LOS ANGELES – After thousands of customer service complaints CoinbaseThe company has a live telephone support line. However, customers continue to be frustrated with the company despite its recent efforts to address their issues.

Take Erick Richardson and Molly Richardson as an example.

Erick was so alarmed by the text message sent to his phone that he stopped at the curb. It was July in July.

He clicked the message that said someone was logging into his account. After logging on, he received an email stating that the two-factor authentication of his account had been modified. This indicated that his security settings were likely to have been compromised.

And then the nightmare became worse.

His wife Molly and he had nearly $1.1million in cryptocurrency savings. Erick watched as the fraudster took their investments in bitcoin, totalling $700,000. There was little he could do.

I was in panic. Erick acknowledged that the message was likely phishing to gain his account details and said it was a panic attack.

Coinbase was not available for assistance when the Richardsons’ account tookover occurred in July. The company offered only email support at that time. A CNBC investigation in AugustAccording to interviews and government records, thousands of accounts had been hacked. Coinbase went public on April 1st and has a market value of over $50 billion.

Public records show that Coinbase customers have made more than 12,000 complaints to the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Better Business Bureau since 2016. Most were about customer service. Since August, 1,500 additional complaints were filed.

Similar complaints have been made against other cryptocurrency exchanges, though less than those filed by Coinbase which is the biggest exchange in America.

Coinbase launched the live helpline in August to address criticisms that its customers could not talk to company representatives. CNBC heard from dozens of people whose accounts had been hacked or drained that the live support line didn’t resolve their problems.

Erick claimed that the Richardsons case was a quick one, with the scammers only taking 20 minutes to withdraw 21 Bitcoins through 110 transactions.

Coinbase locked Erick’s account after Erick reported the theft. However, he claimed that for two years no one had reached out to the couple to unlock their account or return the money.

“I have no clue how it happened,” said he.

Richardsons called Coinbase in September to get help. Erick was informed by an agent that the agent didn’t have access the case file. The agent suggested that Erick reply to Coinbase’s previous email. The 10 minute call did not end with resolution but frustration.

Erick said, “It was a joke. It just makes me angry. Erick added that no one has decision-making powers at customer services. They just don’t have the ability to help a lot. Coinbase was there to help me two days later after I was hacked. They sent me an email survey asking me for my opinion and to give me 5 stars.

Since the introduction of live telephone support, Coinbase customers across the nation have shared similar stories with CNBC.

Marc Boulos, a customer, stated in an email, “The live support only works for accounts that have been actively locked. Since my account has not been locked, it is impossible to reach support, even though I tried.”

Boulos stated that “The system recognises that my account linked to my number isn’t locked” and won’t allow me access live support.

Don Pirtle was another customer who called the number “a joke”.

After unsuccessfully trying to access his account again, Conrad Yiu stated that it seemed like everyone had failed.

Coinbase spokeswoman said that they will provide “global telephone support for all customers” and live messaging before the end of this year. We want to make Coinbase the easiest and most reliable platform for crypto currency, however we are aware of the difficulties some customers may have had with Coinbase accounts. Our number one priority remains improving our customers’ experience.

The statement stated that Coinbase doesn’t cover losses due to unauthorised access to Coinbase accounts. This is usually a phishing attack.

In a letter to Coinbase customers earlier this month, Coinbase revealed that approximately 6,000 funds had been stolen in a phishing operation that occurred between March and May 20. Coinbase’s SMS account recovery process was flawed and the hackers used that flaw to steal funds from customers. They then sent them a two-factor authentication token via SMS to gain access to their accounts.

According to the company spokesperson, “We fixed it immediately and worked with the customers in order for them to gain control over their accounts again and to reimburse them for any funds that they have lost.” The sophistication of sophisticated phishing attacks is increasing. It’s a serious problem that we recommend to anyone using online financial services to be vigilant and take steps to secure their online identity.

The spokesperson for Coinbase stated, “While Coinbase customers may have succumbed to phishing attacks or account takeovers,” and that attackers had never infiltrated Coinbase’s security infrastructure. 

Experts claim there are alternatives to cryptocurrency storage that are secure and hack-proof.

Moving cryptocurrency offline from an exchange like Coinbase to cold storage is one example of a move that could have protected the Richardsons.

“My friends are my voices and I’ve been beating myself up daily. “Erick, please put it in cold storage.” Erick stated, “I just didn’t.”

Nicole DeCicco is a CryptoConsultz consultant who assists clients in securing their crypto through the use of cold storage. She says that it’s virtually impossible to hack into cold storage. To store the private key offline, crypto owners are given a key that is similar to a password.

Cold storage and cold wallet are completely unconnected from the Internet. Sometimes, it’s a device that connects to your computer.” she explained. If you have your funds stored in cold storage you can claim them as your own. … They’re offline, away from hackers.”

I like to remind my clients that, just as you could pull cash out of your ATM card with it, cold storage money can also be loaded into hot wallets. She said that if the money is substantial, it’s best to store it in cold storage.

DeCicco stated that setting up an exchange account is simple, but cold storage requires more effort. Many investors purchase a cold storage device to set this up. You will need to load it with a secret key, and store it in safe storage such as a vault.

Cold storage may be more secure than hot storage, but it also has its limitations. It is possible for owners to lose passwords or devices can be stolen.

After several email exchanges with Coinbase the Richardsons said that they were finally able to access their account. They were also reimbursed by the company.

They weren’t expecting it to be. A company deposited $500 of Bitcoin into their account.

Erick Richardson explained, “It felt almost like they were kicking sand in me face.” Coinbase senior executives are probably looking at the situation. Someone did a calculation, and then said that this was what had happened to him. He lost 21 bitcoin. Let’s award him $500.

Email tips investigations@cnbc.com

CNBC Angelica Serrano-Roman Nadine El-BawabContributed to the report.