Coinbase is probably in it for the long run, and they are probably doing things to enable them to outlast the competition.

However.

On Monday I was planning to place an order for bitcoin on Coinbase and I was informed that the order would go through on Friday at the market rate at that time. That is somewhat worthless and extremely dangerous in a volatile market. For now, I consider their service unusable.

It's been that way for a while. I'm hoping they change the way that works, as right now the only way to guarantee you'll get a buy order in is to use a tool like coinbase-trader(https://github.com/martindale/coinbase-trader), literally polling their API until it goes through.

I know about coinbase and use it, but it's very limited. U.S. only, is not a real exchange (buying bitcoins is often not possible), etc. And quite frankly, support is lacking too.

Buying bitcoins is still extremely complex for most of the world. It needs to be simplified further.

Coinbase with its ACH stuff isn't really that workable. It takes too long. The opportunity is there, but Coinbase isn't meeting it. Bitinstant has turned into a Ponzi scheme and is well on its way to failing. If Coinbase or someone else started accepting Moneygram and cash bank deposits, they could quickly capture a huge pot of new business. On the selling side, no one is faster or more reliable than FastCash4Bitcoins.com. If someone could perform like they do on the bitcoin buying side, they would win a ton of business.