First, I really like my Bitpay card. Once I learned how to copy and paste the addresses and amounts, it worked beautifully, and a long and prosperous relationship was anticipated.
The Protocol
On their Facebook page, Bitpay announced last month that they were going to be adding features that would help their users to quit making "common bitcoin payment errors".
Upon enacting this protocol, Bitpay has now arranged it so that users can no longer just copy the address and send funds to the card. The bitcoin funds must now go through their wallet, or one that they have approved.
Now, a special address appears, and will only work in their app and maybe a couple of other approved wallets.
Desperate, I Downloaded their App
Previously, one could 'copy' the Bitpay address, by clicking 'I understand the risk':
Now, that page opens and shows-- not a coin address, but a web address:
Problems Right Away
I sent some funds to the Bitpay wallet app, and immediately somehow 'moved' the funds to "Personal Wallet". (I still don't know how I did that, but the fact remains that I can't access those funds now, they are there, but not there.)
Not Mac Friendly
Support. I needed customer support to find out how those 'moved' funds could be recovered. On a Mac, 'support' means a new Google window will open with a page that offers pdf converters or something, but it's not Bitpay's site, and it's not support.
Lots of Complaints
On Bitpay's Facebook page, their announcement about how they were going to make things easier for their customers is followed by dozens of complaints, people screaming about missing funds and slow or non-existant customer support responses, and the Bitpay representative who is fielding the complaints has repeatedly offered them the links to those same support pages that I can't access on this Mac.
Still not sure about how this all works yet, but I feel like I'm spending fees to move bitcoin to the Bitpay wallet, and then I'm being charged again to move those funds to the card itself. By the time it's on the card, how much have I paid? I don't want to think about it-- I'm still trying to recover the coins that I 'moved' inside the wallet for a $28 fee.
Verification Number?
When I finally found my way to a support page, it asked for a "verification number", but I didn't have one. Maybe customer support gives out these numbers to the users who aren't crippled with a Mac OS like me.
The Situation I'm In Now
When I got this Bitpay card earlier this year, I learned how to load funds onto it, and then I never bothered to learn any other ways to turn bitcoin into spending money, the card worked everywhere, and things were good. Now, I'm terrified to try to send money into this card through the Bitpay wallet app. Sending small test amounts used to work, but now with all of the fees, it costs more to test the system than I am willing to throw away right now.
Someday, all of us crypto-pioneers will be bragging about all of the arrows that were in our backs during these times. For now though, when I see that I sent myself $300 worth of Bitcoin but it's now only $256, and I can't even access it in that clunky Bitpay wallet, I'm basically just complaining here now.