Oddbean

My Experience with @strike **TL;DR Strike is garbage.** I started using Strike in the middle of March this year. My first impression was that it was a great app. It had Lightning integrated, on-chain withdrawals were free, and the setup was pretty easy, even though I had to do a full KYC. After all, they are regulated and that is to be expected. I began using Strike to send and receive BTC and buy gift cards directly within the app. I was pretty amazed at how easy everything worked. I loved the app. I even recommended it as an onboarding app for pre-coiner friends. Well, not anymore. One day in May, about two months later, I wanted to send some BTC to an exchange or buy a gift card (which was basically all I did with the app in those previous two months). However, the app denied access to my BTC. All I got was a cartoon lightning bolt saying, “We need to review your account. Contact support.” At first, I was shocked. I didn't have my life savings in the app, but it wasn’t a trivial amount of sats either. So, there it was, right in my face for the first time: Not your keys, not your coins. I got angry with myself and with Strike too. I contacted support. Support wrote that to comply with regulations, they needed additional information (remember, I already did full KYC), like a pay stub, signed employee agreement, or tax statement. This was my response: Hey, the Bitcoin with which I funded my Strike account are savings from the past. I don't work currently, and I also have no tax statement because I just moved to Brazil last year. What exactly is the problem? I didn't do anything illegal or wrong. I expect this issue to be resolved immediately or you will lose a customer. I already regret using your service. I'm very disappointed. Yeah, I was really pissed because I couldn’t access my sats. They locked me out. Just like that. Strike answered: Dear User, Upon careful review, we have determined that your account has engaged in prohibited use. We regret to inform you that we can no longer provide you with access to our service. At this time, your account has been permanently disabled. Please withdraw all remaining assets from your account within one week from receiving this message, and confirm with us when the withdrawal has been completed. After this timeframe, the account will be closed permanently. Please be advised that this decision is final. Best regards, The Strike Team Okay… So now Strike accused me of “prohibited use” of their app. I asked them to be kind and specify what prohibited use I engaged in. Because obviously, I don’t want to get in trouble or do anything illegal. Their answer: This decision is based on an assessment of different qualifications. Our customer support team can only confirm that we sent this message and assist with technical issues only. Support cannot reverse this decision, nor can they share any more details related to this matter. Thank you for that great answer. I can really see you care about your customers and their experience. But I guess at that point, I wasn’t their customer anymore anyway. Still, I sent them another message and asked who I could talk to. If there was anybody who could clarify what I did wrong. Remember, all I did was send and receive BTC and buy gift cards. Their answer? Well, they never answered again. Just like that. That was it. After this beautiful experience, I posted about it on Nostr. And guess what? @jack mallers answered. Woohooo! He said I should send him a DM and he would happily look into the issue. Cool! Now that’s what I call customer service. So, I did. No answer. I sent him another one. Again, no answer. I sent another one or two. Still no answer. This was 5 weeks ago. I guess he is very busy. What a joke Strike is.