"You MUST send your deposit using the unique Message above. Failure to do so may result in the loss of your deposit."
I admit it, I screwed up. In my hurry to complete my first ever XEM deposit on Poloniex, I failed to read and follow this message. I blew past it in search of my deposit address and made the transfer without following the blatant warning right in front of my eyes. I guess I expected a XEM deposit to be like the hundred other transfers I've made with other digital currencies - find the address, type in the amount, and hit transfer. I wasn't expecting Poloniex to require a special step to transfer XEM tokens, and as a result, two hours after I made the transfer and the funds had not hit my account, I went back to the Poloniex site and read these words more closely.
Once I got past the "shi.....!" moment (think Ralphie from A Christmas Story), I found a ray of hope. Failure to do so may result in the loss of your deposit. That meant there was a hope I could my deposit back. So I searched around the Poloniex website looking for how I could get help. I finally realized that I needed to open a support ticket on Poloniex's separate support page. It was a bit odd that their support page was a separate web site, requiring a separate login, but whatever. So I made my account and submitted my trouble ticket.
Despite their automated pacification email acknowledging that they received my request and I'd hear back from them in 24 hours, eight days went by without a response. In desperation, I waded into the Poloniex trollbox and amongst the hundreds of "Coin such-and-such is gonna moon!" and the "So-and-so just got banned by bigolas for 1 hours and 0 minutes" messages, I was able to contact an admin, and get a response from support. I was given instructions by "Kevin" to make a deposit for a specific amount into my XEM account so that he could verify my story and restore my balance. I dutifully followed these directions and quickly emailed Kevin back to let him know. Crickets. It's been six days now and Kevin appears to be avoiding me like an ex-girlfriend. Even worse, now the admins in the trollbox are ignoring me, with my "Hey admin, can you help me with trouble ticket #123456" drowned out by the dozens of fellow traders with similar sob stories.
The frustrating thing is I'm out of options. Poloniex doesn't provide a phone number so you can call for help. Opening a trouble ticket to request your earlier trouble ticket be completed, is likely to be met with another 8 days of silence. I emailed their generic support email address, but I haven't heard back from that either. I've tried multiple admins, and they're not responding. I've considered becoming obnoxious in the trollbox and demanding support, but it's obvious that those guys are handling a superhuman amount of messages to begin with. It's not their fault, and I know if I get too uppity, the dreaded "banhammer" is waiting for me.
So here I am with about 5000 XEM sitting in limbo and completely at the mercy of Kevin. I guess he'll get around to me when he can, and in the meantime, I'll watch the price of XEM rise and fall, wishing I could trade those damned coins already. I know I'm not the only one. Take a moment to read the trollbox some time and you'll see many others just like me, stuck in Poloniex Purgatory, asking admins for help, and getting the stock: "Please allow more time for support to respond to your ticket" response. With demand for digital currency exploding, it is easy to ignore poor bastards like me without any negative consequence. What incentive does Poloniex have to keep my business when there is a line of people right behind me? So I've written this article to share my experience and encourage others to share theirs. It's partly cathartic, and it's partly a desperate attempt to get enough people to respond so that Poloniex takes notice.
Photo Credits:
The image at the top is taken from an article at thestar.com https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/04/09/three-men-rescued-from-deserted-island-thanks-to-help-sign-made-of-leaves.html