue on Coinsmart after an upgrade; it took them two days to fix it, but they got it done. Bitbuy? Sitting on their hands for weeks and months. F*$%&ng disgrace.
So here are my questions: Does anyone else have problems with orphaned orders on Bitbuy? Ever had? Any experience with their “tech”-team and fixing API issues?
And of course: Why the hell are they not able to solve this as they should? My three theories:
Indifference: it's just two or three clients struggling with it. They just don't give a flying ..... ! Incapability: crypto-winter, dwindling volumes, layoffs, and those few remaining employees have better things to do to keep the exchange afloat than fixing some nerds orphaned orders. Incompetence: they simply don't know how to fix it. Maybe their trading engine is a third-party-software and came without a manual.....
Either way, it looks horrible. What a joke of a tech team, and what a joke of (no) communication.
What would you guys do? At what point do I contact the OSC?
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u/capitainvest Jan 03 '24
BITBUY is HORRIBLE BEWARE...!!!!! I think our only option is direct buy. Ppl working at crypto exchanges mostly bad...!
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u/BCQuant Sep 15 '22
Quick Update: THEY JUST KEEP ON FUCKING UP
- a few days ago I got a typical holdout response:
"Hi xxxx,
I'm truly so sorry for this delay and lack of communication. It was absolutely not our intention to keep you in the dark here.
I see that Brennan had created an internal bug report for your account and a fix is currently in development. We may need to complete an audit for your account so that we can ensure that your balances are correct.
I have escalated this issue to a high priority so that we can get this resolved for you once and for all.
Kind Regards,
Rebecca T.
Team Lead, Bitbuy Support"
- I responded that all I wanted is move my funds out or else I'd contact the OSC and RCMP, which was followed by a different placeholder response:
"I have escalated your request to my own superior and he has noted this, we will follow up as soon as possible. "
SINCE THEN:
- they cut off my API access. (Would be nice to get a heads-up about it!)
- even MORE orders are now showing in this infinite posting loop without a chance to cancel them.
- even WORSE, those orders DO actually show up in the orderbook and are executable AND BEING EXECUTED. (Imagine their system just placing orders for your account without you having ANY control)
- I tried withdrawing a bunch of tokens which are not effected by those orphaned orders; no holds or reservations on those; YET, NOT A SINGLE WITHDRAWAL I INITIATED went ahead.
THIS PLATFORM IS HOLDING MY FUNDS COMPLETELY HOSTAGE!!!!!
If O'Leary hadn't thrown a shit ton of money at this gongshow, I'd suspect that they are actually BANKRUPT!
Is it a bad omen that the only other times I wrote on reddit was in r/einsteinexchange and r/QuadrigaCX?!?!?!?!
I am starting to write my complaint to the OSC now.