[berberous]

Maybe I'm misinterpreting your tone, but you sound overly defensive of CoinBase and dismissive of the OP. He's not crying over his losses, but warning others about the terrible customer service he has received. And I for one appreciate these warnings.

You're right that the people gambling on BTC are playing a risky game, and maybe they should expect events like this. Likewise, however, a startup flush with tons of capital that can't be bothered to even reply to its customers' support tickets shouldn't complain when people warn others away from them. (Although r/bitcoin is probably a better forum than Hacker News).

Regardless of their TOS, they know full-well that customers use their platform to speculate. If they can't handle high-value financial transactions properly, or at least respond to their customers when things go wrong, then they shouldn't play the game either.