I expect BitInstant will not be giving any answers any time soon. I feel they more likely than not are turned Ripper, or had ANOTHER attack. Either way, they have promised results over multiple deadlines, and none have come of it whatsoever. I hope they do come back and rectify all issues with existing customers, but I am not banking on it. ): The BTC community is being dealt a harsh blow with this. My advice for any BitInstant customers who need a new, simple, BTC vendor...use btcquick.com if you wish to use direct CC funding for BTC (I am aware of how many sites have done this and either gone bankrupt from chargebacks or ripped/stole CC info...but these guys use Google Checkout which unlike PP, they do not attack purveyors/purchasers of BTC as an "e-currency". I use them as my main source of BTC and they are AMAZING with customer service IMO), or use bitfloor.com for bank deposit-to-instant-funding (generally within half an hour of payment received). Simple, and proven to be trusted by many BTC clients.
I hope this post helps someone! (:
I have heard good things about btcquick, however, bitinstant is really dropping the ball here. Sitting on thousands of dollars with no responses from customer service as to what they are going to do to rectify. What's even more saddening is the people who have been waiting since the original outage. Yeah, I guess those of us who placed orders when they came back again did not extensively do their 'homework' on them, but from personal experience they have been flawless. Still absurd that this is happening with no end in sight.
btcquick has my undying loyalty as long as they last! The one thing separating them from most other CC to BTC services is that Google Checkout gives them only a one-time-use card number generated by Google to hold only the amount of funds needed for the order, rather than them having all your CC info themselves, thus they can not rip. You can still chargeback, but Google does fraud checks like hell, so fraudulent chargebacks will be most likely busted and Google offers a payment guarantee to the vendor using their service, so even in this situation, they are protected. Their Customer Support is awesome, they have good rates, and they are speedy. The only thing I look forward to seeing improved is the variety of payment methods (only CC payment via Google as of meow), and getting the system to be automated rather than the staff having to manually accept payment once Google has verified funds and releasing BTC to your email/btcquick account (they process orders from 7am to 7pm-ish EST, so ordering outside of those hours you must wait until they are open for processing).