So... I know Outlaw gets a lot of flack here... or isn't really spoken of at least. I only see an occasional 'no one ever uses it' and maybe that is true but just so you guys know... those of us who do are treated very well.
I made the jump to Outlaw looooong ago when SR2 was shut down. There were only a handful of markets left at the time to jump ship towards and I was all about OPSEC after that mess. Since then... markets have come, gone, stolen all people's shit and Outlaw is still here and still a pleasure to do business on.
I would like to share a brief but important interaction I had with the market admin(s). Yesterday, I went to order from my vendor. If anyone is familiar with how ordering on Outlaw works, you first put your order together and then place the order. The market then gives you your address BTC address and the EXACT amount of the order in Bitcoin to send your funds to be put in escrow. This is to avoid keeping unnecessary funds on the market. This total is good for 8 hours despite any fluctuations of bitcoin. Great set up. I don't understand why all markets don't do it that way.... oh right because they are money hungry bastards who steal your coin. No... not Outlaw. They don't want your spare change. They don't even care if you don't trust them for escrow and offer multsig as well as their own. They strongly advise AGAINST FE and go so far in their practices to make sure a vendor should never have to ask for it. They offer a lot. But my question was always can/will they provide help when it really comes down to it?
So I ran into my first problem (albeit minuscule) I have ever had on Outlaw (other than a vendor dispute a while back which they handled very well but that was more on the vendor). Yesterday, I transferred my coin for the order I placed. The blockchain was quick to confirm. I had my 7 confirmations in under 20 minutes. BUT, here comes the scary part... my coins didn't show in my market account after 10 confirms.... even after 15 confirms... (I know this sounds dramatic but I think we all can relate to that feeling when your coins are supposed to be somewhere and they are not).
So I hastily type up a message to admin. "Oh no... oh no... what the fuck fuck FUUUCK...my coins are GOOOOOONE" Well that is what I said out loud. What I wrote was something along the lines of "Over ten confirmations on blockchain and bitcoin has not been transferred. FAQ says it should take 6 or 7. Is something wrong?" I try to be a polite person ;)
Cut to 10 minutes later, my bitcoin posted to complete the order after approximately 25 confirmations on the blockchain. Phew. Here is the thing: admin didn't ignore me even though my problem had obviously been rectified. They responded within 30 minutes of me writing them. They actually wrote and apologized saying that it was in fact rare for it to take so long and apologized. I wrote back and gave them more information about the transaction bug hoping to help if others found themselves in the same situation.
Even when I thought all was said and done, admin wrote me back again explaining what happened. I had mentioned that the 7 confirms came in fast (within 20 minutes)... and I really think it was cool of the admins to be completely transparent on the issue. Here is an excerpt.
"In [your] case that 7 confirmations came in 20 minutes it is taken as "unusual" and the system will automatically wait a bit to make sure that is no attack on out bitcoin processor.
Be aware that we are attacked every day and the software must make sure that all is OK before processing bitcoins. Rather we tell 5 customers that they need to wait a bit longer because the bitcoin-network has troubles than loosing lot of money..."
After hearing about what users go through with other markets, I think this total transparency and swift customer service is just another reason why I will be sticking with Outlaw until ... well I don't know when. My point is I'll be sticking with the longest running and most secure market available IMO.
So thanks Outlaw. I respect you and value our relationship ;-P xx
Do people make these threads just for attention? Seen threads like this for every market.