Ancestry.com

I submitted my credit card info for what I thought was a free 14-day trial. The site advertises that if you call and cancel before the 14-day free trial is up, there will be no charges to your account. That is not so. There's a lot more to it than this, which is not disclosed at time of credit card submission (if it is, it's not well highlighted like the fact that you can cancel before the trial period is up if you no longer wish to have the service). I just looked in my account and it was debited for $39.99, which is the cost of membership. Bottom line, I just emailed the customer service about refunding my money. I can't wait for the response on that. I'm sure it will be unfavorable. I'm going to spread the word to everyone I know not to fall for this ** company.

Ancestry.com runs really slow. It takes forever for the files to download. Why can't someone fix this. It's not the computer; it's the site. Please fix this as soon as possible.

A senior taking 4 months to build family tree. It's painful to use computer, so just want to finish tree and make copies. A week ago, tree quit uploading. Ancestry acknowledges problem with Safari browser through Verizon in So. Cal. but only suggestion is to change to browser Firefox. Much, much time working solutions w/ Ancestry, Verizon, and searching internet. Finally, getting Verizon to come to my home and have to pay for Geek Squad but no solution in sight. I don't understand why ancestry.com isn't required to warn Mac users about this potential problem!

I thought I paid for a one-month trial, but Ancestry.com debited my Australian visa card for another 11 months without my knowledge or consent. I didn't realize they were debiting my Australian visa account because I am no longer an Australian resident. The quality and usefulness of information were poor and after the first month, I abandoned the service thinking they would contact me if I needed more. Subscription information and trading terms were misleading and designed to trick customers into paying for more than they wanted.

I had an online subscription to Ancestry.com that I paid on for a few months and found all I could. Then I went online and followed their directions to unsubscribe. I had just happened to look at my PayPal account and they had never stopped billing me. So I paid about $160 that they took out of my bank account. And when I called, they wanted my cancellation number. So if you ever do this, be sure to save your cancellation number because it is just my word against theirs. This sucks.

I subscribed to ancestry.com. I was under the impression I was only supposed to be charged a $49.00 fee for one year. Today, I checked my bank account and I am $50.00 in the red. Overdrawn that will cost me an additional $35.00. I cannot afford this. Please refund my money and unsubscribe me from you ancestry.com.

I got my 14-day trial, knowing I would more than likely go over and be charged, so no problem there. I began spending hours and hours searching for my ancestors, and got all the way back to the 1700's. I decided I didn't want to keep getting charged because there wasn't a lot to get after digging that deep, so I cancelled. Little did I know when I cancelled, all of my hard work would be erased. I am not a happy customer!

We have harassment orders against an abuser and they opted out our names from the databases. We were opted out of everything and they took our name off in two hours. However, ancestry.com says that it will be 45 days to take our names out. We never put our name in the database. The CEO Tim ** obviously can't run a legitimate business but he seems to be sucking up a ton of glory and money from cheating and exploiting others. There are (7) pages of complaints about them.

My daughter started a project on the Ancestry.com website approximately one year ago. When she took it as far as she could, I told her to cancel--$83.85 every three months. The first time I got rebilled, I was not overly upset but told her to cancel again. The third time I was rebilled, I watched her to make sure she followed all the steps. She got the cancellation email. I was billed again the 4th time now since we started the cancellation process.

If you have any issue with Ancestry.com, you should write directly to their chief lawyer. His name is William C. **. He is a good friend of mine. William C. ** Ancestry.com Inc. Corporate 360 West 4800 North Provo, UT 84604 801-705-7000 801-705-7001 ** And, if you'd like review Mr. **'s offer letter, here it is: **

Over a year ago, I purchased the updated Family Tree Maker software which came with a 9-month subscription. I never did use the software, got busy with other things, so I went in and canceled the subscription. I actually have two accounts on Ancestry.com from two different version of the software I've purchased over the years. When the 9 months were up, I was charged $89.95 for another 9 months. I was mad because I canceled the account, but they said I only canceled one of the accounts and not the one that had the active subscription so they would not refund my money. They said they never refund money.

I was angry but what could I do? I asked if they would cancel the correct account and they said that I had to do it online. Okay, so over the last 9 months, they sent me emails about specials, etc. So every other email or so, I have gone into both accounts and made sure they were canceled. I must have checked 3 or 4 times over the last 9 months just to make sure. So guess what happened? I'll give you one guess. Today, they charged me again! I called my bank but even though the charge just happened within the last couple hours, it has already gone through so I can't stop the payment. I can only put in a dispute.

So it's after business hours and I'll have to call them tomorrow, but I don't think it will help since they said they never refund money. And so, I had my bank card canceled and I will now have to get a new card number and take the time to change all my online payment information on all the sites I deal with, all so they can never charge me again. While I was on hold with the bank, I checked my Ancestry.com accounts again. Guess what? One of them is still active! How can that be? I canceled the account and I have checked time and time again and still the account is active? I couldn't afford this last time they did this to me and this time, I'm in an even worse situation. I have done what I was supposed to do and still I get charged. I really enjoyed doing ancestry research with them several years ago. But you can bet I will never use them again!

My complaint has to do with the information I was given about my ancestors. I was told that my husband's ancestor was from county Roscommon in Ireland. So, I contacted the ancestry center in Roscommon and paid money for a search. They came back with nothing. When I contacted Ancestry.com again, they didn't respond. And I wasn't able to access the part of the system that had given me the information in the first place, even though my membership was still current.

I was under the impression that subscribing to Ancestry.com was a one-time deal. Pay $29.95 for a month and it's all over. Instead, they charged me $29.95 per month for 4 months until I just canceled. I never would have known for not looking at my credit card statement. I think that's bad business practice. At least, an email would have been nice. Please take note.

I received a subscription from Ancestry.com for 3 months and forgot to cancel it until after my bill came. I cancelled it and they said they would not refund my money. But that they would cancel it as of then, but I would still have access until the end of the subscribed period. Now, another three months has gone by and they charged my credit card account again without my authorization. I have not even logged on for the last 3 months! I will call them in the morning during their small window of availability. Though their tools are very nice, I recommend that no one ever, ever, give them a credit card number. Never!

I don't trust the internet anymore. Genealogy.com published my mother's maiden name, etc. etc. and it is owned by ancestry.com. There is no way to remove the info which can be used for identity theft and discrimination. It should be illegal to publish details about living people without their permission.

I registered for a month's use of what I thought is their website and found out later that I had registered for a continuous service membership service. No where during the registration process were the words continuous service membership used. The phrase monthly $19.95/month was stated with no mention of it being automatically being renewed without notice on a monthly basis. The only place the phrase continuous service membership was used was in the terms and conditions which were noted at the very bottom of one of the web pages in very small print. I feel **** advertising is misleading and deceptive.

Ancestry.com has provided data about me on the internet, full name, birthday, parent's names, and mother's maiden name. This puts me at great risk, as my credit card was recently compromised and my mother's maiden name is the key to stealing my identity. I've send numerous emails to the company, called the distant cousin who provided the information, and called the Ancestry.com in Utah (Asking that this data be removed!)

If you type in my full name into Google, the very first link provides all my data. Ancestry.com, said the link was dead, so they couldn't do anything, it was cached with Google. So I used Google's Web tools to ask the link to be retired. It worked for 2 weeks, but now the site is back in full force. I've asked Google to permanently remove the link but they said that a webmaster from Ancestry.com would have to add a "meta tag" to permanently remove the link. I'm so frustrated. Is there anything that you can do to help? My Credit card has been compromised and I've had to close accounts.

I am attempting to cancel my account and stop them taking payments from my checking account with no results or dialog with them. They will not communicate

I signed for the 14 day trial. They told me to cancel before April 4th 2010. I have been trying for three days to cancel. Will not let me cancel. Somehow they have my name changed by one letter. Lindajesse with one E. Apparently they have researched my past. They have 2 old email address I had on yahoo.com. I am an old lady and do not need the stress. I would never use this bunch of crooks. I did this because of the new TV show. I do not expect any one to help. A company like this does not care about customer service. All I wanted to cancel. I have worked hours on this. I have high blood pressure and do not need the stress. Maybe this would help the next old lady that signs up for this. Thank you.

After several failed attempts to unsubscribe from all of ancestry.com newsletters and emails, I complained to Customer Service, asking them for help and asking contextually to cancel my account from all of their databases.

They answered me by telling me that:

1. That I was placed in their "Do Not Contact List", which should mean that I shouldn't receive any new email from them.

2. Surprisingly, they told me that for "Registered Guest accounts (...), there was no established method to cancel these accounts. When you have concluded using your Registered Guest account, simply discontinue your use".

My complaints refer to:

a. I still receive emails from them. Date of my complaint to ancestry.com 02/16/2010; date of their answer: 02/18/2010; date of the last newsletter I received from them 03/02/2010, which means after being included in the "do not contact list".

b. I want it to be cancelled from whatever ancestry.com database. I cannot believe that I am not able to cancel my profile, even if this is a free "Registered Guest Account", this shouldn't be possible in any Privacy policy.

After some investigation, I discovered that an illicit charge to my account from Ancestry.com was responsible. Ancestry.com charged me through my PayPal account to the amount of $323.35! Last Christmas (2008), I purchased a year membership to Ancestry.com for my wife, who was very much into genealogy at the time. I was never aware that the $300+ was an annual fee. Otherwise, I never would have purchased the membership. You can imagine my chagrin when I checked my bank balance to find they had billed me.

While I was away visiting family, I made last-minute purchases for Christmas gifts and such thinking that my bank balance was fine. I was completely unaware that Ancestry.com caused my account to go into the negatives, where it's been a snowballing catastrophe since. Each purchase (no matter how small) caused a $37 insufficient funds charge from my bank. I racked up $296 in charges because of Ancestry.com's diving into my checking account through PayPal.

I spoke to Stacy A, one of Ancestry.com's operators, and she explained their billing policy, and that my wife should have received an email notification letting her know of the impending charge. I was livid. E-mail notifications from Ancestry.com are not reliable, nor are they read (especially if my wife wasn't using their service at the time). To expect their members to simply agree to a charge like that is ludicrous, and Ancestry.com should implement a better policy, perhaps shutting off a member's user access until a renewal payment is made. Surely, there's something better than a $300+ annual billing that can hit people hard.

I paid quarterly for all most a year. After many months of searches both on line and paper trails, I finally finished. I was so proud. I saved all my research to a file on my computer,(or so I thought)and made copies for my siblings for Christmas presents. My brother calls me and said his copy only shows the first page, when you try to go to the next page, an advertisement for Ancestry.com pops up.

Feeling scammed I never logged in again, to find out three months later they were still billing my credit card for their monthly fee, when I called them they asked for the cancellation number which of course I didn't have because they never sent one to me. So they will not refund my money. Loss of money during hard financial times and the distress of dealing with scam artist.

I signed up for the trial and cancelled within 24 hours. I never received a cancellation notice on my email but I tried to log in a few days later and was not able to access the premium service. I believed this was because I had cancelled and that everything was okay. Ten months later my wife got curious about the charge and called them. The woman she spoke to said that the account had been cancelled but the billing had not. She said to resolve it I needed to call in and give them my information and credit card number.

I spoke with a Kimberly who was pleasant at first but once I asked for a refund she started getting louder and louder. I told her that she was getting really loud but she just continued telling me their policies. I asked to speak to a supervisor three times before she let me. I then spoke with William who was very calm and pleasant. I then told him about the woman my wife had talked to and what she had said. He said that my account had not been looked at by anyone that day.

I then told him that Kimberly had looked at it and knew my wifes name. He then said the account had been accessed twice, once by Kimberly and once by him. (It really didn't make sense to me than Kimberly would have known my wife's name even though it was never on the account. I do believe they, (William) lied to me (more than once but definatley that time).

I never received an email that the account had been activated and that I would now be billed nor did I receive an email each month about the billing as I should have. When I talked to Kimberly she knew my email and user name but when I talked to William he gave me a user name that I did not know about. I have a programmable keyboard and use a macro to enter my user name and password for everything I do. For some reason the user name Ancestry.com had for me was jumbled and letters were added. It was only three letters off or two, William spelled it different the second time he spelled it some 15 minutes later in the conversation.

Why out of three game accounts, Twitter, Facebook, Photobucket, four email accounts and about a dozen blogs and forums, Ancestry.com had a different user name than what my macro puts in makes no sense to me. And I log onto all those other accounts all the time and never have an issue.

I explained this to William and suggested they might have had a server glich or something that garbled the data once it was received. He said I should have asked for my user name. I told him I had cancelled and thought the reason I couldn't log on was because they had locked out the premium service to me. I would never have thought my user name was different. I also told him I had never used the service which he confirmed.

In the end they said they would refund the last three months. Still, this is a company that will activate your account and charge you and not send you an email about any of their billing. I also know I cancelled it and never received a cancellation email. I lost around $140.

Because of Ancestry.com exposure of my personal information on the internet, A job that I was certain to get failed. Ancestry.com exposes me , showing that I married a moslem, where he is from. I am devistated at the limitations put upon me as a private person. Ancestry.com has set limitations upon me as I attempt to network with a lot of people on the internet. And all of my efforts are stiffled.

I wasn't in the mood to fight it at the time, and just let the one month charge go and cancelled. Now it is 3 months later and I just realized that they are still billing me $29.95 each month. Called their customer service and all they will do is refund the most recent monthly charge even though they can see through their system that I haven't used the service in 3 months. They won't do anything else unless I can give them the cancellation confirmation number from back in June which I don't have.

I signed up for a one month membership at Ancestry.com and canceled the account online before the one month had ended. Canceling was a hassle but I found out how to do it using info I found online from other customers who had trouble canceling. I filled out the cancellation form online and I even filled out the part that told them why I was canceling (their system didn't find info on my family). I never received a confirmation email and now I can assume why. I figured the account was canceled but they kept charging me for 4 months until I noticed the charges.

They would not refund my money because I did not have the cancellation email. They could see that I never accessed the account after the day I canceled but that didn't matter. I eventually found one customer service person who was willing to refund a portion of the unauthorized charges, but not all of it. I would never use them again. Beware.

Sign up on-line for a free one year trial on July 14, 2008, giving my credit card # to be charged $155.40 after the free trial service if I did not cancel. Initially, immediately after sign-up, I was able to access the website. However, the next time I tried to accesss the site, I needed a password, which I never received. After repeated unsuccessful attempts to gain access to the site to retrieve a password I gave up, putting it aside for another day. A family emergency prevented me from trying again until October of 2008. Again, no luck and I was not able to access anything. So, I decided it probably hadn't registered and I put it out of my mind, thinking I would check on it later. However, I never got back to it.

We bought nor subscribed to anything on Ancestrydotcom, but today found our credit card charged with over $200, then the same amount was refunded immediately. Apparently, they were just checking to see if the account was valid, because we immediately afterwards received a call from an online merchant saying someone was trying to buy an i-phone with the same card.

Cancelled my service and was then billed. When asked about a refund was told I was 1 day into the billing cycle and so they would not refund.

Same problem as others. Its part of their business plan to charge your credit card and never send an invoice or a receipt just to keep you money. Do not use this company!!

False advertising. They sent me an email saying I could renew for $14.95 per month but they were charging my credit card $19.95 per month. When I called to complain they said I could cancel but they would not honor the $14.95 email they had sent me.

I can not log in to my account and I can not reach any one at 1-800-262-3787. I can no use my account and I want a refund of what I paid you people. Send me my password and sign-in code.

Same as the others--sign up for one month (or so you believe) and they keep charging you. Bad business practice and I am hesitant to ever use them again. (although terms and conditions indicate renewal- the sign up screen suggests it is a month for 19.95 for ONE month) Customer service said they get complaints about this all the time. IF so-- FIX IT

$80.00 charges before I noticed it.

I registered for a month's use of their website (I thought) and found out 3 months later that I had registered for a continuous service membership service. No where during the registration process were the words continuous service membership used. The phrase monthly $19.95/month was stated with no mention of it being automatically being renewed without notice on a monthly basis. The only place the phrase continuous service membership was used was in the terms and conditions, which were noted at the very bottom of one of the web pages in very small print. I feel ancestry.com advertsing is misleading and deceptive.

I was charged for 3 months service instead of the 1 month to which I thought I was registering.

Retention of Credit card numbers.

Does Ancestry retain credit card numbers long after the need and have no way to remove?

In early December of 2004, after logging into Ancestry.com, I noticed under store Orders they listed the last 4 digits of all my credit cards used in the past in the same format as listed under My account update credit card information. I sent an email on December 23 to requesting that all my credit card information be removed. On Jan. 2, 2005 after receiving no response, I forwarded the same email with a request Is this request being processed as requested? Please respond.

On Jan 3, 2004 someone at Ancestry.com phoned me. The rep first tried to tell me the info was in cookies on my computer which I knew was not true, He then tried to tell me they only had the last four digits and I also was certain this was not true. He then told me he would have to delete my account and I said OK. At first I could not log in so I thought my account was deleted but it didn't take me long to learn that all he did was add the word broken after my login ID. While learning this I also learned they had the last four digits of the credit cards I used for my last 2 purchases of FTM at Genealogy.com.

On March 21 I again sent an email requesting removal and received this reply along with an offer of a free membership:

In order to protect our customer's financial information, we encrypt all credit card information and do not allow agents to view full credit card numbers. An agent is allowed to view a small portion of a customer's credit card in order to verify the card usage, but not the whole numerical string.

An agent has the capability of changing the default credit or debit card that a customer uses, can update customer information like address, username, email address and password, but does not have the ability to delete a customer's financial information from our records.

We have to keep financial information on file (encrypted and stored on secure severs) for tax reasons, but as I mentioned previously, we do not give that information out, nor can our agents access it.

If you have additional questions or concerns about our business practices, please feel free to contact me.

I replied that their agent that called was not truthful and that there was NO LAW state or federal that required them to keep my credit card numbers. I also stated what I thought of their business practices and that I had all the numbers for credit card numbers in their files changed so what they had was now useless.

You know, I never did get a response to that email or the free subscription.

I belonged to Ancestry.com when it was charging about $6.95 monthly to be able to research my family genealogy.

Some time later [and due to my Post Polio Syndrome]I elected not to re-subscribe to the outfit.

Along about March/April of 2004 a representative of the company [Ancestry] called my home and asked if I didn't want to continue my membership and I told him no. He asked if he could call back in a couple of months and I told him there was no need for that, as I would not be changing my mind.

After discovery that Ancestry had billed me In June of 2005 I called their 1-800 number. After some time waiting I got a real person on the line. She told me that my subscription of 2004 had run out in June and accordingly Ancestry had reenlisted me. And, after some stressful time spent with the lady, I was able [I guess] to convince her of the fact I did not elect to re-subscribe in 2004 nor 2005. She agreed to have the $129.79 chg removed from the charge acct.

Now, I find my chg acct statement of July 2004 and lo and behold they've charged me for a year then too [$119.90.]

I had told them I didn't want that subscription re-newed and they did it anyway.

One thing that is soooo fraudulent in my case is that I was never able to use Ancestry.com after I told them I didn't want to subscribe any longer unless I signed up as a guest. For that you get only the free information [which isn't much.]

When I tried to cancel my subscription today 07/02/2005 I found out I had also subscribed to 5 other suscriptions and could not cancel any of them and be refunded for what I had not used.

I recently looked up my mother on the web, no one has researched my family except myself. I was sent to WorldTree and told I had to subscribe to obtain their information on my mother and probably myself. I am the only compiler of my relatives.

How did One World Tree get my personal information and who do I contact to have it removed?
I could use a lot of expletives here, but I believe the Mormons are a wierd cult, and their practice of Sealing Dead ancestors is ghoulish. How do I get our names off their list. Please, please, please help.

I don't want to be baptised by these monsters after I am gone!!!

Just the idea of the Mormons baptizing my mother, my grandmother, even my Jewish grandparents who survived the holocaust,
to their beliefs, would have made their skin crawl, as it does mine. As they have my information, too.

I am extremely upset that my information, that I put on my site, for FAMILY RESEARCH only, has been stolen by the LDS and selling it!!!!

I am ready to stop my research due to this incident, which means the loss of a hobby, that I found interesting and relaxing. I have high bloodpressure and now it is off the charts.

My bank account is now out of 99.95 due to this and I was told I should have canceled by the fourth of October. I do not beleive I signed up for this program on the fourth of September.

I signed up for a free 14 day trial of Ancestry.com. I realized after a few tries that it was of no use to me and decided to cancel. Before I could call to cancel, Jonathan from Ancestry called and said he would extend my subscription and sign me up for other features, all free for the next 7 days. Even though I didn't want it, I agreed, figuring I'd just call back in a few days to try to cancel again.

I called back two days later to cancel and spoke to Darren, and I was informed that I had been charged $289.80 for my subscription. Apparently, Jonathan forgot to mention that Free for 7 days was actually a we'll charge you $289.80 today and if you cancel in the next few days, we'll credit your account This made me furious!

Jonathan blatently LIED about the 7 day free trial. When I say Yes to a free trial offer, I expect it to be just that, not $290! I spoke to Jarod, the supposed manager, who basically was of no help. I filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.

$289.80 charged to my credit card unauthorized. As of today, have not received my credit. I am disputing the charges with my credit card company.

Reviewed contract nothing stated about a cancellation fee, only that refunds will not be made, despite at no risk guarantee upon
sign up.

Cause me to cancel credit card in order to stop charges.

This is more of a question. I subscribed to Ancestry.com last May. This year we have shifted to Adelaide, and I just assumed that once our subscription was up, we would not renew. The Ancestry.com newsletter has been really slowing down our old computer and a few attempts to unsubscribe have become too time consuming on the net. It was slowing the incoming email downloads, so we would delete the newsletters as soon as they appeared. A few weeks ago I was able to unsubscribe to the newsletters.

Last week on our American Express statement of account showed a payment to Ancestry.com for $125.54 AUS for another years use of the Ancestry.com research program. I had given no authority or requested no renewal. I have written to them twice and have been quoted that in the original agreement a renewal notice would be sent out and if not rejected, then would be automatically charged for the next year. Although, it does sound like a good service, we did not site the renewal notice (which we would have answered), as both of us were deleting anything with Ancestry.com coming in.

There policy is not to refund any subscription. I no longer want their service, and as were are now on limited funds, we need the money. I want to be the one giving authority of payment on my credit cards, and although I did not read the original agreement as careful as I should have, I want the final say of my finances. What chance do I have of getting refunded?

$40 means alot to a poor man and that's me. I feel jilted, tricked, and dissatified.