I went through the painful process of getting my account verified a year ago. It included going physically to bank to get a proof of residency paper printed out and signed on paper (in the era of digital signatures provided by the ID-card in EU, hilarious). Not only that, I had to scan in my driver's license and that proof of residency and submit it to Bitstamp and they rejected it due to poor quality! So I scanned the documents in again with higher resolution and got finally verified.
From the beginning I had problems because I had several accounts in Bitstamp due to the need to use their API in a separate account. These idiots demand different e-mail for different accounts and to make matters worse YOU CAN NEVER CHANGE YOUR E-MAIL. If you do, they require verification AGAIN. Unbelievable. But that's not the end of it.
I tested out their password recovery mechanism and entered my e-mail in the according form. I received a message from Bitstamp saying that a new account was created for me. What the hell? They create a new account when you request password recovery! Anyone who knows your e-mail can make a new account under your name and that new account is NOT VERIFIED by default.
So I got worried that they might force me to go physically to bank again just to get a piece of paper and I contacted the support and it made things even worse as they disabled my account's withdraw capabilities:
Someone requested my account password to be reset (they must have known my e-mail address) so I received an e-mail with new login information to my e-mail. Can I just ignore it and keep using my current account as if nothing happened? I logged in once with the given login information and saw that the new account is not even verified.
Nejc Srečnik
20.10.2014 14:05:49
Dear XXXXX,
Thank you for notifying us.
Since you did not request password change yourself, we kindly suggest you
change your email address linked to this Bitstamp account as a security precaution. Please note that
additional KYC will be required should you decide to do so.
We highly recommend you enable two-factor authentication for your account. You can do that here:
https://www.bitstamp.net/account/security/two-factor-authentication/ ;and help yourself with our step-by-step 2FA setup guide:
https://www.bitstamp.net/s/documents/bitstamp_2_factor_authentication_guide.pdf .
Please be advised that
we have also blocked virtual withdrawals for this Bitstamp account as an additional security precaution. Once you are convinced that your system is clean and you decide to unblock withdrawals, please tell us so in a reply to this ticket, so we can proceed with your request.
While we appreciate that this comes as an inconvenience we are convinced that our security precautions are in accordance with your expectations in keeping your account secure.
Should you require additional assistance, please feel free to contact us again.
Best regards,
Nejc Srečnik
So here's my reply:
What additional KYC you need when I decide to change my e-mail? I am not going to bank again just to get another proof of residency paper in order to change my e-mail.
I will not start using 2FA authentication because I dislike google and Google Authentication. You better think some other way to enable 2 factor authentication if you want to force it to your customers.
Also, I'm utterly displeased by the fact that you have blocked virtual withdraws. Why did you do that? Did I give you any permission? Your security precautions are unreasonable. A customer should be able to change their e-mail as they wish.
So here's what I ask you to do: make my account fully functional again. I cannot trust you with my money if you suddenly decide to stop withdraws so randomly.
This has gone too far. I did the painful verification process, went physically to bank just to get that proof of residency as I am not receiving any paper bills. What is more, I had to scan in my driver's license and that proof of residency and after all of that you are stopping my account because someone used my e-mail to reset my password? It is you and your business that is dysfunctional and I demand an apology.
So clearly Bitstamp is getting worse and worse over time. Just painful user experience. What other businesses offer bitcoin exchange services in Europe? (Preferrably not shady)
edit:
So I found out about
https://www.bitcoin.de/en they seem to have automated verification so I'd suggest I don't need to scan in any documents, I think it's great! Also, I still cannot believe that Bitstamp morons require the user to change their e-mail address. An e-mail address is not a thing anyone would easily change. God it makes me vomit to see how stupid the Bitstamp developers are. Do you imagine if all the web services started demanding from their customers to CHANGE THEIR E-MAIL ADDRESS?! Bitstamp shold be sued for such idiocy.