In my opinion, the last thing bitstamp is interested in, would be to dry out the incoming stream of fiat. So if incoming transfers are not showing, I assume there is some genuine issue with the particular transfer. Missing/wrong reference number, currency conversion issue (the problems posted on reddit appear to be non-SEPA), whatever. The customer support of bitstamp is not exactly speedy at the moment, but based on my recent experience, things will be sorted in the end. bitstamp might be not exactly an ISO9001 enterprise yet, but so far they seem to be honest. That's worth a lot in this particular environment.

To follow up my post from a few pages ago, finally my withdrawal was processed and went through. Unfortunately for me the USD lost almost 3% against the Euro in the meantime. However, after the lengthy KYC procedure went through, the withdrawal/transfer took as little time as usual. One day to change from "in process" to "finished", another day to appear on my balance statement. So generally, bitstamp appears to work.

 

That is something I would indeed welcome as well.

Indeed, I found the KYC-program annoying. You are also correct with your further assumptions, I hold a long verified bitstamp account and answered the six KYC questions when they were sent to me through their ticket system. So currently I have to assume that in some cases they release money, in others not. Unfortunately, the only case I can verify is mine and my withdrawal is still unprocessed. For you the situation seems to look very different.


My btc transfers (in the process of removing all my btc from bitstamp) went all through, without any delay. The value was comparable to the USD transfer in question.

Excuse me, why should my response be ignored? I signed up and got verified (photo ID, bank acc in my name) with my real name. I am waiting now more, not less, than a week for some obscure in-transparent KYC crap. To me it looks like bitstamp doesn't want to pay, nothing else. This stands until I see my money in my account. 

Lower bound to date: >10days. Unlike the initial verification, this KYC-program seems a lot more arbitrary.

Did you go that route yet? Will have to create a smaller withdrawal first, but it looks like the only viable option left.

Did that. No response, withdrawal still "in process". A few days later I sent a follow up. Again, no response, nothing processed. To me, it looks fishy. Changing the way they conduct business without notice, fishy. Not transferring my money, fishy. So far they had no issue to take a four digit sum in fees, but now there seems an issue to hand over my money.
If I take what you say for face value, again, it is not entirely dissimilar to MtGox. It seems the tiny amounts and the really large amounts were handled properly for longest. The tiny ones to keep the masses happy, the large ones, not to mess with the wrong people. The ones in the middle (with the probably largest accumulated volume) were put on halt first.

To me it looks like they run out of fiat. Took out a good few USD over the last few months of 2013, no problem. A couple of days ago a substantially smaller withdrawal got stuck, due to insufficient KYC. Rubbish, I'd say. Some of the questions they asked (ie address of SEPA bank) are already answered by their db. Others make hardly any sense. Not unlike MtGox last summer. The delays got longer and longer, the excuses weaker and weaker. bitstamp came up with KYC, mtgox told people they could only transfer whatever tiny amount per day due to bank restrictions.
When the fiat came surging in, they were able to pay out, now, with people trying to cash out and presumably no fresh money coming in, they struggle... Only thing, they should have got the money at some stage. 

No, removed all my remaining BTC, worked without a problem.
Now I am still left with some fiat in GOX which I have to convert. Looks like there will be at least a 2% gap excl. fees - could be quite profitable for someone who believes it is possible to get fiat out of GOX. Everyone seems to do it the other way round. Actually in retrospective I am surprised their trouble didn't start earlier, at the peak in April. Were there so many pushing fresh fiat into the market? Appears so.

I actually saw a major advantage of MtGox in dealing with the fiat payments. bitcoin.de is just a market place, not an exchange. In a sense GOXes .6% are cheaper for what is on offer than the .5% from bitcoin.de. Yes, they have some safeguards in place, but still, if something goes wrong in the line of an unauthorised account use, it is yourself who has to deal with it. 
Unfortunately the whole discussion is kind of pointless as GOX is currently not providing anything near to be called service. Simply not handing their customers money back renders all their nice features useless.

Getting that "green bar" coasts less than 100USD, it means someone signed their cert for money. As said before, I think KNC are legit, but a signed SSL cert shouldn't be taken for anything more than it is.

Last time I received EUR was end of May, waiting for multiple payouts since. Unacceptable is, that they just stopped handing their customers money back. When you get mail from their support it seems a bit they are doing you a favor when they accept a withdrawal. Well it's their bloody duty to fulfill them and that in a timely manner. Waiting 50days+ on the longest outstanding one, absolutely not acceptable.
There were talks that there daily transfer limit in Euro is limited, I find that hard to believe, honestly. Even if, that limit should be well in the 7 digits.
My feeling is they are running dry due to the loss in btc value. Some might have bought some btc back, but the fiat MtGox holds will have shrunk drastically since the peaks in April. Maybe that combined with some not even malicious chaotic accountancy and they rely on fresh fiat coming in. Unlikely to happen as the hype is gone and there are fewer and fewer outsiders jumping into the scheme. Avoiding the P-word...
Well, once I got my cash, I am out of MtGox.

Someone asked, my bank usually charged a flat fee of EUR 10. So mtgox fee + 10. Acceptable I'd say.

To me they appear legit, but once you hold a mercury in your hands 100GH might be the new 5GH. Shipping not before October, I can't imagine it will arrive instantaneously in Pakistan. On top, you will probably end up with a bunch of taxes and custom charges.

I would strongly advise against borrowing money for this. 5GH/s will not earn proper BTC for long. With the current hashrate increases I would consider it unlikely that you will be able to pay the money back in a timely manner. If you have the money and don't care, so what - but borrowing is risky in this case.

Problem I currently face wit MtG is that it is very tedious to convert your BTC into another currency. Waiting for months to receive my EUR. When BTC just went up it seems MtG had quite a supply, that seems to have dried up in recent weeks/months.

I would question the point of owning a BE: Ideally you run it with a rPi. So consumption at around 10W  (including PSU) is not so much of an issue. About .25kw/h per day of non-stop operation. However it might be well over 150 days before the BE paid for itself. Another 50 days or so for the pi. During that time you had to pay for 50kw/h. Another 10-20 days. All provided that there won't be a flood of asic devices pushing the difficulty even further (the current trend doesn't look exactly linear). Take your BTC and trade it, the daily spread gives you more than a BE could ever generate. 

Places in HK where you can buy them with BTC. Only recently I looked into RC flying again, a lot happened in the last few years. LiPo powered e-motors seem standard now, most models are ready to fly. Don't know if I like it, in the good old glow-engine times building the thing was at least half the fun. Ideally from scratch, not a kit. However ordered a c182 and it is a different approach to flying - you don't really care, the thing can be easily fixed and sustains little damage even on the hardest landings...