This all started on Wednesday, the 6th of July, 2022. While making an online purchase I opted to use USDT (Tether) instead of making a normal payment via Credit Card. The merchant triple-a.io, provided an address and amount of funds to send as is normal with crypto transactions. I purchased USDT on Coinbase and then used Coinbase's website to send the funds to that address.

However, in my rush to do so I neglected to fully review the transaction, which had defaulted to an off blockchain internal transaction to Triple-A (an option I didn't even realize was a thing and never would have opted for had I spent the time to read it). The money was sent, and I waited for Triple-A's payment page to register it. And waited. Until the payment page expired.

I reached out to Triple-A, and was put in contact with Georgi, a support representative for Triple-A. Georgi clarified the address is not a Coinbase address. I admit, I was skeptical considering when I plug the address into Coinbase's website it reports that it is a Coinbase address - see below "Uses Coinbase".

I pushed Georgi to look further, but also reached out to Coinbase on the matter. To my disappointment, I received a canned response from Coinbase claiming the funds were sent to Triple-A and automatically claimed.

I followed up with Coinbase and received another lackluster response.

In my frustration, I simply responded "Pathetic" (I know, I should have at least added more substance) to which I received a snarky and quite frankly, inappropriate response from whatever nameless rep handled my ticket.

In the meantime, I received confirmation from Triple-A that the funds were not received.

While Coinbase is a larger company, I believe the burden of proof is on their end in this matter and wouldn't request something unreasonable from Triple-A to try and get more evidence to the contrary. While I don't believe Coinbase intentionally stole the funds from me, I do believe their system ate the funds and they are lost somewhere.

And of course, as it was an internal transaction there is no record on the blockchain. Coinbase's UI won't even show me the address I send the funds to, I have to rely on the email for that.

While I'm trying other means to get my funds back, however I believe a solution via those routes is unlikely. Lesson learned, I could have avoided the hassle by using my own wallet (I use a Ledger Nano S, first generation hardware wallet) instead of taking the shortcut and using Coinbase.