Key Takeaways
- Indian Cryptocurrency Exchange Unocoin faces a list of complaints from unhappy customers.
- Users take to different forums to complain of their funds being held up by the company
- Simmilar complaints about Unocoin date as back as 2017
YEREVAN (CoinChapter.com) — Cryptocurrency exchange Unocoin seems to have an endless saga with controversies. The Bangaluru-based company is one of the oldest exchanges in India. Launched in 2013 by Sathvik Vishwanath, Harish B V, Abhinand Kaseti, and Sunny Ray, it claims to have ignited the cryptocurrency spike in the country.
Although the company’s 24-hour trade volume, according to CoinMarketCap, is over $1.2 million, Unocoin has been through many controversies since its inception.
From its founders getting arrested for installing a Bitcoin ATM in India back in 2018 to a snag causing unauthorized transactions, the company has seen it all. But one thing that has remained constant is a long list of unhappy customers.
In recent days, many users of the Unocoin app have taken to Twitter to express their displeasure once again. One can see several customers complaining that their deposited amount does not reflect on their app balance. Moreover, they have had a tough time getting a refund or contacting customer support.
Last month, other users also experienced a similar problem when they realized they could not withdraw their funds from their wallets. Apart from slow deposits, one customer also alleged the company did not approve his cryptocurrency withdrawal request for over 24 hours.
As observed, none of the users seemed to get any reply from Unocoin’s team on their tweets.
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Bad reviews persist for the cryptocurrency exchange
Unsurprisingly, bad reviews and complaints from the cryptocurrency platform’s users are not confined to Twitter. On closer observation, one could see similar complaints on various other forums.
Frustrated, customers have resorted to writing bad reviews on every platform they could access, hoping Unocoin will respond. Similar comments can be seen under the company’s Google page, some even dating back to 2017.
As recently as two weeks ago, one user, Saurabh Kumbharkar, complained that he could not access his funds.
“My 1001 Rs is stuck. I am not able to contact this unocoin team. I try everything but I didn’t reach them. Such a bad service,”
he wrote on Google.
An Indian popular grievance forum called Consumer Complaints also has many negative comments from unhappy users.
“I thought unocoin is a trusted company but later after 1 month i sold some amount in btc but the amount didn’t come to registered bank account and i raised so many service requests and i tried calling so many times to tolfree number they didn’t responded. now i trying to get my money bacso please don’t invest in unocoin,”
Saran Doniparthi wrote from Hyderabad, Telangana.
As an early entrant into the cryptocurrency market, Unocoin seems to have a growing list of unhappy customers.
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Too unreachable for a competing cryptocurrency company
To get to the bottom of the unending complaints, we tried contacting Unocoin for a comment. We were hoping to hear the other side of the story as well. However, to nobody’s surprise, the telephone number on their website was not helpful as no one answered our calls. Instead, a pre-recorded voice told us that the company is unable to attend to calls at the moment. The reason it gave was the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. An interesting excuse indeed.
But it seems some customers have had similar experiences, too, judging from their frustrated public grievances.
Meanwhile, another user’s request for help also fell to deaf ears. Tuhim Das, an apparent customer of the cryptocurrency exchange, was not happy either. The company has allegedly held back her funds for over two weeks.
Last week, unable to contain her frustration any longer, she went public with her story. Tuhim asked for a refund of her Rs 1000 (around $14). Unfortunately, like the other similar tweets, she did not receive any response from Unocoin. As a result, we were not able to verify what the issue was.
Unable to get through to Unocoin via telephone, we tried contacting the company via email. We also sent messages to the Co-Founders via LinkedIn and Twitter, hoping to cover their side of the story as well. However, at the time of publishing, we did not receive any response from them. The only response was an automated message telling us that they had created a ticket to our query.
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The cryptocurrency exchange fails to refund funds
One would expect the oldest cryptocurrency exchange in India to display some professionalism after all these years of service. Instead, it seems they have repeatedly failed their customers.
Frustrated with not being able to receive any response from Unocoin, some users even resorted to writing directly to the Co-Founders of the company.
Responding to the Tweet of the company’s CEO Sathvik Vishwanath, several angry customers demanded explanation for the delay in receiving funds.
Threatening to file a criminal case against the founder, one disgruntled user wrote,
“Return back my one Btc missing from my unocoin wallet I forward many emails to Unocoin but no answer. If you cannot return my BTC in my unocoin wallet then I will filing case against CEO of unocoin exchange Sathvik Vishwanath.”
Some even went further, calling the company a scam and a fraud.
The list of dissatisfied Unocoin users seemed to be endless. If some complaints came this week, there are others that have been waiting for a refund since last month. One unhappy customer alleged he has been waiting for his payment since 20 Oct. His withdrawal of around $18 is allegedly yet to be discharged by Unocoin.
But that is not all. In another similar case, an unhappy user complained that he has been waiting for 20 days for his withdrawal amount to be credited to his account. However, just like the others, he has been unable to get his funds from Unocoin.
If back in 2013 Unocoin was the only player in India, the situation has changed drastically. Now a days, Indian cryptocurrency traders have several options available. Regular crypto users could easily shun Unocoin if they continue amassing unhappy users.
Meanwhile, the company should get its act together and start refunding its customers before it loses them.
