BE CAREFUL IF PAYMENT IN BITCOINS
BE CAREFUL IF PAYMENT IN BITCOINS This company is advertising 2 different prices without notifying the customers if you pay by US$, SG$, € or if you pay with cryptos such as BTC. In fact, as a normal customer, you first check the gold price in US$ or your local currency to compare with other merchants. Then, if you are happy with the pricing, then you place your order. In my case, I decided to pay with BCT (bitcoins). Unfortunately, without any notifications, messages, communication, BullionStar is not charging the same price in BTC. In my case, there was an extra cost of over 6.5%. When I did my verification after the payment was processed, I did not understand why my gold bar was so expansive. I found out that the BTC pricing included the following other fees: (please note that I am copy/pasting the email received from BullionStar support executive below) "We understand your concerns on the payment via Bitcoin over the prices of other currencies. We hope you understand that apart from the liquidity, volatility and market depth risk (which is even higher now given the state of the financial markets) for hedging out crypto-currencies we take on, there are also fees on exchange fees, withdrawing fiat fees paid to our provider, which is reflected in the crypto prices of bullion. Moreover, when your was placed, the price in crypto was shown clearly and transparently, and is the amount that you paid for subsequently. The price that you saw was all-inclusive and there were no other hidden add ons. When placing the order, you had also agreed to the terms and conditions, and agreed that the order is binding. Hence, I have spoken to our management on your behalf but unfortunately, we are unable to return the difference as the crypto-cur rency amount has already been hedged with our provider with us having paid the fees." ------------ As you can see, it is clearly stated in their reply that they are showing "clearly and transparently" the BTC price BUT they never inform their customers that it includes liquidity, volatility, hedging, exchange fees, withdrawing FIAT fees.... They are just confirming that they are not transparent and that maybe hundreds of other investors paid an inflated price without knowing it. I offered 2 possibilities to BullionStar: (1) refund my full BTC and take back the gold bar, (2) refund the price difference between the US$ price versus the BTC price I paid. They refused even though the BTC went up overnight and would have more than covered the hidden fees that took on my transaction. I just warn you to be careful and check all the small lines if you find them before transacting with this company. Regards