Here is the story of how and why I didn't get my free Bitcoin Cash. I am the proud owner of 1 single solitary bitcoin (Sad I know wish I had more) that I received as a gift years ago when they were worth next to nothing (~$5 at the time). 2013ish?
Because I'm more of a biomedical type than a computer time I was shocked to find out about July 28th that not only was the blockchain gonna split but that if you wanted your free coin you needed to have your coin off of exchanges to have the private key (that was new to me, I know the difference now but is a learning curve for newbies).
I requested the exchange where my coin was being held (Havelock Investments, a company in Panama) on July 28th to withdraw the coin to my wallet, BUT July 31st it still hadn't arrived and I cancelled the request as I was afraid the coin would get lost in the split if they sent it then. They don't support Bitcoin Cash so like Coinbase originally was gonna do they just not giving out the free coin.
After split (very painful for me knowing my Bitcoin was on an exchange that would not actually split it) I requested Aug 8th for my coin to be withdrawn.
After calling and emailing Havelock every single day for the last 20 days FINALLY today August 29th the Bitcoin has arrived! Hurrah!
It took so long, and the customer support was so bad with Havelock (not answering emails or phone calls about the status of the transfer) and them being a foreign country and all I just assumed that they were at this point planning to steal not only my Bitcoin Cash but even the underlying Bitcoin.
I'm very thankful that I was wrong. So Havelock is not a scam, you can EVENTUALLY after nearly a month withdraw your money, but I have to say SPEED IS EVERYTHING IN CRYPTO and by not giving me my coin I lost $600 USD of value not getting the free Bitcoin Cash, but at least some of that is made up from the increase in the value of the underling Bitcoin during that time.
If you are new to Bitcoin and crypto, please head the advice and my story and don't keep your funds on Havelock (or any exchange), have your own wallet so that you can benefit from splits.