It's a lot of fun when the price rises and in the exact second you're supposed to receive the bitcoins your transaction gets cancelled. It's just like going back on your deal. If I make a deal with someone, for example I promise to give them some cake next friday and take some money in return. I take the money, and when friday rolls around I give him back his money because I think he's a high risk customer, although the price of cake has risen in the meantime. The guy I made my deal with has a house full of guests that will not get cake that day. I also offer a help-line for him to call but there's no one to answer until some unspecified time in the future.
If Coinbase were honest, they wouldn't cancel transactions in the last moment and refund the money. The last ebayer that did this because I order from him from a "high-risk" country got a NEGATIVE feedback from me. If a transaction is high-risk DON'T ACCEPT IT TO BEGIN WITH! That would at least be honest!
Olaf from Coinbase here
I'm sorry for the trouble with this cancelled transaction! We're actively hiring additional support staff so we can respond more quickly to these types of situations:
http://blog.coinbase.com/post/58733449732/we-are-looking-to-grow-our-customer-support-teamThe price is not a factor whatsoever when determining high risk status. We use machine learning algorithms - the process is fully automated and no human has a say. Fraud is a huge problem when selling bitcoin so we have to be careful - unfortunately some legitimate users get falsely flagged. If you email support I will review your account and upon your request can push through the cancelled transaction at the purchase price. Again, apologies for the trouble with this!