Ideally, you should never have to contact a cryptocurrency exchange for customer support. Unfortunately, most investors end up having to do just that.

When they do, they may find that their cryptocurrency exchange provides little or no customer support. These exchanges do not fully understand what is customer experience, and even if they do, are completely oblivious to that fact. Such exchanges leave investors highly frustrated and with little prospect for immediate escape. They may find themselves waiting days or weeks to resolve a simple exchange issue. In worse case scenarios, an investor may have to wait several weeks or months before he/she can access funds.

Thus, fast and effective customer support can be a lifesaver for altcoin investors. Unfortunately, it is not always available (or worse, only available for certain functions). To help you avoid such nightmares, we rank customer service at a few of the major exchanges below.

Rating the Major Exchanges for Customer Support

Here are some of the big exchanges rated on a scale from one to 10. One is the worst and 10 will be the highest score.

CEX.IO – The CEX.IO exchange lists a helpful service center – unfortunately, it’s buried at the bottom of the homepage. However, users can readily review which issues the service team is presently working on. And users are frequently updated about new exchange features. Exchange users are encouraged to suggest new features by contacting the customer support team directly. Since CEX.IO appears to offer comprehensive customer service, they get rated 8/10.

GDAX – Associated with Coinbase, this giant exchange gets rated 7/10. Although the site offers several informative articles, it appears that their contact us links are disabled (though perhaps this is different for registered members). Also, phone agents are apparently unable to assist with account-specific inquiries. On a positive note, phone support agents are available to assist with trust and safety issues (especially if you believe your account has been accessed without authorization).

Bitfinex – Bitfinex users are able to contact customer support directly to answer questions on account access, deposit issues, and other common problems. Unfortunately, their contact form is buried at the bottom of the homepage. However, the exchange posts direct emails for its departments, a big user advantage over other exchanges (although you will have to search for them). Bitfinex gets rated 6/10.

Cryptopia – Although Crytopia is an exchange long-relied upon by XTRABYTES investors, it occasionally experiences processing delays. For instance, withdrawal times for most coins are still delayed by up to 20 hours. And while users can open a support ticket on the website directly, Cryptopia’s support staff often take 30 days or more to answer (supposedly due to an influx of new members). Cryptopia is addressing such issues and claims to be working on upgrading its systems. Cryptopia gets rated a 6/10.

Poloniex – With Poloniex, a service ticket is the only contact for the support offered They do not post any direct contact forms or emails for support posted. And yet Poloniex claims to monitor its operations on a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week basis. As with most exchanges, the customer support is buried on the bottom of the homepage. Although Poloniex lacks some services, they’re honest about their shortcomings. They’re rated 5/10.

Kraken – The Kraken exchange offers a comprehensive support page with extensive information. Although no phone support exists, users can submit a customer support ticket about common problems (like “can’t log in”). They also do not list any direct email or social media contacts. Kraken gets rated 5/10.

EtherDelta – Admittedly, this exchange can be somewhat intimidating for new traders and those not used to technical trading. However, its refreshing to see a simple help button at the top of the screen (providing . access to a number of resources including chat, Reddit, YouTube videos, Screencasts, Twitter, and a list of fees). While no admins are available in its chatbox, the community is pretty good about helping fellow users solve technical issues. EtherDelta offers several helpful resources but makes it difficult to contact customer support directly. They get rated a 5/10.

C-Cex – The C-Cex customer support team gets mixed reviews. As a previous customer, I’ve always been satisfied with getting my support tickets answered. However, others strongly assert otherwise. They have other issues besides customer support, however. (including user complaints about missing funds). XTRABYTES Today covered some of these issues in a recent post. C-Cex gets rated a 3/10.

HitBTC – Here again, the “support center” for this exchange consists of a list of troubleshooting tips and answers to common issues. The only means of contacting customer support is to submit a new request. Since HitBTC does not offer a significant level of readily-accessible customer support, it only rates a 3/10.

Bitstamp – Unfortunately, this exchange offers no direct link to customer support. Instead, users have to email the team directly if they have service issues. Moreover, while they include emails for both complaints and customer support, they do not provide status updates. As such, users may end up having to pay for a long distance call (a British phone number) if they want to talk to support. For lacking basic customer support, .Bitstamp gets rated 3/10.

Bittrex – Like some others, this exchange appears to offer no direct means to contact customer support (at least for non-registered members). All that is offered to the casual observer is an email, Twitter, and Slack channels. Thus, it appears few support services are available. Bittrex gets rated a 2/10.

Yobit – The XTRABYTES team regularly warns investors to stay away from Yobit. They’ve kept the XTRABYTES wallet in maintenance for several months, leaving investors empty-handed. Continual customer support requests from the development team, as well as other investors, have gone unheeded. Don’t chance it. Stay away from this exchange. Yobit gets rated a 1/10.

There are lots of cryptocurrency exchanges out there and new ones opening each day. The best strategy for most investors will be to try several exchanges until you find one that offers the level of customer support you are comfortable with.