Ancestry Reviews

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About Ancestry

Pros
  • User-friendly interface
  • Extensive historical records
  • Positive customer service experiences
Cons
  • High subscription costs
  • Difficult cancellation process
  • Inaccurate user-generated data

Ancestry Reviews

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    Page 5 Reviews 440 - 640

    Reviewed March 29, 2017

    Ancestry.com is great. I love it. I have started my family tree with help of my mother who has a membership with ancestry.com so I use her membership and have learned a lot about my family. I have a mixed race. I have Jewish in my genes and it was pretty amazing that I had so many different races in my genes. I also found cousins I had never met and am able to talk to them about my family history. Ancestry is very good with helping find information. There was a lot of questions I had and got answers I was looking for. I found a lot of information and was exciting and overwhelming but fun. I found out my step son is 70 percent Cherokee Indian. Never would have known.

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    Reviewed March 28, 2017

    I did have a membership with Ancestry.com and wanted to further investigate my family heritage. However, I just found it so difficult to actually figure out where to go once I was registered that I just gave up on it. It's way too complicated. Although I know Ancestry.com is a well known site, I found it hard to navigate and find the information that I needed. I don't feel as though the support is very useful and I found that my questions were not answered appropriately. There is really nothing I have found I liked about Ancestry.com. So, it doesn't say a lot about this site. I am quite sure I am not the only person who feels this way.

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    Reviewed March 28, 2017

    About 20 years ago, a distant relative researched my great grandmother on my dad's side family, tracking all 9 of her siblings and their offspring. As I got older and studied Jewish immigration I decided to study the paths of my other great grandparents. I started as a guest and then my family collectively got a membership that is in my aunt's name. We build a family tree. I liked that I was able to see the ship manifests and census data to see where each of the siblings moved and who their children were. Using that info I was able to find more members of my generation and connect with them on Facebook.

    I really did like the experience of using the website and the documentation that it had. I was frustrated that it was somewhat difficult for my whole family to share an account but I think that was more due to the technical limitations of some older relatives than the website itself. We were going to use the DNA service after we found out only my aunt and no one else had the BRCA gene but we used 23andMe instead because they had set up a drive on my sister's college campus and it was more convenient for her as a student.

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    Reviewed March 27, 2017

    I like that Ancestry is available, but it was not helpful to me. I’m not sure if they have all of the information available to people to search their family tree. I didn't have much luck getting beyond my grandparents. One of my great grandmothers was an American Indian and I wasn't able to find her. I had her full name and knew she came from Pennsylvania, but there was no available information for me to get to her in order to go any further. I was wondering if the native peoples were included in their searches.

    I also dislike that the little leaves could not be altered or deleted, I had people on the tree that didn't belong with no way of getting rid of them. I was a guest and when the time was up, I cancelled. I tried using it a few times but it seemed I wasn't able to alter what I had already started even though, I know it to be incorrect. All in all I found some of the time spent on Ancestry was frustrating and a waste of time, so, I was not willing to pay to go any further.

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    Reviewed March 27, 2017

    I like the wide array of information Ancestry has, ranging from census records to birth/marriage/death certificate record information. I do sometimes like the access to other family trees, even occasionally finding a distant cousin or two. The census records tend to be the most useful when it comes to narrowing down dates and locations. I like being able to view other people's trees, though that does have some frustrations when you can have three trees with all different information about the same person.

    I use the free weekends when they have them, to get more information mostly from the census stuff, but also sometimes military records and what not. I'd love to use the AncestryDNA service at some point, but there are a lot of other things that are more important in our life than spending $100 on that. Also, Ancestry's price kills me. As much as I'd love to, it's not really in the budget right now for the World Explorer membership (since I need more than just US census records), so I can only use the site during free weekends, which is usually centered around American holidays.

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    Reviewed March 27, 2017

    We used a cousins paid account during a family reunion. It was very interesting to find out the lineage of our family. We were able to complete a family tree going back to our great great grandparents on both sides for our children. We were able to find some ancestors we did not know we're related and found that we are related to people which we have known as friends for many years. I like the the availability to access information on our family that we were not aware of previously and the family tree features were real unique. The information provided on the leaves was a huge help in understanding our family better and locating unknown relatives. We found it a fun task to complete as a family. We were able to spend quality time as a family getting to know details of our history and laugh to stories and memories of those we have lost and our childhood with such a large family.

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    Reviewed March 26, 2017

    When I first began I used somebody else's account as a guest to be able to do my own initial research and I soon plan to gain my own access and membership to the website and build my own family tree. I was able to do a great amount of research from their website and able to learn a lot about their mission and how their program works and I am very interested in getting involved and being able to find out my ancestry and heritage. I like how easy the website is to navigate and I like how they have designed it to draw the customer's attention and to make them feel interested in engaging and participating in ancestry.com. The only problem I have is the cost of the DNA analysis is a little pricey but because I'm so interested in the results I am willing to pay the initial fees.

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    Reviewed March 26, 2017

    I previously had a paid membership searching for family heritage and background hoping to find family members I had only ever heard about. I have heard many different contradictive things I would like to research. I also do suspect many adoptions within the family I would have liked to found further information about. I had an interesting search but was unable to move as far ahead in finding as mush information as I would have liked to find. I liked that Ancestry lead you to specifics and help with "hints" or information on getting further in the search. It was helpful to me to a certain extent. But I had been confused on some of my searching and where to go past my immediate family I currently know about. I did run into some dead ends I was unable to figure out.

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    Reviewed March 26, 2017

    Ancestry was good. I am not good with a computer, and was even worst then, but, I found some things about great-grandparents. It was hard but got a little easier as I went along. I liked the leaves. They helped me find my way. I liked getting to talk with cousins, also get to see pictures of great-uncles, and great-grand-parents. I was able to read old letters, how they fought in the war, and how they got to this part of county. However, I dislike the cost. I don't have much money, but I know they have to charge something. The price is reasonable. I just couldn't stay on there as long as I wanted. Someday I plan to go back when I feel I can spend the money.

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    Reviewed March 21, 2017

    I had such a good experience; I was shocked at the reviews, wondering if the only time a person writes a review on here, it's a complaint? I have bought tests for myself, my husband, both daughter in laws, one of my sons, my dad and my husband's father. My brother bought one and I bought one for my sister in law. Makes a great gift. Sometimes the DNA holds surprises, and if you have certain are Asian, I think it's probably not the best for you, very broad. Anyway, It doesn't break down between Scottish and Irish, most people from there migrated there from Ireland. I can tell many people are upset that they are a business. How else will they keep going? Are they supposed to be non profit?

    Anyway, my tests seem accurate enough, they say it's an estimate, don't try to fool you. They give you a couple weeks to a month to do a tree, you can transfer your raw data to another site, no problem, many people I know had both ancestry & 23 & me tests, and got near identical, if not identical results. When I think of what I spend $20.00 a month on or even $40.00, that's like a takeout meal for my husband and I, it's well worth it to me, for all the time and hours I spend on there. Probably not a institution that is without flaws, or conflicts.

    Being a businesswomen myself, I know businesses are run by people. It's pretty damn good. Wikitree supports it, as do many other sites. You can't get every single genealogy need met there, and it sounds like some people on these reviews didn't give it a chance. It takes more than two weeks to truly get the hang of doing research, yet one also has to view the tutorials, otherwise it's about the level of learning how to work your iphone or smartphone. You do have to take the time to learn how to get the best results.

    I met some cousins of mine that I didn't know I had, found my dad's cousin and they reunited at ages 92 & 94. My dad was happy, saying most of the people his age he cared about are dead. Ancestry.com truly changed my life and taught me so much. It's some of the best money I ever spent. I'm hooked on genealogy and doing my tree. Not happy about everything I find out, but I am glad to know the real history of my family. I have reconnected with so many family members through this, and it has brought my husband closer to his dad and family.

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    Reviewed March 3, 2017

    I was charged for the World Explorer subscription without warning after a free trial. Since there was no new information forthcoming more than I had already provided, I cancelled it promptly. The cancellation application informed of a refund due. At the same time the site offered upgraded services for an additional fee! The help link leads you to an FAQ page with no way to communicate directly with a person. To be fair, I could not give them a 1 star as there wasn't an opportunity to be rude. I am also waiting for my results. The site should have warned about the wait time to manage expectations and not find out about the delay at the member's log-in site (You have had to pay for a kit to get here). If you want prompt results or plan on giving this as a present, don't buy the service or the subscription or if you have an account, any upgraded service!

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    Reviewed Feb. 24, 2017

    They just tried charging my account $150.00 because my "free" trial ended. I received NO warning that this was going to be taken out of my account and had to spend almost 30 min waiting for a representative to answer my call so I could get the charges knocked off.

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    Reviewed Feb. 21, 2017

    Worst experience ever. I requested DNA testing and received inaccurate information that I was 34% of European descent 14% Irish when I am of French and Scottish descent. I was then informed that I had 692 4th cousins none of who I knew. For all this banal information I paid $100.00 with no refund options. Google ConsumerAffairs reviews and you will find all negative, very dissatisfied customers.

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    Reviewed Feb. 21, 2017

    I did a free trial at the site to find information about my ancestors. Very little information was actually available at the site. So I cancelled to avoid being charged for a site that wasn't helpful. Even though they sent a cancellation number, they bill me monthly on my credit card. I want to warn others about their practices. Don't sign up for a "free" trial. They will ignore any cancellation.

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    Reviewed Feb. 17, 2017

    This is another data collection website for the government. Just like facebook.com people freely post information about themselves. Not realizing they are willingly giving out the information for free. Even when you request the information to be private it's not! With extra pay you can access that information from another account. Your credit card cannot be deleted from their website. It's held hostage. It's best to use prepaid visas or report it stolen and get it replaced upon completion.

    This website is also an excellent way for scammers to collect data about your family members. Give enough detail about them and they can pretend to be others. I tried ancestry.com when it became big in the beginning and my grandmother became a scamming victim of the website. Deleted the account immediately upon the first scamming story.

    I've tried several free trials and found that Ancestry.com all too often sends the charge through to the card even after you terminated the transaction. This has been proven with the use of several prepaid visas. It's a challenge to request a refund. Though it is possible. I've tried researching different family trees and one family line goes nowhere with ancestry.com. It's as clueless as I am. This is the whole reason I briefly signed up. I do not advise ancestry.com nor any other site promising the same family tree. It's not that difficult to pull out a pen and paper and start connecting the dots. Don't provide the government any more information than you need to!

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    Reviewed Feb. 10, 2017

    I set the date in my calendar and got online to cancel a FREE trial before it ended having already paid $99 for a DNA kit. When I noted that Ancestry.com automatically billed my credit card twice ($39.98), I called customer service and politely explained the situation. She said she believed me, but it is the policy of Ancestry.com NOT to refund customers' money so there was nothing she could do other than cancel my subscription AGAIN. I now doubt the results of my Ancestry DNA test - especially after reading other reviews. Ancestry.com needs to be investigated for fraud.

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    Reviewed Feb. 7, 2017

    I requested my DNA kit when Ancestry had a "deal" @79.00. I received my test and returned it within the week. After about 5 weeks, I got my results, such as they were. Nothing specific at all... everything I was could have come from anywhere in the world! It was 24% from this country, oh but wait! That 24% can also be from another country, or another country. So for every percentage that I am, I could be from just about anywhere in the world! Unfortunately, I was looking for answers, since I was adopted and know nothing about my family history. I have several medical issue. It would be great if I could find someone that shares my medical history. And the best part, Ancestry tells us they have millions and millions of people in their databases. So tell me, how in the hell can there be no one that matches my DNA??? Do not waste your money. Hire a investigator instead. Save yourself some heartbreak.

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    Reviewed Jan. 30, 2017

    For the past several days... "Page not found"... Sorry can't access... and just failed!!! I PAID for a year subscription and expect to be able to access information. There is no place to email or place a comment complaint or ask for assistance!!! GRRR... Come on... It use to be so easy!!!

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    Reviewed Jan. 26, 2017

    I purchased the DNA kit for my wife for a Christmas gift. Her Dad dies about a year ago and her mother was still alive (at 85). She, like many wanted to trace her DNA to see what exactly she was. After all her Dad and her Mom both came from a background with very strong American Indian roots. In fact her dad took her to the reservation when she was a child w/ her grandfather. Not to mention her Mom told stories of visiting her grandfather in Tenn & Alabama at the other Indian reservation. She even spoke about hanging fruit and such from the Tee-Pee. So it was well known throughout the family that there were American Indian roots. Now we never expected to hear that she was 100% American Indian and we even joked about her being 1/3...1/2...etc. So we were excited to finally get the results.

    Well...I have to admit. When we got the news. We both broke out in huge laughter. I mean it went on for 30 mins. Why? Because they said she was 68% English and the rest was European. Not 1 stitch of any DNA from the Indian Tribe. Nothing from either one. Well...needless to say. We called her Mom and told her the news. She said (in a very defiant way) "That's a bunch of ** and you got ripped off!!!" Then we had to hear 40 mins of stories on all the trips to the reservations and her roots as a Cherokee and her Dad which was Blackfoot. So all I can tell everyone is this. Buyer Beware and make sure you go a local real place that does real evaluations and doesn't just use your generic last name to punch out a DNA description. It was a huge disappointment and dare I say. A rip off.

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    Reviewed Jan. 26, 2017

    After paying almost $100 for my DNA to be tested, I could not believe that in order to try to find family members on their website you have to sign up for a ridiculously expensive monthly subscription!!! I thought I had done my research but man was I wrong. Had I know this is what Ancestry.com do to their customers I would have chosen 23andME instead. So disgusted and felt like I threw my money away.

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    Reviewed Jan. 25, 2017

    We purchased 4 DNA test for my family and after all of them were done, result were ridiculous. When you create your account, it does ask you what country you were born so definitely I listed my country of origin located in Eastern Europe. Results showed that I'm Eastern European for 96% which is kind of ridiculous because Eastern Europe includes the countries of Russia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Croatia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Belarus, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia. I thought they will give me more detailed results and more information. After first result was done, I wanted to return other 3 since they never been activated or sent. Boxes were sealed and stuff. They denied to refund money since it's against their policy. COMPLETELY UNPROFESSIONAL AND NOT RECOMMENDED!!!

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    Reviewed Jan. 23, 2017

    Like the commercials on TV showed, I was hoping to find out more about my genetic background. I was expecting percentages of Asian ethnicities like Mongolian, Japanese, Korean etc... but instead after waiting what seemed like a couple months I received this... "Ethnicity estimate: 100% Asia East". Are you kidding me? How general and broad is that? I already knew that. I immediately sent a complaint through their website. Then received this reply:

    "Thank you for contacting Ancestry in regard to receiving 100% East Asia in your DNA results. We apologize for the confusion. On AncestryDNA.com, before you order the kit, it does advertise that we have 26 ethnic regions, and shows on a map what the regions are and where they cover. For Asia, unfortunately we only have 3 regions: Asia East, Central, and South. They are all pretty broad. We are not scamming anyone or trying to hide what our results show. The science simply hasn't progressed this far yet. As more people take the DNA test, we are able to do more research. We are still researching ethnicity as it is still an emerging science.

    The East Asia region in particular has been a difficult one due to lack of huge numbers of samples (like we have from Europe, for example due to the sheer volume of European-Americans who have taken the test) and lack of genetic variation between different countries of the East Asian samples we do have. However, as it is one of our largest regions we are actively researching to break it down further. Any updates that happen in the future regarding ethnicity will be retroactively applied to your test and will reflect the change if applicable. We will send an email notifying our members of the update. Unfortunately, we have no ETA on when these updates will happen, if ever, but we are hoping to break down our larger ethnicities as soon as possible. We hope you stay informed by periodically visiting our blog for DNA updates as well."

    So... they don't have the technology to find out the genetic testing of people in Asia? WTF?!?! Then mention it on your commercial so you don't trick those with roots from that region. No refund, nada, and what a super joke of a business.

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    Reviewed Jan. 17, 2017

    I ordered a kit on Friday and canceled shortly after (same day) because the results are taking months which is what I read. The representative told me the order would be canceled in about 2 days and that I would receive a full refund once that was complete. Nothing had shipped at this point. Now it is Tuesday morning and I have a shipment notice with tracking information in my email. They could have canceled before that order was processed and shipped.

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    Reviewed Jan. 12, 2017

    First let me start with saying you'd seriously believe the customer service reps are idiots. Borderline **. I am not sure if language is a problem or not but asking a simple question is quite literally like getting your teeth pulled. More often than not they'll respond with a useless scripted response that does not actually deal with the issue at hand. But then Ancestry.com is the embodiment of scam-artists so they probably hire individuals with all the moral fibre of a skunk. Or a slug.

    As for my issue. I'd never deal with this crap site. Ever. Except for their 14 day trials. I feel sorry for people who do because guess what ancestry.com is garbage with a capital G. For example, it is more than a pathetic joke when you find birth certificates attached to people whose name isn't even remotely similar. People born in completely wrong cities, to the wrong parents, etc., etc., etc. Be warned. If you have more money than brain cells join Ancestry. If you have some working brain cells avoid this site like the plague.

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    Reviewed Jan. 8, 2017

    Ancestry.com has a no refund policy regarding their monthly accounts and they bill a day earlier than your account is due payment. I called to tell them I wanted to cancel and I would like a refund because I literally cancelled 1 hour too late. They say they cannot refund me unless I was on a yearly subscription. So they can refund 400.00 dollars for their yearly accounts but refuse to refund a 44.00 charge. Ridiculous. I will not recommend this company to anyone and if I do I will make sure they do not sign up for the free trial because they will get charged a day early. I will dispute the charge with my bank.

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    Reviewed Jan. 5, 2017

    I feel so badly for the people who have been ripped off by Ancestry.com. 10 years ago I received a 3 day trial and then cancelled. The information that I looked up was very accurate. I told my husband that they must have been bought out by another company who could care less. My recommendation is always to look into a company before you invest.

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    Reviewed Jan. 4, 2017

    I ordered a DNA kit from Ancestry.com. I sent it back and today I received the results. I had researched my mother's lineage to Sweden, back to the 1600's. Realizing 50% of my DNA is from my father, on my mother's side with generations going back to Sweden to the 1600's, I should have had more than 5% Scandinavian in my results. Both of my mother's parents were Swedish, as were their parents and so on... back to the 1600's. That should have produced more than 5% Scandinavian. It showed 58% of my results showing Great Britain. This is not believable or reliable.

    I spoke to a rep from Ancestry today and explained my disappointment. Unfortunately there is nothing that they can do, once the test is done. Results even showed there wasn't a close DNA match. They listed a couple hundred that were supposedly, maybe 4th cousins and on... I would not personally recommend doing this DNA test and expecting accurate, believable results.

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    Reviewed Dec. 26, 2016

    I signed up for the international membership at Ancestry.com. I have discovered the company is housing fake information. To explain, I found my grandmother's marriage license with picture and the information claims my mother is illegitimate, among other things. This is a fake license purposely put on the site to be misleading in the most cruel, criminal way. This company should be shut down immediately. DO NOT USE.

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    Reviewed Dec. 24, 2016

    Ordered 2 kits for Christmas for my parents a month ago and found out today that they never made it out of the local post office. After speaking with Ancestry, they were apologetic but told me there was no way for them to expedite shipping replacements. The new kits are going back out via the US Postal Service and will not arrive for another 5-7 days. It's extremely disappointing. They could not find a way to deliver them faster given the circumstances and the fact that it's Ancestry's responsibility that their shipments arrive successfully.

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    Reviewed Dec. 14, 2016

    I made the mistake of ordering test kits for my wife and a daughter, from another marriage, before I read any reviews. Both women have well documented Native American ancestry. I was told by the Ancestry folks their DNA data bank goes back 1000 years, then I was told 500 to 1000 years. Then they send me an e-mail stating any ancestor going further back than a GG grandparent (150 or so years ago) cannot or may not be traceable? How can a DNA finding not produce GGG Grandparents results but show the ancestors going back to grandparents 10-15 times removed!!! BUYER BEWARE!!! One statement seems to cancel the other. It's sounding like a scam and I'll report back after I get an answer from them soon.

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    Reviewed Dec. 10, 2016

    To get a DNA test kit, you have to subscribe. The problem is, you can't cancel very easily. And it's $20.00 a month. I hate it when company's make it difficult to unsubscribe, hoping you'll just give up or get frustrated and let the subscription continue until you really have time to sit down and work through their cancellation process. What worthless business approach-- let people easily cancel if they want to cancel. They have a support document that supposedly guides you how to cancel, however, my account information did not have an online option to cancel, as the instructions implied. So I eventually had to call in and cancel. I won't be using Ancestry.com again. What a joke.

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    Reviewed Nov. 29, 2016

    I purchased a DNA kit as a gift on a Black Friday Cyber weekend special that was being offered and the next day I told a co-worker about the special. She promptly ordered a kit as a gift for a loved one. The very next day I received an email stating that if I referred someone who bought a DNA kit, I would receive an Amazon $10.00 gift card. I called Ancestry to let them know of this and give them the info so that I could get the referral gift and a lady in customer service who said she was a manager, said that she could not honor the gift card. She offered me a free month of Ancestry but wanted my credit card to set up the account. I asked twice to speak with a manager that was over her department and she again informed me that she was a manager and I could call back but may get her on the phone again. She said that they were all managers and would not give me the information I required or give me the referral gift.

    I WILL NEVER USE ANCESTRY.COM AGAIN! THEY ARE A SCAM! When I asked to return the kit, I was told that there was a $25.00 restock fee for a return. It obviously does not matter if I am an unhappy customer to this business!!! It is ridiculous that since I referred someone, I cannot get the referral credit! Don't do business with this company!

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    Reviewed Nov. 27, 2016

    A few years ago I sent samples to Ancestry to learn my ethnic background. The results said my ancestors probably came from south east Asia. Recently I sent a new sample and the results said my ancestors came from Europe. Did they move? Also there is an explanation of why native American ancestry is not listed. Now there is a big TV ad where the woman says she is 6 percent Native American. What gives?

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    Reviewed Nov. 18, 2016

    My wife and I bought two DNA kits and followed the instructions to the letter. My wife's information was posted first. We do not know anything about her family (adopted). It gave us some info about possible relatives. After many more weeks my information was posted. Strangely it matched my wife's info exactly to the estimate of her heritage. It even stated that my wife and I are brother and sister, maybe even twins. I live in the south but the jocks are not true. I would tell anyone to stay away from this company if you want to know where you came from.

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    Reviewed Nov. 11, 2016

    My daughter asked me to try the 14 Day Free trial due to a class project at the end of the school year last year. I signed up for the free trial then around the 12th day I set a reminder on my calendar to cancel. I got online and hit the 'cancel my subscription'. The site went to a page that looked like the site was having issues. I tried again on the 13th Day and when it did the same thing again, I sent an email to the company at the address they advertised on the website: ancestry@ancestry.com.

    I did not receive a response and due to being in military training for most of the summer, I did not realize they started to bill me. My wife caught it on our credit card statement and we attempted to cancel again, with the same issue on the site. I called in person and cancelled in October when we saw it again on the September statement. I was charged on that day for another month. Not sure what is going on with this company except it I would not recommend even trying it unless you are prepared to go through a lot to cancel. My cancellation number is in the order number box.

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    Reviewed Nov. 11, 2016

    The old bait and switch, really bad testing. After sending in two viable samples, and thinking that they would expedite my test after failing to extract DNA the second time, and waiting over a week for the third I gave up. They also don't tell you that there are long processing times because lab in which they process them is backed up (they don't tell you that till you pay them). Can take many weeks. We were also did one on my wife and her results very broad so they are of little use. After talking to an Indian tribe ancestry they said they do not use ancestry.com because of poor quality. They don't trust the results.

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    Reviewed Nov. 7, 2016

    As a former computer programmer, I believe I am in a good position to rate the workings of this program. The programmer appears to be unqualified for the immensity of the job. Managing all of these records is a challenge and requires EXPERIENCE. Today I wanted to continue some research. I put in the individual's name and the name of her parents were different than what I had printed out the last time. Last time her father's name was Richard ** and today it is David **. The program no longer prints the "tree" as it did 6 months ago. I did not receive a notice of changes.

    I will mention one more problem, although there are many. As a "FULL" member, I am suppose to have access to "archives." I do not have access and Ancestry DOES NOT include all of the archives information. In archives, my individual had 202 'hits' but Ancestry did NOT have all of them. I had to file a complaint with PayPal, about a previous account I had with Archives.com.

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    Reviewed Oct. 7, 2016

    I had been pleased with Ancestry.com until this week. When I tried to access information from Family Tree Maker, it was logging into an old username and had me listed as a "registered guest" and gave options for buying a subscription. I logged in from their login page and changed that username, which didn't help but I could still log in from their login page. Now, I'm locked out of my account completely and my PAID subscription does not expire until February 13, 2017. Plus, I even bought an upgrade of FTM.

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    Reviewed Oct. 3, 2016

    I signed up for a DNA test the early part of this year. After waiting 8 weeks for results I was notified that I did not have enough DNA in my saliva for testing. I submitted again and received the same message after 8 weeks. I notified the company who said they could not refund my money after 30 days but they would be happy to send to another person. I had them send to my sister. She took the test and was just notified that we are 67% British and 27% Irish. This is very, very wrong. I know for a fact that my mother's grandmother was 100% Comanche, her father was 50% Comanche and 50% English, and her mother was 100% German. My father's parents were Welsh. My husband had a similar experience. His test was a gift from our daughter so we were only out $99. Still we are very, very dissatisfied and believe this is fraudulent and should be investigated by the AG of Utah.

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    Reviewed Sept. 21, 2016

    I read several complaints about Ancestry.com and I want to give you my opinion. I love this company and the service they provide. It has completely met my expectations and cannot understand how people can be unhappy with this company.

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    Reviewed Sept. 21, 2016

    I’ve used ancestry.com since 2000. I’ve used it a lot. As a long-time user who really knows this website, I’m frankly shocked when I hear or see their advertising. They make it sound so easy and fun and exciting to “discover” your ancestors and build your family tree, and their DNA matching. Uh, well…. Not so fast….

    The truth is that ancestry.com is only a website for the diehard genealogical fanatic who has got the fortitude to get through it, and the determination to trace their lineage despite the miserable failures of this website. If you haven't got a never-say-die attitude, ancestry.com is not for you. Put your money back into your pocket.

    It was an okay website in 2000, tolerable and relatively pleasant in 2010, but since its “site upgrade” in 2015 it is pure misery. I’ve stuck with it primarily for access to its images databases, and because I’ve already invested enormous time, and money, in building my family tree at their website. And this corporation has a total monopoly on records; you almost have to go to ancestry.com for online searching, or go back to the old-fashioned pre-computer days of research. My advice? Go back to the old-fashioned pre-computer days of genealogical research or find another hobby.

    I’m writing this review for the benefit of others. It’s long because anyone who thinks about trying this website either with a free 14-day trial, or with a paid subscription, should get some “full flavor” of the actual experience of using it before they dip their toe into this pond. And this, be warned, is just a partial list of complaints that might take some of the dazzle out of their glitzy advertising campaign.

    Quality of the images poor – faded and blurry. I often must rely upon an index to extract the info anyway. It wasn’t like that before the 2015 upgrade. Same images which are available at familysearch.org, a free website, are clear, of high resolution, and easily read. Loading time is incredibly sluggish on these images (even after a new computer and upgrading to latest operating system and highspeed internet connection). You find yourself waiting endless amounts of time for the blur to disappear and hope that a readable image will appear. Frequently the images won’t load at all. Frequently getting messages: “There is a problem loading the image. Try our basic viewer instead.” Or “There is a problem loading the image. Come back later.” Several times a day when I’m using the website.

    The indexing of these images – most of the entries in every index is riddled with errors. Even when you can clearly read the image, the index to that name will have errors. How does that happen? Does someone INTENTIONALLY mis-type the data into the index? You have to using a variety of “search perimeters” to eventually find what you are looking for, if you can find it at all. I’m often forced to slowly browse through the census images, waiting for this sluggish website to load them, in order to find a name or family group.

    Ancestry.com relies solely upon its “user-submitted corrections” to make corrections to their indexes. Eventually those corrections will show up in the indexes, so that other users can more easily find the record. So essentially, you are paying for a website AND doing their work for them. Lucky us. When entering data into the search fields, there will be pop-ups of data for other individuals who are either listed in your family tree or who you have previously searched for. You have to constantly work around this.

    Leaf Hints is another method which is supposed to help you find records that match your ancestor. This is rendered almost useless for one primary reason. You first have to enter an exact date into your family tree before it will produce a “leaf hint.” Of course, since you’ve already found the date, and record yourself, there is little value to the “hint” showing up “after the fact.” The only advantage is that occasionally it will produce hints to other records that also have the same date and name. But frequently, the hints will not be a record match to the ancestor, and you will spend a great deal of time weeding all that out. Or worse yet, the Leaf Hint will put you on the wrong lineage path. Newbies are particularly vulnerable to getting mislead down the wrong path, only to discover months or years later that the people they thought were their ancestors? Not.

    The titles of the indexes are frequently deceptive, suggesting they have records that go back to the 1600s. However, when you actually search those indexes, there’s only a handful of “early records,” a huge gap in the records that might span a century or more, while all the rest of the records are from the mid-1800s up to the 1940s, some have records up to current dates.

    There are thousands if not millions of images of records which are not indexed at all. Ancestry has got the monopoly on all these records, but it would appear to me there is little to no effort to index these records so that anyone can actually find anything. You do have the option, however, of “browsing,” if you feel like wasting your life doing that.

    If you upload an image to your family tree, and go back later to look at it again, it frequently will not open to view. If and when you do get it open, the resolution is so small you cannot read the print, will have to download back onto your computer again, just to review it once more. Your family photographs will be downloaded by other users and then uploaded to their tree without giving any credit as to source... and not so much as a thank-you, either.

    Messages I’m really sick of seeing, but have seen them so often I’ve got them memorized. “Sorry, that page is not available at the moment. Try again later.” “Portions of the website will be down for maintenance…” (the length of time varies). No one is EVER offered a refund for these “time-outs.” An incalculable number of family trees with bogus lineages, no documentation or sources attached. It takes an enormous amount of time to wade through all of that and to try to find something worthwhile – an actual documented lineage.

    There is no customer support for technical issues. There is no customer support in attempting to find a record. There is no viable online community whereby you can work with other descendants. There is an email messaging system that people often never bother to reply to. And a really old message board with outdated queries. And of course, there is no place to post a complaint or discuss problem issues with others who are using the website as well.

    There is supposedly an “Ancestry Community” link, but it is off-site of ancestry.com, and despite repeated attempts over the span of three years I have never been able to create an account there or log in so that I can participate. From what I can see it’s basically advertising, and ancestry.com created blogs and articles. Very little actual user queries or responses. And no wonder. It’s impossible to get into it.

    There are a lot of videos produced by ancestry.com which, in addition to selling their website, teach you how to use their website. The best educational videos must be paid for with an additional fee. You can plan on going to "ancestry.com school" for a very long time before you will ever get good at using their website and finding actual records. I have an advantage because I began with this website early on. And I’m still learning!

    I was quoted a minimum $4500 retainer fee (yes you heard that right and no I’m not exaggerating) to hire a professional genealogist, and no guarantees regarding amount of time spent on my project, or results. You have to pay a huge upgrade fee to access both records and family trees in other countries. For example, a distant cousin in Canada was able to access my tree through the Canadian version of ancestry, but I could not access hers without paying for a “world-wide membership.”

    The DNA sample I submitted was a major let-down. Nothing new, nothing detailed. I already know I’m British and European. Although I did “break through” two brick walls all the rest of my identifiable matches were ones I already knew about and had proved with a paper trail of hard work. I didn’t need to pay for a DNA test to tell me what I already know.

    An extremely high percentage of the DNA matches I received included people who either have privatized trees, no trees at all, trees not linked to their DNA match, or a tree so small that it was all worthless. Ancestry.com of course repeatedly recommends that you get everybody in your family tested… this will improve results. Will it improve the quality of other people’s trees? And ancestry.com leaves it up to its customers to contact all these people and “encourage” them to build their family tree. Are you freaking kidding me? Like I’m going to write to someone and ask them to get to work on their family tree? WTF? You will receive email from ancestry.com every day. For the rest of your life. There's no way to make it stop. I could continue, there really is more, a lot more, but if you’re not convinced to run from this website by now… it’s on you, is all I can say. You’ve been warned.

    Since the 2015 “site upgrade” the technical issues at this website have ground me down. It takes much much longer to find a record or make a connection now than it ever did before. My genealogical “discoveries” have virtually ground to a halt and I haven’t been able to take my line back much further than 6 generations, although I can go back on a few lines a few more than that. But, I had done all that before 2015.

    In my opinion, there is no way that any newbie could get any benefit out of this over-bloated, extremely complicated website that functions poorly even for those of us who know what we are doing. It takes years, and I mean years, just to learn how to use the website. Before you begin actually finding records. In my opinion, the purpose of this website, now, is to waste your time. The longer it takes for you to find something, to “build your family tree,” or to trace your lineage, the longer you’ll be there… and spending your money. I used to love doing genealogy. Not anymore. The ad campaigns are hugely positive and make it all sound like a great deal of fun. But the frustration level is constant in using the website, and no one can enjoy the process, or make any real progress, under the current conditions of this website.

    Finally, as a long-time user I’ve seen ancestry.com launch different advertising campaigns over the years. In the early 2000s the big push was to advertise their possession of the census records. In 2010 the big push was to advertise their “Leaf Links.” In 2012 there was a big push to advertise their international record collection and for people to come and discover their roots in Ireland. In 2014 there was an ad campaign announcing their new and improved website… and once it was here, what a nightmare that was. In 2015 and 2016 it has been a massive push for people to come and discover their lineage through DNA testing and matching. I’m here to tell you, that whatever it is they’re promising, they surely won’t deliver. In my humble opinion. As for me, this is a really bad co-dependent relationship. It's time for me to say goodbye. And heal. And recover. And move onto to something new. (smile) Blessings, y'all!

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    Reviewed Sept. 13, 2016

    Internet & App companies with slimy hidden subscriptions are no different than pickpockets on the street. Is this what they are teaching in business school these days? Steal from your customers until they audit their CC statements? What kind of business model is this? Buyer beware: Ancestry.com is SHADY! Like so many others, they are sneaky ** using the terms & conditions to hide the facts. They are keenly aware that nobody reads T&C. If you run your business this way, it's a house of cards. I'm happy to add some wind. Clear and honest marketing makes for happy customers. They are internationally deceptive. Shame on Ancestry.com. If they sell you a month, you are buying a subscription! They won't easily make it right for you. Dirty!

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    Reviewed Sept. 13, 2016

    Closed this account over 8 months ago. Randomly I began to see charges and I did not reopen this account. I called and they would only refund 1 out of the three charges... I have been trying to get in charge with the fraud felt and no one will get back to me. I believe this company is doing some sketchy things and certainly will not help you. Maybe a scam website. All should check their bills...

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    Reviewed Aug. 31, 2016

    I got my dna and that was fine... but the problem is that the people I was matched up to people in Puerto. And got very upset when I sent them my information. Out of 300 the percent is Spanish... I'm Italian. I sent over 300 emails to everyone on my dna list. No response. All I got from ancestry customer service is that people may be on vacation. Really they were on that day... I'm very disappointed. I can't believe this happen.

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    Verified purchase

    Reviewed Aug. 25, 2016

    Ancestry advertises itself as being at the forefront of DNA testing - the type of service that provides detailed, itemized information about your heritage. That's not at all what I received. It was purchased in order to learn the specific genetic makeup, which we knew previously to be primarily western European including a large amount of Irish/English/or Scottish heritage. The results of the DNA kit were not specific to any helpful level. Western Europe as a category is very overly broad and vague and no informative. British is also overly broad and does not distinguish between Irish, Scottish, English, etc. Since the majority of the results were grouped into Western European and British, it tells us very little about our heritage. We knew that there predominantly western European and some Scots-Irish, but this does nothing to provide further specifics. I am asking for a full refund.

    I am also disappointed with the lack of communication. My emails have gone completely unanswered by the company. I filed a support case (#**) through the Ancestry website on August 16. No one responded to it -- but three days later, I received an email saying that the support case had been closed. There was no explanation or response. This is misleading advertising and poor customer service, which is even worse. Note: I filed a BBB complaint and received the same canned response. I called and wasn't allowed to speak to a supervisor, but was told the same drivel about the test being cutting edge and too bad that it doesn't specify closer than half of Europe.

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    Reviewed Aug. 18, 2016

    After waiting five months I finally noticed that they had sent my results via an email to my old account at Ancestry. I could have done better by drawing circles on a map of Europe myself. My business partner still hasn't gotten his results. I wrote a letter of complaint and the response I received was from an executive who used only his first name. There was no apology or attempt to set matters right. Instead, he boasted of Ancestry being the most accurate company in the business. His response was totally unsatisfactory. His style was totally unprofessional and I cannot believe he works in the Executive Office. I wish I could attach a receipt but all I got was being billed on my credit card.

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    Reviewed Aug. 18, 2016

    Once they sign you up, they think they've got you -- just like every other corporate giant. The thing is, you invest so much time creating your tree, that it's hard to walk away. However, I have been a paid subscriber off and on for years and have found other websites with just as much, if not more, info and not nearly the technical glitches that bog you down on Ancestry.com. I received absolutely no support for tech dept. And very cold unaccommodating "assistance" from customer service. A big fat waste of money and time. They spend more on advertising than they do on staff to assist you. Bug off Ancestry.

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    Reviewed Aug. 14, 2016

    My family tree has been traced back to 1557 England with Queen Elizabeth the first. It took my aunt several years to compile this information and completed it. What Ancestry.com has for my family line is all wrong. There are people there that have nothing to do with my family heritage whatsoever! My advice is, do it the hard way and end up with the correct information and forget the "easy" way. It is a waste of time.

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    Reviewed Aug. 11, 2016

    They will tell you it takes 6-8 weeks to get you your DNA testing results but after 5 weeks of having received the sample, now they've email me that "Lab Processing" has just started and I need to wait 6-8 weeks or MORE to see the results.

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    Reviewed July 18, 2016

    Ancestry information bogus - When comparing ancestral information offered by Ancestry.com with actual historical personages alleged to be part of my family's history, with even cursory (Wikipedia) research, the material offered by Ancestry does not reflect actual history and personages. Bunk! Beware!

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    Verified purchase

    Reviewed July 12, 2016

    I ordered my DNA kit in April. They said 6 to 8 week you get your results. I received it in May and received Email confirmation May 28th that it was activated. I then received email June 7 that "we’ve received your DNA". And it would be 6 to 8 weeks to get my results. Then on June 28th another email "Your DNA is now in lab processing. And it will be 6 to 8 weeks to get results." Then another email on July 11 "Action required - we need a new DNA sample. Unfortunately, after multiple attempts, we were unable to use the sample you sent to AncestryDNA. This can be resolved by submitting a new one. Just click the button below, and we'll send you a free replacement test."

    Well why would they not just mail out a new kit. They waited so long. The sample was no good. That’s 3 mo. So I call, they said I have to start all over 10 days to send me a new kit. I get stuff faster from China. Faster than that. You're only in Utah. Come on. I ask "when you get my sample back does it go straight to lab." NO. It's going to sit there for 20 to 30 days then to lab and then the real 6 to 8 weeks start. REALLY. JUST FORGET IT. THAT’S NOT RIGHT. So I ask for my Money Back. No they will not refund me after 30 Days. BAD business. Don’t do it.

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    Reviewed June 29, 2016

    I signed up for the 14 day free trial on May 21, 2016 and cancelled on May 25, 2016 online and of course they show no record of this and charged my account $19.99, which in turn overdrew my account. I tried to reach them online and could not, go figure. So, I call and the lady said sorry she can't help me - I just lose my 19.99 and my overdraft charge. Oh but she did cancel for future charges. Can I trust her? Doubtful! RUN before they screw you over.

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    Reviewed June 21, 2016

    Do not under any circumstances fork over the massive fee Ancestry demands for their "pro" genealogists. They call it a "retainer." Forget that. They will spend it all without keeping you informed at all about what they are doing. I contacted them with three simple goals, asking that they keep me updated as our family money was spent. I primarily wanted to find out if they could locate any records for my Dad's family in Ireland pre-immigration. If they hit a wall there they were to focus on the other two goals, which was simply tracking some more recent, living relatives whereabouts. I got ONE email saying they had spent a few hundred dollars merely looking at census records that I had already examined. Then they wasted hours looking for Irish county of origin info which I knew and had already given them!

    The next email I got, they said they were done - $2300 spent and all I got was two pages regurgitating census record info. NONE of my goals met. They took months to even begin their work, then in about two weeks they managed to spend every cent of our "retainer" without even talking with us. I have emailed and called asking for a refund and have yet to receive ANY response from Ancestry at all. Big money for amateur research and horrible customer service.

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    Reviewed June 13, 2016

    I am religious about unsubscribing from spam I don't want - especially when I get spam from a website where I purchased something, but didn't create an account or join. Ancestry.com will MAKE you call them to completely unsubscribe. You can "unsubscribe" from their lists online, but if you read the fine print on their website it will tell you that you have to call them to REALLY unsubscribe. This is fraudulent in my opinion and disingenuous at the very least. Beware of dealing with Ancestry.com. I filed a complaint with the FCC against them.

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    Reviewed June 10, 2016

    They charged my card in early April. I did not receive my package and realized I had given them my former address. I called them in May and corrected the error. I was told it would be shipped immediately. It is now the middle of June - no kit for DNA testing. I called and explained that I was no longer interested since I never received my kit back. A woman who I could barely understand told me it was too late... at least I think it was what she said.

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    Reviewed June 1, 2016

    I wanted to cancel my membership because I didn't use it. I tried to call and stayed on the phone for over 30 minutes with no answer. It says in the phone you can cancel online but when I tried to click on the cancel subscription link nothing happens. I have tried many times with no luck. I guess I will have to contact my credit card and tell them to stop paying. THINK LONG AND HARD BEFORE SIGNING UP!

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    Verified purchase

    Reviewed May 27, 2016

    I ordered a DNA kit on 2/27/2016 and was immediately solicited to get a $10.00 gift card for myself and a $10.00 discount for anyone I referred who also purchased a DNA kit. I made a referral that same day and the referred individual purchased a DNA kit with the $10 discount received. I have not to this date 5/27/2016 received my $10.00 gift card for making that referral.

    I have spoken with Customer Service via phone and email on April 4, 2016 wanting to know where my $10 gift card was and was told, after doing whatever research they did while I was on hold, that the gift card wasn't sent and they would resend one but I would have to wait another 30-45 days. I have waited that amount of time and again on the phone today with two supervisors, I'm told that something didn't get 'triggered' and they would request that the $10.00 gift card be issued but I would have to wait another 30-45 days. They offered to add an additional 3 mos of free research time on Ancestry.com but before they could do that they needed me to give them a credit card number... REALLY? Do not do business with this company. I have absolutely no faith in the DNA report I and my referral have received. I believe this company is one huge SCAM.

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    Reviewed May 25, 2016

    If you decide to join after your free trial it is almost impossible to cancel your account afterward. I cancelled my account two months ago but they continued to remove money from my account. I went through the cancellation process again today and I'm also disputing the $40.00 they've removed from my bank account. I've also asked that no more payments be authorized to this group. If you try to call them they will not answer the phone. You will get a message that they are experiencing extremely long wait times and after 45 minutes, I hung up. I did my cancellations online even though I wanted to speak to a customer support person. I didn't find anything new on their site that I hadn't already found on free sites that are available. I've known a couple of people that did the DNA testing and they all received exactly the same results even though they are not related to each other.

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    Reviewed May 25, 2016

    Got my DNA test back - it showed a half-sister that my mother admitted to but shoulder is a first cousin. No information on an unknown father or his family fictitious 5th generation people overseas. They wanted me to fill out a family tree this way they could use names to do their history on the family tree. Do they collaborate with other DNA companies? I think not. What they have showed me is fraud misleading misrepresentation and should be closed down. Bottom line - they're stealing. They will eventually get caught and it won't be soon enough for me.

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    Reviewed May 16, 2016

    Wanted to start a 14-day trial but the confirmation never went through. I called support today and thankfully she said that I don't have any hidden subscriptions. Tried asking her if there was a way to delete my card information or my "registered guest" account altogether but apparently they can't do that. Ridiculous, if we don't want our card information on there or an account at all, why make us keep it? Kept telling me that she couldn't take off my info since they can't "see anything" which prevents them from deleting it. Considering the fact that I'll never use it means that I'll have to get a new card just for reassurance purposes.

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    Reviewed May 14, 2016

    Like many others, I tried the free trial but found I did not discover anything new, so I didn't buy the membership. Later I got an offer via email for a 6-month subscription for what I thought was a reasonable price and I decided to take it. I thought, after all maybe I didn't spend enough time the first time since the trial was so short.

    During my 6 month period, I tried, I really tried, but no matter what I did or where I searched I never found one piece of info about my family. On several different occasions I filled out some details on my family tree, thinking that might stimulate some action and the next thing I knew, I get an email saying I had a new leaf.

    Oh, how exciting. There's actually new information, so I quickly log on and what do I find? That leaf has information that I myself had just entered!!

    Disappointment like that happened over and over again during the six months, so at the end of it, I didn't renew. And what happened? You guessed it. Ancestry just renews it anyway and charges my credit card. Luckily I happened to find a good customer service rep who immediately refunded my money. And this last thing is the most fortuitous thing that ever happened to me on Ancestry. For me, it has been a useful exercise in wasting time. Don't bother!

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    Reviewed May 9, 2016

    The information is incorrect on Ancestry.com and I can find the same information for free online.

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    K increased rating by 4 stars.
    After a positive interaction with Ancestry, K increased their star rating on May 12, 2016.

    Updated review: May 12, 2016

    I am very happy to report that Ancestry.com has fixed my non-functioning account. It now works. This good news is because I faxed the corporate offices of Ancestry.com using free FaxZero online, with my email account. Ancestry responded by repairing the account, which was for a 14-day free trial. They have now given me a free MONTH in compensation! I can use it until 10th June 2016. If anyone else has a problem with their Ancestry.com account, I strongly recommend you fax them online to the corporate head office. I got great results. My rating for them now boosts up from 1 star to 5 stars.

    Original Review: May 5, 2016

    On 27 April 2016, I signed up for the 14-day free trial. The account has never worked. At all. I mean that it is dead in every way. First of all, Ancestry.com somehow blocked my own browser from saving my login & pass when I signed up. The password reset inside Ancestry.com doesn't work. Tried a half-dozen times over a period of days, it always goes to a dead white "About" page. The searches inside my Ancestry.com account never COMPLETE. I mean to say, there is NEVER ANY CONCLUSION. Not even to say "no" results. Any and every search eventually produces a BLANK browser page that says "RESET". It's a blank, not even an Ancestry page, declaring that the search has been "reset" at the other end.

    Also, I cannot even LOG OUT. I cannot remove my CREDIT CARD, which will obviously automatically be billed FOR NOTHING, since the account prevents me from DELETING the account or from removing my credit card. There is also NO customer service or HELP anywhere inside the account. In essence, there is NO FREE TRIAL. Either this situation is a malfunction on the part of Ancestry.com, or it's a deliberate ploy to capture peoples' credit cards. In any event, it will now COST ME REAL MONEY to cancel my credit card and have it replaced with a new number, so the card trapped inside Ancestry.com isn't billed!

    I absolutely and utterly do not recommend it. There is no "order number" or receipt. All I got for the (non-functioning) 14-day free trial is incoming emails from Ancestry, including emails assuring me I can reset my password. No I can't, already tried it. Goes to a blank white page. The whole account is DEAD inside, and I can't delete it, cancel it or log out. My credit number is therefore trapped inside, and I'll bet that they will succeed in taking money off it if I don't put a stop to it before they do it.

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    Reviewed May 5, 2016

    This website always looked kind of interesting to me so I gave it a try. Through a horrible mobile experience, I was prompted to upgrade my plan -- unbeknownst to me. I thought I was registering for the advertised free 14-day trial. I was immediately charged $34.99 for a service that offered nothing besides what is already public information/records.

    What's worse -- I stayed on hold for 30 minutes to discuss this with a customer service rep. She was super unhelpful and rude, and refused to refund the charge, claiming she had evidence that I used their services. I barely used any services. Only accidentally stumbled across the upgrade pages via their confusing enrollment. I cancelled the account less than a day after enrolling. I'm not just some disgruntled user who made a mistake. I'm actually a graphic designer who specializes in mobile/responsive experiences. Ancestry utilizes false advertising and their mobile experience is scammy.

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    Profile pic of the author.

    Reviewed April 1, 2016

    I have a paid subscription to Ancestry.com. In fact, I have paid for two 6 month subscriptions now. Actually I was not aware I was paying for these subscriptions as an old mail email address was used to notify me...my mistake. However, I have tried to use it very infrequently...perhaps three or four times in eight months because when I go to the site my name is at the top but when I click on a note or a link, I am asked to subscribe! Therefore each time I assumed I was not a member. By the way, never was I given an option to log in...just an option to log off. If I am logged in and my name is at the top and there are many leafs awaiting me, then why am I not a member! Why am I given the option to pay and become a member!!!!

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    Customer Service

    Reviewed March 31, 2016

    Very dissatisfied with trial subscription. The "free trial" was a farce it kept wanted me to upgrade. I was charged for my free trial!! Even after a bad experience with customer support Bill suggested I like them on Facebook. Still looking for that dislike button on FB.

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    Verified purchase

    Reviewed March 20, 2016

    The new version of the Ancestry.com Tree application is such a disaster. I make my living with Genealogy and have used Ancestry to build trees for clients. The new version has so many problems it becomes cumbersome to use. The FIND button disappeared from the tree view. You now have to go into someone's profile view to find the Find button so you can search for someone in your tree (stupid). It is also so slow now, I can't take it. The History view is the default. How useless this view is. But the Number One problem is it fails. When using it, many times clicking on a menu item to open it or an icon to open it fails. You have to then exit Ancestry.com and reenter it to start working again. This program gets a big fat "F" from me. Wake up Ancestry.com.

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    Reviewed March 6, 2016

    I went on this website and gave them my credit card as required. I then started to use the service and found that there was very little information that I could find. Two days later I cancelled the service. I just got my Visa bill and there was a charge for $149. I tried to call to find out what happened but of course the cancellation button, no one answers. I then called again and went in through another button and of course they answered right away. They disputed that I had cancelled my policy and said that I was supposed to get an email. I said, "how was I supposed to know that?" All I know is that I did cancel through their site. Bottom line, they refunded all but about $25. Nice quick way to make $25. A total scam.

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    Reviewed March 5, 2016

    I've subscribed to Ancestry.com for years and have spent a lot of money, including paying for dna testing. Over the last six months their website interaction is very, very poor. It is now a waste of money to subscribe because the site is down more than up. I've repeatedly emailed Ancestry.com about the problem and the service has gotten worse and not better. Go to another genealogy site and stop wasting money. I am after all these years.

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    Reviewed March 2, 2016

    Many years ago I had a subscription to Mundia.com and remember enjoying it. Mundia was either overtaken or absorbed, and at that time I didn't have much time to devote to researching family history, so I didn't think much of it. Another family member also had a basic Ancestry.com account, too. No problems were encountered, so I had a very high opinion of the company and its services, which made me eager to sign up for the 14-day "free" trial subscription. I didn't sign up after the trial period because of such utter disappointment in what they have to offer and in how they market their services. Here are some of the issues:

    The search engine does not work effectively if you have exact details. You can put in precise names, dates, etc. and receive a message that says "no good matches." But if you broaden the search, and you have the patience to wade through pages and pages of results - there are often results there! That's not the way most academic search engines operate. But, if you bear in mind that the 'service' is subscription-based, from a profit-generating perspective, it makes sense to have poor search engine. The longer it takes to find the information, the longer it could be that someone would remain a subscriber. (Sort of like 'bait and trap.')

    You have to scroll down past ads for DNA testing to even access the search engine. They even did a sales pitch for DNA testing at the time I called to cancel the subscription! DNA testing must generate LOTS of profit because they are pushing it so hard. Family trees on the site need to come labeled with a toy industry warning: "FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!" Because trees can be assembled with "one click" here or there, folks who have zero research skills can construct them, and with information drawn from other trees. Errors are compounded and perpetuated this way.

    Many items are inaccessible on the site and require an "upgrade" to access. Banner ads for the company show images of old photos and a birth certificate to promote the free trial. However, many (if not most) images are not accessible with the free trial. Text blurbs are available for some documents, but access to actual images must be PURCHASED. Some documents must be purchased via a link to a third party and third party charges seem rather exorbitant, and the advertised speed of delivery is poor for the price charged.

    The only reason I gave the company 2 stars rather than 1 (or zero were that possible) is out of loyalty for how good it used to be, and for the fact that the customer service rep responded in a cordial, courteous manner. If you've got lots and lots of money and time to waste, and you don't give a whit about the relevance or accuracy of the information you gather and how those pieces fit into yours or others' family tree(s)... If your only intent is to 'play' online, then maybe you would enjoy the experience.

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    Reviewed Feb. 26, 2016

    I get this statement numerous times in a day limiting my ability to use the site-- "Our hint system is temporarily offline. During this time, hint notifications may not appear and existing hints may be inaccessible. We thank you for your patience while we work to resolve this issue." I use Ancestry in the past 8 years and not experienced this message.

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    Reviewed Feb. 25, 2016

    Signed up for a 14-day free trial, which turned out be only be a "free" 13-day trial. They charged me several hours earlier than the midnight due date. Sent in a support ticket, which they replied to after two days, and was basically told "Well it was midnight in Utah." That would be fair... if I had signed up in Utah! I also noticed they do not send you any notices at all of an impending trial expiration. And yes, my email was verified! I can see how easy this would make it for them to take advantage of people.

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    Reviewed Feb. 13, 2016

    I joined using a membership offer. The website is chaotic and difficult to use. After spending some time trying to trace family members realized that it is not a tool that works. They then take your next year's sub without warning you. You will not get a refund. My advice is DO NOT subscribe until you have investigated Ancestry.com or. co.uk on similar sites to this.

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    Reviewed Feb. 3, 2016

    New Ancestry.com is highly deficient. I was 100% satisfied with the former site. Not at all satisfied with the new site.

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    Reviewed Jan. 27, 2016

    I first joined Ancestry.com in 1995/97 when they first went online. Not much there. Rejoined in 2005, wonderful experience up to 2015. They have invested huge amounts of money to gather enormous amounts of data which they now cannot handle. I believe what's happened is that management made some very poor decisions - bad business practices plus trying to save money by streamlining their complicated software and not investing in adequate servers to handle the traffic volume - which has now resulted in a system which does not work. Bottom line I have not been able to get Ancestry.com to work since early Dec 2015. This is a huge tragedy.

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    Reviewed Jan. 26, 2016

    Stay away- free trial not free- cancelled same day as I tried service- all info I found was not accurate- they charged my account $48. They would not reverse charges or send a confirmation email it was closed. Do not give them any Credit card info. SCAM SCAM SCAM.

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    Reviewed Jan. 17, 2016

    The green leaves as hints are not accurate, especially with Scandinavian names. The international membership is worthless. You are paying for what you enter. Ancestry takes your information and then charges you for adding to their data bases. It cannot handle foreign names accurately, without causing major errors in your tree. It is way too expensive compared to other sites, which also seem to be connected to Ancestry. You cannot print your tree without buying their Family Tree Maker which is going out of business and is an additional expense that will not work on latest Window versions. Scam.

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    Reviewed Jan. 6, 2016

    I tried a free trial but had no success. My family, including 3 children, emigrated from the UK in 1947 and Ancestry.ca could not find either my brother or sister. Without this most basic information, it was impossible to continue with any other family names, yet their advertising would have you believe that by entering any family name, you can create a complete family tree.

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    Reviewed Jan. 5, 2016

    I ordered on 12/8 two DNA kits for Christmas presents. I never received. I was tracking the package that went from UPS to the the post office. I emailed Ancestry and said that if you can't get them to me before Christmas then please refund me. I then received notification that they were being returned to sender. I called again, bawling, and they expedited another shipment [supposedly]. I received an email that the items were shipped but to the wrong address. I called AGAIN, and they told me that two more were shipped on 12/29. When I called back yesterday, January 4th, they could not locate the tracking number and refused to give me a full credit. I've disputed with my credit card company and my attorney is going to send them a demand letter. They ruined my Christmas. I had no gift for my mother or my husband.

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    Reviewed Dec. 22, 2015

    Put my Debit Card in for a free trial trusting Ancestry (stupid me). Only to find the information on a free trial is so space and limited it wasn't worth my time. Cancelled the free trial within an hour or so of being dissatisfied. Only to find that today I was charged a membership fee and they over drafted my account!! I immediately called customer service hoping they would be understanding and helpful with the charge seeing that I cancelled nearly a month ago.. but nope!

    I spoke with (Lee?) Very dry and rude person. Was not an ounce understanding of my situation. Offered to cancel my account for me but no refund because I did not have my previous cancellation #. (I found the page in my Internet history but when I tried to pull it up it would not load because it was a secure page!!) I am now ordering a new card so I can not get anymore off the wall charges from this shady company. STAY FAR FAR AWAY unless you enjoy being rudely talked down to and disrespected by their customer service!!

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    Reviewed Dec. 10, 2015

    I signed up for a 6 month "All Access" subscription. I did not renew because of the limited information. My subscription ended in September 2015. I just happened to come across the ancestry.mx website. This website had more information that I was looking for. When I called the "customer support" & explained to them the subscription I had & why I did not see all the information as promised, I was told I needed a World Account. I said I had the "All Access" (without realizing it included the World Account). My husband called back & got a person on the phone who confirmed that if I wanted access to the information in Mexico I need to sign up with the ancestry.mx account. Really?

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    Reviewed Dec. 3, 2015

    I am very disappointed in Ancestry.com's deceptive business practices. This is not the way to build customer trust and confidence. This evening I purchased three DNA kits for Christmas presents. On the ordering screen, there was NOTHING mentioned about any kind of "restocking fee". Ancestry has chosen instead to HIDE this nasty tidbit in a little box that you have to click on and read through with pages of fine print. They know people don't have time to read all that legal corporate-speak mumbo jumbo! If they are going to charge a "restocking" fee of $25 per kit, that should be mentioned right UPFRONT ON THE ORDERING PAGE. Yes, I know, read the fine print, however one should not have to waste an inordinate amount of valuable time hunting through tiny fine print to find any hidden tricks or deceptions. Who has time for that?

    Well, it turns out my mother ordered a kit as well, so I called (in less than 2 hours after ordering, mind you) to change the order from 3 to 2 kits. Imagine the shock to hear of a $25 restocking fee. I JUST ordered... it's not like it was shipped, opened, the box ruined, and then mailed back! How can they restock something that hasn't been taken out of stock yet to even need restocking? Hiding that fee in the fine print is a DECEPTIVE MARKETING PRACTICE. I have used Ancestry on and off for over 15 years and I am very disappointed that they would take advantage of consumers like this. I was so disappointed that I told the customer service rep that now I just wanted to cancel the entire order as I now have a very sour taste left in my mouth. Oh, but wait, now that will be $25 times three, so now it's $75 to restock something that has not even been taken out of stock, it was just ordered!

    I find the CORPORATE GREED of this very disgusting and consumer unfriendly. Ancestry.com ought to be ashamed of abusing customers in this manner. I imagine there is some fancy executive up in a fancy office counting their million dollar bonus for thinking up of this nasty trick. I would like my order that is only a couple hours old, cancelled with a full refund please. I need that money for other Christmas presents. This was supposed to be a fun Christmas project with my family. Perhaps we shall switch to another company, such as 23andMe. Ancestry is not the only fish in the pond. Thank you.

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    Reviewed Nov. 27, 2015

    POST CANCELLATION of my subscription: I looked all over the site for a means of deleting my card and found none. So I called and was told they couldn't delete it either but "don't worry, it's secure" LOL. "Sure it is" I said and I came here to let others know since being forewarned is forearmed.

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    Reviewed Nov. 12, 2015

    Ancestry.com continued to charge my credit card $99 every 6 months after I cancelled service in 2013. I called them, and they confirmed that I did in fact cancel but they have my email linked with another account, and they have been charging me for that account. Why would one person have 2 different accounts for the same service, and why wouldn't they alert me to that while I was on the phone with them in 2013?

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    Reviewed Nov. 3, 2015

    Over the last few years Ancestry has made many changes to their software and website. It is time consuming. Once you find hints they are very hard to utilize IF at all. I tried to cancel my recent subscription but could not. I received a letter saying my credit card was rejected for pay. My new subscription had cleared the bank and they were trying to renew an old subscription on an old account. Beware of Ancestry practices.

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    Reviewed Oct. 30, 2015

    I was suppose to have received a DNA kit 2 days ago. Called UPS, they said to call sender. Called Ancestry, spoke to a silly girl that giggled a lot & could not give an answer. Website not user friendly, impossible to email customer service.

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    Reviewed Oct. 29, 2015

    Beware that Ancestry.com does not make it easy to cancel membership. I did not respond to a email message informing me when my six month membership was due for renewal. I was very disappointed in this service since my family history on this site came nowhere near the information as advertised on the TV commercials. I did not renew thinking my membership expired. One month later, my credit card was charged an automatic renewal fee of $99. The instructions to cancel membership online doesn't work and although I received an email that my account status is currently cancelled, it still is in active status today! Many other members expressed the same concerns yet Ancestry refuses to adjust their policy on refunds. Please don't use this website! To get useful information, members are required to pay more than the basic $99 fee. I will tell everyone I know not to use this service.

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    Reviewed Oct. 29, 2015

    Folks didn't even have birth certification unless royal & it seems EVERYONE on this is related to royalty "Yeah right." I'm glad I got a trial as these people can't find people even with birth certificate. I apparently have no siblings which is incorrect. The worst is EVERYONE must make their own tree from their own investigation gathered by themselves. That is NOT a service.

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    Reviewed Oct. 28, 2015

    This website was not user friendly. I joined to get more information about my father who passed in 98 because I need his death information for school and I was not able to get the information I need timely enough. I cancelled my subscription and they still billed me and made my account overdrawn!

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    Reviewed Oct. 21, 2015

    Help with problems with website was essentially unavailable. It took well over a week to get a question answered. For thirty dollars a month, this is unacceptable. Cancelling my service was extremely difficult. There was not actually a link to cancel my service online despite the fact that the instructions stated that there should be a link under subscription options. It took a 15-minute phone call to get my account cancelled. They asked if I wanted to purchase another product! No. No. And No.

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    Reviewed Oct. 15, 2015

    I recently discovered that Ancestry.com has been withdrawing $30 from my checking account for over 5 years now without my knowledge. I signed up for a trial account back in 2010 and apparently it wasn't a trial. I noticed this charge because I just started banking online. So I went back through the history and noticed they've been taking this money since 2010. Unfortunately I don't have the time to reconcile my statement every month so that's why I never discovered it until now. That's over $2000 they've taken. Who in their right mind would spend that much money on genealogy! I contacted them and the person was only able to authorize one payment refund. He gave me an email address and I'm still waiting for a response!

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    Reviewed Oct. 8, 2015

    I started a 14 day free trial with Ancestry.com a few months ago. I will admit that I did forget to cancel it, and I was charged $44.99 for the overpriced monthly membership. But I was just going back through my bank account transactions today, and noticed that there were actually 2 charges of $44.99 on my account. One of them was labeled as Ancestry.com, and the other was labeled as PayPal since that's what I used to pay for it.

    The best thing I could find on their website about this was something posted in 2002 saying that 2 charges should show up on my account initially, because one of them is just a confirmation, and that one of them should disappear after 7 days. Well it's been 4 months, and it's still there. And both of them took actual money out of my account. None of it was refunded. So basically I paid $90 for a service I barely used for a few hours, unless I can find a way to get them to refund at least one of those payments. But based on the reviews I've read on this website, that seems unlikely.

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    Reviewed Oct. 4, 2015

    Beware! I would not say that I'm angry but I have been taken advantage of. Who reads terms and conditions? Come on, really? Sign up for a 30-day subscription but must be cancelled in the first 14 days or no money back. I have always been very leery of these scams because they're so successful at deception. Sign up but be sure to read and understand the extraordinary terms and conditions or you will be stuck in a never ending scheme of charges. I don't need to be wordy as there are plenty of reviews to show this. Not to mention the results I could have gotten on my own through Google. Thanks anyway Ancestry. I had better results simply by calling the city offices in search of a helpful person. You heard me! The city offices.

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    Reviewed Sept. 29, 2015

    Went online to check something. Had to sign up for their "free" trial. The site could not find anything so I cancelled within 15 mins. I received email from them acknowledging confirmation that I had cancelled. They subsequently took a payment and denied that I had cancelled. I sent them a copy, but they argue that they did not take any money. They treat you like an inconsequential idiot, repeatedly sending the same reply. They cannot trace my payment. If someone pays me, I can track. Presumably they are only able to take the money.

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    Reviewed Sept. 21, 2015

    Do NOT join this website. It is mediocre at best.... but the trouble starts when you try to cancel with them. They give cancellation instructions that show a link showing up on the site that says "Click to cancel", however when you follow their instructions... "there are no links that say anything like this". It keeps giving you the runaround and sending you back to step one with no way to cancel and confirm (as they say). They have billed me for 3 additional months here and upon calling their toll free number (3 months ago) they said they would take care of it... They keep billing and billing and billing. I've talked to them 3 times and don't know what to do. My credit card company was a debit card so they said my only recourse is to cancel the card and start with a new card number (what a pain) and (what a SCAM). Do NOT join this ripoff site. Save yourself some grief!

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    Reviewed Aug. 23, 2015

    You've seen the complaints before but I wanted to join the chorus. In this day and age, the company neither sends you notification of auto renewal nor does it offer you any refund if you opt out of their 6 month plan with 5 1/2 months to go. Fundamentally this is a company that makes its money off of people who no longer want their service. I hope nobody ever signs up with these people.

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    Reviewed Aug. 23, 2015

    Unless one can switch back to old Ancestry.com, I would not recommend purchasing a subscription. To "New Ancestry" almost every single new function is vexing. I had been highly satisfied with Ancestry prior to this update. It's a very radical update.

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    Reviewed Aug. 16, 2015

    I forgot that I had subscribed to a monthly trial subscription on Ancestry.com, until I received a notice from my bank that a payment had been made to Ancestry.com two days prior, for a 6 month subscription. I canceled the subscription both online and via telephone, where I was informed that Ancestry.com does not refund any of the amount paid. It's unfortunate that when canceling a subscription (particularly so early in the subscription period), Ancestry.com forces the customer to maintain the subscription until the next renewal. They claim that when canceling the subscription that there will not be an automatic renewal fee. Therefore, Ancestry.com is not responsible for refunding any amount on monies to the subscriber.

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    Reviewed Aug. 15, 2015

    Within one hour of upgrade to World membership I tried to cancel. They told me that if I cancelled I could not get my original price I paid for my US Membership. The customer service rep tried over and over again to sell me the exact membership for $50 more than what I had originally paid two days prior. It took threats of a BBB complaint and over 45 minutes to get to a supervisor. I was first cut off from the first rep. Then they asked for my credit card information over the phone. Like I would give that to someone who is already proven to be fraudulent. Ancestry is there to scam you in every way they can.

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    Reviewed Aug. 13, 2015

    Don't ever buy their software. Whenever you'll need to reinstall it on the same machine that you've just upgraded, or if you are one of those people who format their hard drive once a year or so, they will lock your serial number - meaning that you can never use it again even though you're following their licensing terms by using their software on only one computer. Their customer support team is useless, and all they do is send you useless emails with patches, which you can't use because you can't even install the program. Then they'll direct you to Nova, who is the seller of the software. Nova, apart from being extremely rude, will tell you that you're not allowed to reinstall the software after 30 days, and that you'll have to buy a newer version. Clearly these guys are scam artists. I expect this post to be deleted by Ancestry.com, but rest assured, it will be posted everywhere else for everyone to see.

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    Reviewed Aug. 11, 2015

    This company has completely taken over any & all public records. I cannot do any research on genealogy without it coming to ancestry.com. They hide their name through various fake names such as "geneology.com" & etc. I joined for a month's trial & couldn't find anything about my ancestors at all through ancestry.com. I know the data is out there. My Aunt did her own personal research through interviews, visiting churches to get birth, baptism & death data -- she did this in the 1970s without computers. But I want to get more info on my father's side of the family & am blocked by ancestry.com's monopoly. They are very expensive & should be stopped from "owning" all this personal information!!

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    Reviewed Aug. 9, 2015

    Just wanted to do a quick review on any document with the charge of 5.95 but when I clicked on the document they wouldn't let me see it until I paid 29.95 for 12 months which has to be paid in full. I don't even know if there is any info. Yes it says you can cancel at any time but how much will that cost? Feel like I am being taken advantage of.

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    Reviewed Aug. 8, 2015

    Ancestry.com is a monopoly. I was trying to find out where my friend was buried, but every site I visited had links to this monopoly, which wants to charge me money that I don't have. Too bad the internet is slowly becoming like this big conglomerate of Monsanto GMO corn fed cattle.

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    Reviewed Aug. 6, 2015

    This company needs investigating as I have discovered they have been deducting £83 from my account for quite some time without my knowledge. As I didn't subscribe to that service I didn't check online. I agreed to the trial offer but NOT the annual subscription. This was not made clear and I never received an email to confirm that as I would never have signed up to it! It's a misleading sales trick so buyer beware! I had no success with it either even though I had the correct birth, deaths and marriages information.

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    Reviewed Aug. 6, 2015

    I was charged $49.95 as an 'introductory price' when I had only used the site to set up my details. They were all too happy to charge me an amount for a product that wasn't being used. Disgusting.

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    Reviewed July 26, 2015

    Checked my credit card while on vacation and found recent charge for $149 from Ancestry.com. January 2014 paid $99 for 6 month membership. I knew I would not work on this during the summer. Last time had any contact with Ancestry.com was June 2014. Looking back I found additional $149 charge from December 2014. Contacted Ancestry.com and was told the membership renews automatically. I was livid and cancelled and asked for a refund. The rep verified that the last use of site was June 2014. After talking with a supervisor was given refund for July 2015 but refused to refund December 2014 charge. Told supervisor that I will take this as far as necessary to get full refund. I am a senior citizen and this is a lot of money spent for nothing. I will do my best to let everyone I know about the unethical billing practices of Ancestry.com.

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    Reviewed July 26, 2015

    Front and centre on the Ancestry site, you can sign up for the 14-day free trial subscription, which took me all of 30 seconds and included the requisite charge card information. However, within 20 minutes, I decided I wanted to cancel. It took me a half hour of meandering around the site TRYING to find where to cancel. I sent them an email asking them to cancel my 14-day free trial subscription and to confirm via email. I have received so many, automated form emails from them in my response to each of theirs. It is the same patronizing message basically giving me the run-around but NOT confirming cancellation. It is only 24 hours now of 'annoyance' but from what I have read, this is going to go on and on and they have my Visa card number! Ask Aunt Millie for the family tree. Keep far away from these scammers!

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    Reviewed July 23, 2015

    Difficult to use, not specific at sign up that you have to cancel for the subscription not to run. They have now stolen 42 from me, as I haven't used their service and they won't refund me. When I spoke to a representative on the phone, she was extremely unhelpful and basically said tough. Rubbish website and rubbish service, they must be hard up for funds, that they can't refund money when they can clearly see I haven't been using the website.

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    Reviewed July 19, 2015

    When I first bought an account on Ancestry.com I enjoyed many hours researching my family and getting further into the past than ever before. After a hiatus of use the website was "improved" to the point I could no longer scroll easily, alter information, access my tree, or even log in. Following the suggestions to resolve these issues had no effect. I finally decided to use Internet Explorer to access the site instead of Google Chrome [although Google Chrome is a browser accepted by Ancestry.com] and was able to log in and reach my tree but scrolling and data entry is still a mess. I am not a computer expert but neither are most of the users of Ancestry.com. I have come to be very wary of sites where the problem resolution suggestion is "talk to other users about their recommendations" rather than the site addressing issues. I pay Ancestry.com. Not their other users.

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    Reviewed July 9, 2015

    So many things to mention but primarily, what logarithms are being used that actually change locations in the "My Story" section? How does someplace in Michigan become somewhere in Nigeria? Why does an African map suddenly appear when the Western European ancestor stayed within a 50-mile radius of their hometown in the Midwest? Why, oh why do we need to scroll through 42 inches of material where before, the material was available in a context that didn't put us to sleep? It sucks time!

    I can only guess, but I hear Ancestry is for sale, that the current ad campaign and marketing push is intended to drive up the sale price with all kinds of new users. The commercials on TV appear to be marketing to millennials who can just click, click, click. Remember your core membership - people who have time to work on the hobby - that isn't millennials. Make the classic version available for those who want it for a couple of years and see if your campaign works with those millennials. If it doesn't, go back forever to Classic.

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    Reviewed July 8, 2015

    I paid my £100+ thinking that I was going to discover new things about my ancient ancestors but am really disappointed. I have over 3,000 ancestors and living on my GED file and have the life stories of a lot of them. There were links to fourth cousins and above. I have second cousins who have published their family trees on Ancestry. Where were their links? I have thousands of relatives in USA and Germany not listed. Does everybody get the same useless information? Don't bother to waste your money!

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    Reviewed July 8, 2015

    I'm having a problem with the beta version. I've spent hours on the phone with them and even wrote a complaint via e-mail. I've jumped through all their hoops and still can't access my media. All they tell me is to change my web browser. With what I pay every month, I think they should really help since I'm not especially computer literate. I can access everything in the classic version so why can't I do it in the beta version? They can't give me a reason. They just don't back you up. After paying every month for over 2 years, I'm rather annoyed. They sure don't go through these explanations in their advertisements. I asked them to call me and I was told their phones were too busy.

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    Reviewed June 29, 2015

    After a couple months of random records that did not match up, my tree was created the old fashion way, from family input. According to Ancestry.com I had 44 uncles, aunts, and grandfathers that I and my parents did not know. So I cancelled my back in March of 2015. It is now June 29th 2015 and I have had to file a dispute with my credit card company as I am still being billed. You do not receive any emails from them, nor do I have any invoices or receipts other than my credit card statement. If I had not noticed the $35 charge for June I would still be getting billed.

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    Reviewed June 22, 2015

    I applied for DNA kit April 4. On May 15th after I had sent saliva sample they informed me there was a problem with the sample. They sent me another kit. Now today June 22 they said there was a problem with the sample. I called and said either refund my 105.00 or promise to put a rush on new sample results. They said they could not put a rush (normal time from start to finish is 6 weeks), and if I wanted a refund they would keep 50.00 of the 105.00 I paid for their troubles... Terrible customer service!

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    Reviewed June 19, 2015

    Paid my dues for years, even when the price went up and up. Very dismayed at the way Ancestry now works. I looked for years for a certain names in a marriage and never found them. A friend found them on a free site online. They were there always. So Ancestry does not carry county records from some states or they would have surfaced. I have looked since then, even if I am no longer a member in good standing as I did not renew my subscription... Guess I am out all the work I did in the past of making a large family tree.

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    Reviewed June 17, 2015

    2 years ago I paid for A DNA test and several times I had to send more saliva. I requested another test when I moved to GA and never received it. They said they would but a year later still no test Kit.

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    Reviewed June 16, 2015

    I tried the trial and immediately had trouble where everything would hang, computer crash, password did not work, password reset did not work. I called and they suggested using another email. They did not cancel the old one. The software was slow and clumsy and impossible. I cancelled via phone and email and made sure to clarify that I wanted any account with my name cancelled. I called up when I continue to get charges and no one there can find anything or so they say. They put me on hold (great strategy) when I ask to speak to a supervisor saying they are extremely busy (I can imagine why) then are also very rude and interrupt constantly. They refuse to refund the charges and will not send me a cancellation notice via email.

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    Reviewed June 12, 2015

    I did a two week trial with this company and cancelled my subscription before the two weeks was over. I had my browsing history to prove that I had cancelled the subscription. It took me a full 30 minutes on the phone telling people that they and they would still only refund me for one month. It was a nightmare of customer service.

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    Reviewed June 7, 2015

    I have used and contributed data to Ancestry since it was a free startup in the 1990s. As it became sophisticated and had membership fees, I paid willingly for periods when I had the time to work on genealogy. This past winter I bought the DNA Test service and received the test kit promptly and mailed my sample within 24 hours. They promise to email notices of receipt and when results are available. I never got notice of receipt and no notice that my test sample had failed. I found out by accident. They had me request a free replacement kit and the same process happened without any notifications from them. By accident I found out they had initial results for me and looked forward to the real benefits. My Ancestry membership expired June 1st but since I paid for my DNA findings would continue because they had my money in full. The DNA benefits stopped immediately. I am extremely angry and feel I have been ripped off by a longtime friend.

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    Reviewed May 30, 2015

    I signed up for a trial period and cancelled online well within that trial period. Months later I realized the service had been charging my credit card for months. When I called customer service for a refund, they were unable to issue a full refund because they could not see that a cancellation went through on their side. However, they could confirm that I didn't login again after the time that I cancelled the service (ie they admitted I was within the trial period). After a lot of tap dancing they gave me their corporate customer service info which is: customersolutions@ancestory.com. Call center cannot issue anything more than a 1 month refund. If I had known I would be subjected to this I would have never "tried" their service.

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    Reviewed May 15, 2015

    The service for world archives is $34 monthly. My great grandmother was from Spain and I was curious to see where my family came from. Honestly, $34 dollars a month is waaay too much for the resources they provided. I found cousins and family I already knew I had, and people who are alive still, but nothing dating back past my great grandmother.

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    Reviewed May 9, 2015

    In theory, Ancestry used to be fairly decent. It has a couple of negative features such as you cannot undo a change you made and you cannot make changes to multiple records. However, the most frustrating thing is it is so slow that it times out or it completely stops when trying to open a single record. I have dumped my history, cache and cookies, tried various computers, browsers, and operating system and all see to have the same problem. It is frustrating because would really like to use it when I feel like it but the site is not functioning or so painfully slow that I tire of it. I am looking for a better system. Any recommendations?

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    Reviewed May 5, 2015

    I am on the 14 day free trial on ancestry.com. After 6 hours of work on my family going back to 1430, I stopped last night after having done much research and data entry of ancestors I knew little of anything about with much emotion involved. Signing in today, all of my work was nowhere to be found. So, I repeated the previous work today, only to see none of it when I signed back in 2 hours later, AND I am subjected to a new format, which was alien to anything I had seen previously. It is next to impossible to find customer service to help me understand what the heck is going on there along with the heart breaking feeling of losing all of the pictures of my 18th great grandfather and grandmother with pictures of their children, grand children, etc... This blows, yet they got me hooked and I am pissed...

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    Reviewed May 5, 2015

    The way the site works is that you have to pay an upfront annual amount, but the wording on their website indicates you can cancel at a later date and still receive a refund. The site is deceptive as it does not make clear the fact that you will not receive a refund if you don't cancel within a very short period from the time of taking out the subscription. It does not clearly state that you will not receive a refund if you pay the annual amount and you cancel after two months for example. I was hoping to find old classmates also. Out of twenty searches, using name and age it found no one. Even those who had passed away, were not found. It was totally useless. Having paid $215 it was a complete waste of money and very disappointing as a search tool.

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    Reviewed April 28, 2015

    Upon receipt of my results I was amazed to see that they rated me as being 95% European East, 1% Italy Greece; (by the way Italy and Greece are two different countries why are they grouped together) less than 1% European Jewish; less than 1% Scandinavian; less than 1% Finland/Northwest Russia; and finally less than 1% Middle East. I called to ask about my Italian ancestry (which I know is at least 15%. My mother is 3rd generation from Italian immigrants). I asked how this could be? The representative was firstly rude, and then said that my Italian ancestors must of had eastern European DNA and "People were free to roam around before people got stupid." WHAT??? This is a professional representative of Ancestry DNA.

    I also mentioned that perhaps they used my first and last name (which are both obviously of Eastern European origination) and she got very snappy at me. I am so disappointed. I was so disappointed and hurt that I tried 23andMe and my results were what I expected and even more. It seems that Ancestry takes your $100, does a google search and comes up with some bogus answers that may go with your surname and or geographic location.

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    Reviewed April 28, 2015

    The advertising for this company claims more than what they deliver. I took the DNA test assuming I'd get to network with my matches to make progress on my family tree, but I have not. My mother was adopted & deceased in 1994, so I finally decided to see what I could uncover in my family tree. Every single one of my close matches in close range (7 matches - 1 '2nd' cousin, 6 '3-4' cousins) either have not logged in for lengthy periods of time or do not care to write back whatsoever. Kind of misleading considering Ancestry advertises the matches to be welcoming and helpful.

    I also think the "hints" are a scam because it's nothing I couldn't uncover at the national archives, for free. Take my membership money & get me nowhere in my search. The amount I've spent towards ACTUAL helpful government documents is $50, the amount I spent at Ancestry is $120 yielding no progress at all. I don't want any of it back, I just want to put it out there that it's a waste of time so others do not waste precious hard earned dollars. Thank you.

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    Reviewed April 27, 2015

    I ordered two DNA kits, totaling $212.90. They were running a sale when they arrived so I called and asked if I could get the reduced pricing. They told me no, so upset I told them I wanted to return the kits. I was told not to send the kits back because they would simply deactivate them & that they would only credit me $148.00. Today I called have the kits reactivated & asked to pay the $148.00 that I had been credited but they insisted I had to buy and pay for new kits plus shipping.

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    Reviewed April 21, 2015

    I noticed a charge on my card for an automatic renewal fee from Ancestry.com so I went on the website to cancel my subscription because I don't like that companies feel that it is okay to just charge your card when your subscription is up. This was 11 days after they charged my card. When I got to the final step of the cancellation, there was an alert that said I am not eligible for any refund at all because I didn't cancel my 6 month subscription within 7 days of the automatic renewal date (that I didn't want in the FIRST PLACE)! As a "consolation" they "allow" me full access to my features until my 6 month subscription is up (that I didn't want). Completely Outraged!

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    Reviewed April 9, 2015

    This is not what you would expect after seeing the commercial on TV. You have to hunt down everything over thousands and thousands of records.. and they are put in random order. You put in a name and fill in the info and then hit 'search' and you get so many states you have no need to look in and some states aren't there at all.. then tens of thousands of names come up.. It is so stressful and so disorganized that you do not even care anymore. All this site is.. is you put in the names and they give you 'some' places to search and those searches are tens of thousands of names and places.. not in any order.. You will have your neck hurt, your eyes bothering you and your mouse hand.. seriously. This is just ridiculous.

    The only information I got was a list of passengers and they had the year wrong and couldn't even read the screen the names were so faded. WASTE OF TIME AND $$$$. The only information that 'the family tree' had was what I typed in myself... They gave me no information on my family.

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    Reviewed April 1, 2015

    I did the 'free trial' thing and cancelled it well before my 2 weeks was up but they're still charging me. I cancelled it using their online cancellation option and when I finally got through to them over the phone I was told by the Ancestry rep that apparently my cancellation didn't go through. She said after cancelling online I should have followed it up with a phone call to make sure. If I cancel online, why should I have to follow it up with a phone call? Bottom line.. don't rely on the cancel online option. I think they do this deliberately. I now have a dispute in with my credit card company.

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    Reviewed March 27, 2015

    I signed up for the two week free trial, and I canceled my subscription after the two weeks because I couldn't find any information about my family. After cancellation, I saw a charge to my account. I went to cancel the subscription again and it says, "You are eligible for a refund within 30 days." It hasn't been 30 days, but will not give me a refund for the $50 charge. Such a bull crap scam.

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    Reviewed March 21, 2015

    I remember clicking twice to order Ancestry.com DNA kit. I immediately saw the double charge on my account and called. I was told it would take up to 8 days to be refunded my $95.00. 5 days later I received $60.00 in my account. Restocking fees and such? I'm not happy at all and haven't received anything from them yet!

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    Reviewed March 20, 2015

    Paid User shown as Registered Guest. After 6 days of trying to sort through whatever mistake they'd made, e-mails, endless phone calls, finding my own records of payment, Ancestry has said that they simply cannot help me. My subscription was renewed 7 days ago on my AmEx card. However, they have no record of the payment. They would not accept copies of the AmEx bill as proof of payment. And I was told I need to address it with AmEx, not them. Totally fed up with their customer service, the lack of accessibility, and their own lack of accountability.

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    Reviewed March 17, 2015

    After receiving an email that my results were ready, I tried ten times to obtained them with no luck including just getting my raw DNA results. I can only blame myself - I was warned by several people that this was a scam. I guess I just chalk off one hundred eight dollars. Never too old to learn.

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    Reviewed March 12, 2015

    To talk to someone the wait is at least 15 minutes. After talking to someone you are put on hold to speak with a supervisor. Last call waited over thirty minutes with no sound on other end. I have tried using their e-mail site but also no response. The problem I am trying to correct is that the two gift memberships I gave my children for Christmas. Neither child has been able to log-in using the access code given by Ancestry.com. When I asked if the 6 month membership started on the date on receipt or when access was granted I did not receive a clear answer. The only contact phone number is the one posted on their site. My call to them today started at 9:00 pm and I'm still on hold at 10:07.

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    Reviewed March 11, 2015

    Just purchased the software, or so I thought, to help my son with a middle school project. Unfortunately for me the version that I downloaded required an immediate upgrade, which of course wouldn't download. Scoured the website for a way to contact technical support, or any other type of support, of course nowhere to be seen. If they wanted to make it easy for me to contact them they could, but they don't. What they want is your money and not much more. I'll be spending another hour or so tracking down American Express to try and cancel the order, not because I'm trying to save $40 but out of principle. Ancestry sucks...

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    Reviewed March 10, 2015

    Ancestry seems to have evolved to a censored site that monitors and prevents information being accessed to further family research to the research community. I am now seeing documents pertaining to family research now not being able to be accessed. They are added to help others gain insight to previous locations of relatives, wills listing family members, tax list and court records. The name of the document shows but page remains blank now. Seeing this on numerous family members of other researchers. Mine happened today. All info posted this week now will not open to read the document. 24 records have been added to one tree but when searched for in the members community unable to locate. Is it buried on page 40 of 45? Does anyone search that far on listings? I have seen changes with Ancestry through the years and currently feel they hinder research and family connections as a planned step to keep people buying their service.

    Sites that use to be on the internet for research now fall under Ancestry yet those sites when free showed actual document/court record. Ancestry will now give you a synopsis of the material and no more. No image. It saddens me to see something that was so good become what it is. A conglomerate that hoards information to make money. Thank goodness for Familysearch. If you haven't tried them please do. They have actual documents available online though not on all areas... some still require travel to one of their sites but those that are online are wonderful. I have rounded out family research that I would have never gotten from Ancestry.

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    Reviewed March 5, 2015

    I have now used Ancestry.com as my main source of genealogical information for about 3 years. While it has a neat system for composing a tree, it is VERY expensive and has numerous problems it will never advertise. One, its search engines are not really good. Search for item X, and you will frequently be told no such record exists. But simply locate that same record at the free site FamilySearch, for instance, return to Ancestry and pump in the EXACT information you just discovered at FamilySearch, and amazingly that record that didn't exist minutes ago is "found" by Ancestry's search engines! For this kind of ''service'' you pay more than $30 a month?

    Then there is what I call the ''tease factor". For instance, you are allowed to see the MA state census for 1855 and 1865, but try to access the census for 1875 and, even though you have the ''deluxe'' membership that I happen to have, you will be told you must "upgrade" to see those '75 records. In other words, they have devised a way to take even more money from you beyond that already overpriced level. And now you will frequently run up against a notification that documents are unavailable unless you go to Fold3 and, naturally, pay yet another fee.

    The next time you see one of those ubiquitous Ancestry ads, remember that, while you will get a lot when you sign up, you are also denied a lot of serious genealogy tools....unless you are willing to pay Ancestry a lot more. Their initial price is a bit of bait and switch, in my informed and experienced opinion.

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    Reviewed Feb. 21, 2015

    Again, I tried to call Ancestry and was waiting for 20 minutes on the phone. Nobody picked up the phone again. Also, I canceled on the site and got no response either. The worst is, that this company actually tried to charge me 2 more times the amount of $149.70. Thank God my Bank wouldn't allow the withdraw. But I had to get a NEW credit card. That happening 2 weeks ago, and I still didn't get my $149.70 back. I am ready to sue Ancestry for FRAUD. What kind of company is this??? Besides all this, I have not got any information about my family, even I have precise dates and information. Now I only want my money back, that's all.

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    Reviewed Feb. 19, 2015

    Like many of the other people commenting, I canceled my account yet still was being charged a monthly fee. I called the service line and the girl confirmed it was canceled and said I would never be billed again. Jump ahead 5 months... Today I just so happen to look at my cc statement and see the charges again! I call and she confirms I canceled my account in October 2014. She looks up my credit card and says there was an alternate account with a different email address that was never canceled. How is it possible that this was overlooked when I had called twice to to look into my card being charged. She said all she could do was refund one month. I said this was unacceptable and asked to speak to a supervisor.

    I was then put on hold for over 20 minutes and then hung up on. I called back. Same exact thing, this time she says she's putting me through to a level 2 customer service person. This girl actually laughs at me. Says (giggling) "you had another account you didn't know about that was not canceled." I asked her how it was possible they could miss that after me calling twice to complain about charges. She then tells me the same thing, only one month can be refunded and that I could email customer service with my issue. I mean really? I knew that was just a ploy to get me off the phone. I said "absolutely not, you will put me through to whoever I need to talk to about getting these months refunded, or I'll just take you to Small Claims Court and contact the Better Business Bureau. Your choice." She then put me through to a woman who immediately recognized that I had been being charged despite canceling and refunded all my money.

    This company should be mortified that they train employees to deny customers a simple refund for a mistake that was their own! Does it really need to take threatening legal action for them to give up the games and refund you? It's almost laughable how hard they tried to get me off the phone.

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    Reviewed Feb. 13, 2015

    I couldn't find any family history & it won't let me delete my account. I can't do nothing on the website....

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    Reviewed Feb. 11, 2015

    My warning to others is that if you sign up for the free 30-day trial, ensure you set a reminder/alert on your calendar to go cancel it. I never received notification that I was about to be charged the $50 monthly subscription fee. First off, way overpriced. Second, most service sites that have trials like this will notify prior to ending it/charging you.

    In my opinion, I think it is a scam and most people do not renew after the trial therefore are making profits off of the mistakes of those just trying the site. They could easily do one of two things, if not both, to create a better user experience; not require cc for trial and offer a shorter trial version, and/or notify you that the trial is about to end. To top off the overall experience, I sent emails to customer service trying to dispute and NEVER heard back...again, confirmation that they are used to bad business practices and this is how they make their money. There are free sites that offer you access to the same stuff and offer a better user experience. I would not recommend to someone based on this but if you do, beware.

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    Reviewed Feb. 6, 2015

    Thank you to everyone who posted this information regarding Ancestry. I have copied this link and posted on my Facebook page as well as on two of the sites I use to do research on my French-Canadian heritage on Facebook. Ancestry is again offering "free" access to their site this weekend. Searching on Ancestry is free, of course, but when one tries to view any actual records, they require that you sign up for "free" access by submitting your credit card information. In doing research online I've found many folks that have tried this only to find that their accounts were charged even though they canceled the free access in time. I would caution folks in using this. See this link for further info, thank you: https://www.consumeraffairs.com/online/ancestry.html.

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    Reviewed Feb. 6, 2015

    I joined for the free one month trial period and discovered that I could only find records for family members that I already knew existed (and where they lived). I decided that the amount of time I had to spend to try to track down their records, and the amount of frustration at trying to find other ancestors wasn't worth it. I made my own family tree from the info I gained and decided that the records weren't important. I used a reloadable credit card to prevent them from charging me after I quit their trial period.

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    Reviewed Feb. 3, 2015

    EXTREMELY disappointed in ancestry.com. I had no luck with the site or finding any information on past family members. I was told that I had a free trial that would not expire till Feb 22. I then noticed I was charged $34.99 back at the end of January. Called to talk to a customer service representative to try and get a refund and explain that I had been told about having a 30 day FREE trial, and all she could tell me was that she didn't have any proof that I was told that, and I was outside the refund date policy. All I wanted was my refund. Why would I make this stuff up?? Like I said, I'm very disappointed in my experience with ancestry.com and will not be using it again or recommending it.

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    Reviewed Jan. 29, 2015

    I have been a member of this site now for over 4 years and while generally satisfied with it, I do find that I use it less and less and maintain my subscription more for the record than new research. They have the details for annually renewing my membership with my credit card. This time, I overlooked the fact that back in May 2014, I had to renew my card (for time reasons) and so the details of the card they held were no longer valid. I rang them shortly past the renewal time (before they had cancelled my membership) and updated the cards details. I found that they insisted on cancelling my membership, allowing me back in only at a new increased price. Poor customer service to a loyal customer, enhanced subsequently by my receiving mails from them offering me a new, much reduced membership rate for a shorter period.

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    Reviewed Jan. 27, 2015

    I signed up for a one month free trial and thought that I was clear about cancelling after the trial, but they didn't cancel the trial and I ended up being billed for months to my credit card. They have a substandard service and I guess this is how they make their money.

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    Reviewed Jan. 14, 2015

    I was looking to see if my ancestors were Greek gods. I believe I am a descendant of the mighty Dedalos and signed up on this site to try and trace back my roots.

    After spending more than an hour searching, I was very disappointed to find out my ancestors were goat herders. This site says nothing but lies. I am very disappointed In this site. They need to upgrade their records.

    How can they not have records of my ancestors?? I have scriptures dating back 900 years from the ruins of Acropolis which clearly state exactly where my ancestors are from. I am the descendant of the mighty Dedalos and there is no doubt. Do not waste your money on this website. I cancelled my account and ripped up credit card. God bless. Ty.

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    Reviewed Jan. 2, 2015

    I signed up for Ancestry.com's 14 day free trial and gave them my credit card information. I decided that I did not want to use this service and I did not want my card to be charged after 14 days. Since I wasn't a member yet because I was in the trial period, there was no way to delete my credit card information on their website. I contacted customer care and they said they will not charge my card, but they had no way of deleting my credit card information from their system. I couldn't believe that there was no way they could remove my credit card information. Now I'm going to have to cancel my credit card. I am not happy right now. I would not recommend using this website.

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    Reviewed Dec. 26, 2014

    The page always has a message along the top which says there's a problem with my email address. When I go there, there's nothing except an attempt to get me to upgrade to a higher level. The space this header takes makes me have to scroll down constantly to hit search buttons. I've filled out lots of feedback things about this, and have tried to talk to someone online, which, of course is useless.

    The site's major value is its access to source records. The damage done to the hobby of genealogy as a whole is incalculable because of the wildfire spread of incorrect research it has fostered. I've been at it more than fifty years. My ancestors regularly sprout middle names they never had, parents who are found in no source records anywhere, kids born under circumstances which are physiologically impossible...the list goes on and on. I do the little I can...posting messages which, if read by anyone who isn't just a name-collector, may help them complete more correct family records.

    I live a long distance from places I can look at computers in libraries. As long as I am interested and as long as I can afford the ever-increasing cost of the subscription, I'll keep it. Be advised ahead of time that if you ever want to cancel your subscription, you probably need to cancel the credit card they have on file and get yourself a new one. Cancelling online or in person may be impossible.

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    Reviewed Dec. 25, 2014

    Ancestry.com recently stopped disclosing the number of records in their new databases. For example, they added "Summit County, Ohio, Coroner's, Hospital and Cemetery Records, 1882-1947" last week, but did not disclose the number of records contained therein. For their EXISTING (not new) databases, Ancestry.com has long chosen to almost never disclose the number of records. Without knowing the number of records, a researcher cannot know whether he should spend time searching a database. There are thousands of databases, and one just can't search them all. If the above Summit County database has only 400 records in it, there is little chance of finding one's ancestor in it. The county probably produced a half million such records between 1882 and 1947.

    Databases with broad names, yet containing very few records, are common in genealogy. Most databases are created by unpaid hobbyists. They add only as many names, dates, etc. as they have time for. For example, a genealogist may walk a couple cemeteries and write down only the SMITH graves, or only the Civil War deaths, plus adding her own parents' graves. She is thus omitting 99% of the graves in the county. Yet her database is titled, "Franklin County, OH Grave Markers, 1861-1988." (Her father died in 1988.)

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    Reviewed Dec. 20, 2014

    For the last three weeks I have been trying to sync my trees with Ancestry and FTM. I've had this service for a number of years and until this last month have not had the problems I am having now. I first noticed that many of my people were duplicated as was media. While trying to solve these issues, I've had multiple calls to Ancestry/ FTM. Each time the people were courteous. Some were more knowledgeable than others. They sent me various help articles to try. None worked.

    Each time I tried to sync my two trees something would be missing. I'd re-enter information, find duplicates and remove, compact files. I'd replace photos and other media, but each time there would be another cliche. After two weeks of focusing on this almost daily, I was becoming more and more frustrated. Still no one was able to help from customer service. Then I looked up problems with Ancestry and found many people are having the syncing problems, repeats, and information going to the wrong places. I've unlinked my trees so no further misinformation will contaminate my tree on FTM. Ancestry ought to have sent out a notice to clients saying there are problems and they are working on them. I'm very disappointed in how Ancestry is handing issues. I had never had these problems with 2012.

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    Reviewed Dec. 20, 2014

    Ok, let me be fair and start with "my part" in all this. Back in March of 2014 I was trying to find a long lost family member and did take them up on their free trial offer. However, once I didn't find this person I made it a point to cancel and just didn't give it any thought. (Again my bad!) Apparently when I signed up I did so through Paypal, and thankfully 7.95 just isn't a large amount in my world so I really never paid much attention to my Paypal account. I do a lot of shopping online as I live in a small town, and many small amounts come through automatically every month. (Sirius, Pandora, etc) I just don't analyze everything as much as I probably should.

    Now it's December and I see this charge for 7.95 and was like WTH??? First thing I do is try to log into this site to see if I do have an "active account", I do not. It does not recognize my email whatsoever. So I call them immediately and explain I have been charged for 9 months on an account that was cancelled, she tried to find my account... she could not. She even tried my name and billing zip code and found nothing. She gives me an email to contact to rectify this, they respond by saying "we will give you two months refund and 8 months of service since you did agree to the terms and conditions." Uh... I cancelled your service and don't want your service! Never have and certainly never will now.

    So it's like this, at the end of the day the money is gone... whatever, not going to lose sleep over it. But Ancestry.com never acknowledged the fact that I had no account this entire time, that their own customer service rep could not find an account for me, because there was none. Yet they choose to insult me with a 16.00 refund and act as if they are doing me a favor at that. My advice, stay away from Ancestry.com, they are clearly an unscrupulous company who make their wealth by preying on others.

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    M increased rating by 1 star.
    After a positive interaction with Ancestry, M increased their star rating on Dec. 18, 2014.

    Updated review: Dec. 18, 2014

    Today, I can get on to Ancestry. They sent a verification that ended up in the trash, junk mail, mailed at 4pm, some time after I signed up. I couldn't get into my account last night, 12/17 although today, 12/18 I get the letters that I'm now signed up, with the starting date of yesterday. I paid for international, the highest $. Then when I was looking up a record for Ireland, it shot the advertisement at me to "Up Grade". I know that they have a lot going on there, but seems like some upgrading needs to be done.

    Original Review: Dec. 18, 2014

    I've been a member for the past year and 1/2. I re-signed up today. They wouldn't do it on the phone, but told me to sign up online as it was a gift 10% off to myself. I tried working Ancestry tonight. Nothing. They didn't send a verification that the credit card went through or acknowledgement that there even was an order from me, but it did say that it would start 12/17 (now yesterday). But nothing but advertisements pop up in my face. I was not given an order number either.

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    Reviewed Dec. 18, 2014

    This is insane. I signed up for the 14-day free trial not knowing that every month after the free trial they charge you $16.50. It took me 3 months to discover the funds being leaked out of my PayPal account. I sent Ancestry.com an email asking them for a refund explaining my situation. Of course, they denied me a refund so I canceled my subscription with them only to be charged a $10 early cancellation fee. By this time I'm about to go insane. I sever all ties they had to my PayPal hoping that I won’t lose any more money. The total loss: $59.50 just thrown in the trash, thanks Ancestry.com. (I don't want to give them a star, far too overrating.)

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    Reviewed Dec. 17, 2014

    I don't understand the value of this service. I provided specific data for 3 generations of people in my family (DOB, DOD, Place of birth, etc) yet their database could not provide me with a more thorough history. Providing this information should eliminate the variables yet I was asked to search through 140K records. Was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

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    Reviewed Dec. 5, 2014

    After +/-20 years with Ancestry, I feel qualified to state that as their membership has increased, their service has decreased. The searches have become next to impossible to regulate; results come up that are either already in your tree or have absolutely nothing to do with anyone you're researching! Ancestry's on-site "Forums" for users are disorganized in order to keep members from connecting with others and it's pretty easy to get kicked out of the discussion groups if you step on Ancestry's toes too hard. Their "customer service" is truly a joke; worse than non-existent because they're trained to obfuscate rather than solve issues.

    Because they've absorbed so many of the other genealogy sites, it's become harder and harder to find other resources. Also, they'll purchase a source like Find-a-Grave but not offer an easy method to get info from that site directly to your Ancestry tree. I've not personally experienced any of the billing issues which others have complained about, but as disorganized and unwieldy as the business has become, I don't doubt the complaints in the least.

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    Reviewed Nov. 29, 2014

    Every time I sign up for membership, give them my money! They never send me a confirmation email with the code to activate it! No matter when it starts! I just did it again on Black Friday and it was to start today. Black Friday. No email! No code! It seems they hate me! This is my second time! They need to over haul their computer system. I have never had a good relationship with them! I am jinx. I have 275 hints and I can't use them, because I am not in! C.s. Sucks!

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    Reviewed Nov. 25, 2014

    I posted several comments on the posts to page on the Ancestry Facebook page recently. These comments were blocked by the Ancestry social media rep at the call center in Orem. I posted a request as to why they were blocked and did not receive a response for two days. I then canceled my subscription and posted a screenshot of it, asking again why my posts were blocked. I received a general answer, and pretty much a "** You" regarding the cancellation from the lowlife who took over the position that Trevor and Hannah used to do. I used to work for Ancestry here in Orem, so I know who these people are on Facebook providing the poor service. I will be sending an email to Tim Sullivan with screenshots of my initial request and the second request with the general answer from the rep who obviously didn't care I canceled. I will also be posting on every other site I can find - RipoffReport, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Google Reviews, etc.

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    Reviewed Nov. 18, 2014

    Using Ancestry site in public library allows you to e-mail "discoveries" to own e-mail account. Presumably these are only available on library Ancestry. When I attempt to open "discoveries", Ancestry claims that they are having difficulty doing so. "In the meantime" they say, surf on over to our (subscription only) other sites. Another instance of Ancestry "bait and switch" greed.

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    Reviewed Nov. 9, 2014

    They continue to charge your credit card for 3 months before they can get it right.. unfair. I canceled this and continued to be charged twice in one month. They can only refund one. This is not a good business practice.. Asked me for confirmation number, I didn't find it but then he didn't give me one either.. Can't cancel until 11/28/14. Possible another charge again. Crazy stuff...

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    Reviewed Oct. 30, 2014

    I have been searching and searching just about everyday and ancestry.com hasn't provided me any information. You have to know a lot to begin with. Well, if I had all the answers, I wouldn't need it. I find it to be a waste of time. It basically just gave me voter registration information and maybe some phone book records. I'm very disappointed. I do not get any new "hints" since the first time I went on there. If you type in a person's name, it doesn't give you information on their children. You pretty much have to provide it. I'm very dissatisfied. I'd advise anyone to not bother. If you have a lot of money to hire someone to do it for you, then great but what about the rest of us?

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    Reviewed Oct. 19, 2014

    I have been researching my family tree for over ten years now. And I have used Ancestry.com for at least half of that time. The searching and other ways that Ancestry.com provides. The problem that I have been having, for almost one year now--is that I cannot "SYNC" my tree with Ancestry. I have called and called and called, all I get is "I will email you some information to help resolve this issue." So I try this new information that was given--BUT this does not work at all! I try it for a second time--It DOES NOT WORK!

    So any updates that I find on Ancestry--I CANNOT put on my family tree in my computer!! I am so frustrated! I don't know what else to do--except to put it out on the internet!! I am so temped to cancel my subscription--but if I do that, I won't be able to get the new information that I found on Ancestry!! Any suggestions??

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    Reviewed Oct. 19, 2014

    As of this date (10-19-2014) NO refund has been received but then it is only for $198.45 and they (Ancestry.com) still have that AND my upgrade money of $208.50. But then they do not seem to care a bit and when I called I was told billing could not and would not call me back. But I could call them on Monday from 8 to 5 and hope someone could help me (no I will not call on Monday but do expect to hear from Ancestry.com and expect my refund on Monday too). One of the men told me I should have it by Thursday or Friday of last week, but this is Saturday and still no refund. I am really upset at their attitude and WANT AND NEED my refund. MAY report them to BBB after this fiasco. Thanks for listening.

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    Reviewed Oct. 17, 2014

    I spent good money on the DNA program. $100 is no joke to me. They have discontinued their y and mt DNA projects and it is now impossible to view your matches and will not get future matches. I want to be reimbursed in full. This is so unfair and I feel I, and possibly hundreds of thousands of others, have been ripped off.

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    Reviewed Oct. 12, 2014

    I started searching for family records in 2005 and many records were 'FREE' online likes passenger list, etc. I saw my family's name on many records which are now owned by Ancestry.com and I will have to pay for them to be viewed by me. In addition, if you try to get the info from a particular state and do not live in that state they won't let you have the information so, you have to go to Ancestry.com and pay for it!!!

    This is not fair and who decided to let all family records be owned by Ancestry.com? That should be Free to families...not a private company who will charge you to see your own family info. How can Ancestry.Com own public records about private families and then charge all families to see their own ancestors information? It seems illegal to me and why they were allowed to do this is beyond comprehension. Ancestry.com's charges to view your families information are outrageous and people have complaints about them being a ripoff as well.

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    Reviewed Oct. 7, 2014

    I signed up for the Ancestry.com free 14 day trial on the understanding that I could cancel online within the 14 days and would not be charged. It is not possible to cancel online and when I have phoned the number given in the USA I am connected to their advertising messages but have not been able to speak to anyone to cancel. I have phoned every day for 12 days and have held on for up to half an hour at a time. It is a scam and a con.

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    Reviewed Oct. 3, 2014

    I bought a 6-month subscription and was quite happy with the way it worked. I then bought the Family Tree software and synced the two together. My subscription ran out and I did not renew because I felt I had gone as far I could and summer was coming and I did not have the time to devote. But, while I had a subscription, I found and linked quite a few documents (Census-ships, manifests, etc). All of this was merged into my home computer.

    In August my computer crashed and my backup also was lost. But I bought a new computer and reloaded Family Tree and tried to merge my files from Ancestry.Com and this is where the problems started. All of my work, that I had linked to my family members, was there, however if I wanted to bring it back to my PC, I would have to pay from another subscription. I called and said I did not want to do anymore research. I just want the work that I had already done restored. Their support said that 'they' could see all my work, but I could not have it without renewing.

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    Reviewed Sept. 16, 2014

    Free trial process is a scam. No warning of impending trial expiration and then go on to charge you despite never having used their services. An outright scam and a dishonest company. I will be sure to leave negative reviews wherever possible.

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    Reviewed Sept. 16, 2014

    I order an Ancestry DNA kit here’s my review. Pros: The ordering process was simple and experience no problems. Kit instructions are simple and easy to follow. Return kit mailing is also simple and easy. Cons: Packaging is terrible if you prefer some privacy or confidentiality. The kit comes in a simple not designed for shipping Ancestry DNA box. It seems Ancestry is more concerned about marketing then confidentiality or privacy. After speaking with customer service, I was told I would have to order 1000 kits in order to get discreet packing. WOW Really! That was their answer. Beware of the check boxes on your online profile to insure you don’t open up your results to the public world if that’s not your intentions. No order shipment tracking, only information a product has been shipped.

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    Verified purchase

    Reviewed Sept. 13, 2014

    My PayPal account was just charged $39.95 for a second year I didn't want. They refused to refund my money claiming I signed an agreement allowing them to take my money unless I sent a message. The following is the message I have for the money ghouls at Archives/Ancestry.com: First, I see that Archives.com has been acquired by Ancestry.com. I see that Ancestry.com has an A+ BBB rating. I feel that I have been deceived by an unscrupulous business practice of the "hidden subscription renewal" policy that if I DON'T take action, my renewal will automatically roll over.

    First, it was never made clear to me in the beginning that this subscription would be renewed unless I sent a message. Second, I received a renewal notice in July. Since I did not wish to continue my subscription, I did not renew. The notice implied I had to take action and not the reverse. Third, I have a large family. My Great Aunt and Uncle had 11 children and they have multiplied and prospered. We tried both Archives.com and Heritage.com and found Heritage to be more suited for our family. This is because whenever an invitation was sent from Archives, it required money to be spent to view the tree, while Heritage offered a free viewing. It was really a simple decision. In order to let all of the family view without having to pay, Heritage was the obvious choice.

    This greediness and money grubbing on the part of Archives.com not Ancestry.com has made me dislike your company and I will never use your services and I will never recommend you to anyone. In fact, I will do everything I can to discourage anyone from using your service and you have made me the best salesperson for Heritage.com. It is only $40 that you have bilked me out of, and I will probably never see it, but you can be sure you have purchased a ton of negative advertising from me. I don't hold it against the agents who represent your company. They are just doing their job. I hold it against the people who wrote your business model. The Lawyers and MBAs. Evidently your service is so poor that you have to deceive people out of their money instead of offering a service people will willingly pay for.

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    Reviewed Sept. 10, 2014

    I signed up for free trial, (glad it was free) and I entered all of the information I knew. It didn't give me any information that I did not already know. You basically pay them to store your information. You have to enter every single date, name, city, year etc. Then it just shows you your information in a tree form. That's it. Literally. It does nothing for you. I even opted for the full World search. Don't waste your money. If you are lucky enough to have grandparents alive, they will tell you way more than this website will.

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    Reviewed Sept. 6, 2014

    Am I the only one who is sick to death of these "free" offers where they want a credit card? Enough already... I go to create a free account and AFTER entering all my information they won't proceed without a credit card. I hate this. If it's not free don't offer it as such...

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    Reviewed Sept. 4, 2014

    My Ancestry tree has been out - not working for 4 or 5 days. It is a rather large tree, a lot of time has been put into it. Please correct this problem.

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    Reviewed Sept. 4, 2014

    I first joined in 2004 for 99$. Then, they renewed WITHOUT informing me, for 2X that fee. If you participate in boards/messages/blogs they edit and CENSOR your remarks. If you complain, they suspend your account. They are supposed to be providing a service for records and communication NOT editing/deleting messages or preventing exchange of information. If they cannot provide a SERVICE without INTERFERING, then their site needs to be SHUT DOWN. Especially at their currently exorbitant prices.

    I refuse to pay them any more money, quite a chunk of change for the last 10 years. Then they decided to dump OLD SEARCH, continuing to raise the subscriber fee, while censoring messages by nasty so-called moderators! What the public has put into Ancestry.com is FAR MORE than what the people who started/maintain the site have EVER DONE!

    The records are convenient but that's it. They got rid of e-mail and live chat which is funny since you used to have to hunt through pages and page before you could find their freaking phone number. I don't why the BBB gives them a good rating. Gee, if I ran the site I could change the terms of use whenever I felt like it!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank God that all my data is backed up by hard copy. I suggest to anyone else who fell into this pit thinking that it's worthwhile do the same.

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    Reviewed Sept. 3, 2014

    I signed up for the 14-day "free" trial, which required me to give my credit card number. I subsequently discovered that I still could not view any records, and that I was still prompted to purchase a subscription. In short, the "free" trial made absolutely no difference in my experience with Ancestry.com, and appears to just be a way to obtain my credit card info.

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    Reviewed Sept. 1, 2014

    I wanted to find out my grandfather's Y chromosome so I purchased a DNA kit from Ancestry. When we got the results it was a hodge podge of both male and female ethnicity, no DNA results at all. When I called them they informed me that this was a better test for their members. I am a member and this isn't at all what I wanted. They refused to do anything to make me happy about this. Don't waste your money or time on this test.

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    Reviewed Aug. 31, 2014

    When I first began my genealogy project, I was referred to the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). I found it invaluable inasmuch as it would include any person who had ever collected SS. That would now include most US residents. Now I still work full-time so I can't devote a lot of time to this project. Some time passed and I needed to return to the SSDI. It wasn't there. Long story short: I learned that Ancestry now is in charge of the SSDI. And of course one has to pay for that. This is an outrage. SSDI should be free; it is a government entity. I resolved to never use Ancestry and have thus far adhered to that resolution.

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    Reviewed Aug. 30, 2014

    Order my DNA from Ancestry.com I have over 5,000 people in my trees. After the break down of my family and where we came from I noticed a name that was my 6th to 8th cousin. Tracing it back it is on my husband side of my family. My husband was adopted not related to me by blood so how did they come up with this person as being my 6th or 8th if using the DNA. This 6th or 8th cousin is on my husband's father's side, so they use the family tree not the DNA. The information is taken from the trees and not the DNA... Fun program but has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE DNA.. If they sold the program noting that it's a program break down of the information on the trees would be fine but to sell it saying DNA is misleading for sure. And by the way how can I be sitting in 90 degree weather with no air and be from every ROYAL FAMILY in England, Scotland and France all the way to Spain? Let me know how they do that. Is that real or fake....

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    Reviewed Aug. 23, 2014

    A couple of months ago, I sent for a DNA test for my wife and I. We each paid $108. My result was timely and I suggested and motivated six other people to do the same. Some, while in the process of getting their result, were rewarded with a twenty-dollar discount and even got the shipping free by doing a customer review of the sign up. Next, Ancestry drops the regular twenty dollar per month subscription to include with the DNA test to $99. So, what they charged me was $108 and they are giving to customers a month later is $230 worth of product for a hundred bucks. Hard to put a lot of faith in a business that would do this kind of discounting. I think it will be revealed their DNA process is flawed or it is some other scam.

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    Reviewed Aug. 20, 2014

    It seems that Ancestry.com is having more problems with keeping their website 100% operational. Their problems have been increasing in the last few months. It doesn't seem they have the man/women power needed to keep the site operational. They don't offer to add additional time (unpaid) to compensate for down time. My contract ends in one week and I will not continue as a paying customer. I'd advise anyone thinking about joining Ancestry.com to reconsider. You've been warned - I wasn't!

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    Reviewed Aug. 18, 2014

    Website "free 30 day trial" which I read very carefully that NO BOXES CHECKED WHICH WOULD ALLOW CONTINUED MONTHLY FEES therefore signed up for free trial. They started charging $35 a month which is INSANE and NO PERSON WOULD EVER AGREE TO THIS KIND OF FEE UNLESS THEY WERE ARCHIVIST; therefore, SCAM TO GET MONEY FROM PEOPLE. As a past software programmer I know how companies do this and because I am now dying from several doctors not diagnosing a simple illness that can kill people I will be adding "lobbying to gov reps to pass law preventing automatic membership without the person re-contacting and agreeing to continue membership". This is costing taxpayers and particularly the seniors millions of dollars to continue this type of money grabbing. OCCUPY EVERYTHING BECAUSE I HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE. FREEDOM IS JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE. JANIS JOPLIN. PEOPLE MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR HARMING AND STEALING FROM A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD.

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    Reviewed Aug. 18, 2014

    They took my card information. Setup my account. Now they won't let me cancel my account - option does not show up on account management screen. I've been on the help line for a half hour now and just got connected.

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    Reviewed Aug. 18, 2014

    The only information you gave was what I entered. Anything above that you wanted money. I am filing a complaint against you. I can get my own attorney if I needed one.

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    Reviewed Aug. 11, 2014

    I started searching for my biological father 3 years ago. A friend had recommended I should start a family tree on the Ancestry.com site. I will say Ancestry has provided me with a wealth of documents and family photos. That being the main reason I continue to use them. I did meet one relative who is the sister of my deceased biological father. At first we had a great working relationship. We talked by phone, emailed each other, exchanged photos and documents freely between us. This all changed when I started to discover deep dark family secrets about my family some of which affected me. Questions of paternity in regards to myself and possibility of crimes that had been committed even including a murder.

    Once I had a DNA test done and further research completed, my Aunt decided to start harassing me. She did this by filing faults complaints with Ancestry.com along with Facebook, Find A Grave, and Twitter. In these complaints she stated I was a fraud that she really did not know me. That I had stolen photos of her brother, my dad. And that my government issued birth Certificate and Legal name change document were fake. She also claimed to have copyrights on photos of my dad. She has even used the Message broads on the site as well to sell her lies against me. This has all taken place from November of 2013 to present. She has never provide any legal documentation to back her faults claims against me. Or to show any copyrights on any photos. But yet Ancestry does nothing to stop her from making more faults claims against me time and time again.

    This to most people including myself is harassment against me. And clearly shows Ancestry.com does not follow its rules or guideline for such behaviors. They don't even have rules or guidelines on Cyber bullying currently. I have done everything I can on my part to work with Ancestry.com. I have blocked my aunt from my tree. I have provided documents to Ancestry time and time again thus proving she is the fraud. I have made over 100 phone calls to them as well. But they seem not to care or are unwilling to help! I wonder if others out there have had the same thing happened to them and their families?

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    Reviewed Aug. 10, 2014

    My husband didn't get response after his $100 DNA test from Ancestry.com for months. He called them. They told him over the phone, "You are of European origin." Good guess, his last name is European. I don't know what else he expected, but how you call a $100 service that doesn't give much service, and doesn't leave paper trail?

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    Reviewed Aug. 8, 2014

    So I went to cancel my subscription after I got charged (I had been meaning to for a while but it got put on the back burner) and it said that I don't qualify for a refund because I haven't cancelled it within 7 days of me being renewed. SO I called and asked - APPARENTLY my renewal date is June 26 but I didn't get charged until Aug 8 because their computer systems were messed up. So I can't get a refund.

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    Reviewed Aug. 8, 2014

    Before I signed up I read that now, for more money, I could get my family records that were in Europe. I signed up for what they called their ''world explorer membership''. The plan cost was $300.00, payable in two payments of $150.00. I started my family tree with what I already knew about my family. When I tried to get info about my family in Europe, Croatia, Serbia and Yugoslavia I was informed that those countries were not covered, just Germany and one or two others. I kept trying to get hold of a live person for help but was never able to get someone to help. I was told to look at some videos. They didn't address my problem. I tried for another month to get live help but never DID. I finally just gave up.

    Around June 24 I received an e-mail that said that they were going charge my debit card account another $150.00. I dialed the number that I had dialed so many times before and gotten a runaround. This time I pressed the phone pad number for renewal. A fellow who said his name was Dave ** answered and I told him my problem and said I wanted to cancel. He started trying to talk me out of cancelling. He said that I should have been looking in Hungary, which I found out later was a lie. I told him that before I signed up it said that I could get a "guest" to help me. He said that I had to click on "share" first. I never found a "share" or "guest". He said he would give me a discount for all my problems. For some crazy reason, I trusted him and let him charge my bank account $119.00. After trying the ''Hungary'' lie and still not being able to find "share" and "guest".

    I called headquarters, 801 705 7000, and was able to get his extension number which is **. I started To tell him my problem but he said he had a call coming in and to call back later. Since then, around July 11 or 12, I have tried to call him numerous times every day and always gotten I busy signal. Finally, I found a way to cancel online. I had a hard time making it take my cancellation. When the cancellation finally ''took'', it informed me that I didn't get any of my money back as I had waited too long (seven days) before cancelling. I was trying to get hold of Dave ** ext. ** during that time. I didn't know I was being scammed. Recently, I found a way around the message coming up on the information bar which was blocking where it said "share" on the "Ancestry.Com" page I was pulling up.

    "Internet Explorer'' was trying to protect me from the "Ancestry.com" website saying that their security certificates were outdated, unsigned or invalid. Basically, I got approx. One months use of ''Ancestry.com'' which didn't deliver anything that they alluded to. This last six months, I only used one day with no results. Go to ''ripoff report'' or the various scam advisors and you can spend all day or more reading the complaints.

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    Reviewed July 30, 2014

    Very expensive and not a good value. It automatically charges your credit card and doesn't provide a customer service number. After a trial for a school project, we were unable to log in. I finally had to do a GOOGLE search to find a customer service number. They refused to credit us for the 3 months even though they have record that we did not use the service.

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    Reviewed July 20, 2014

    I was not going to renew unless they agreed to not auto renew. Well they did, my bank would not allow me to stop payment until the transaction went through. Afraid I am stuck with $100+ out of my acct for a service that is not nearly as good as it used to be.

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    Reviewed July 19, 2014

    It is practically impossible to communicate with them on a technical problem. I reported my problem to a support person (I only reported 1 problem - didn't want to overwhelm them). I thought something was going to be done. Days later, I call back when nothing has improved and after transfer to different people and a response like they have never heard from me, they found my report. They told me it was resolved. Interesting since it still does not work. I feel horrible because I have recommended this site to many. I'm hoping this will keep others from making the same mistake.

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    Reviewed July 17, 2014

    Ancestry.com service has significantly declined beginning in mid 2013. Responses are slow, pages don't fully load with clearly visible data and the Search All function is clearly NOT well cross referenced among their databases. I have become very weary with all this and only use this site for basic information which I always try to check from other sources. I will NEVER place my family records in their hands for safe keeping and I would advise others not to either. It seems they are dropping services with little or very inadequate support and gallingly cop an attitude about it when asked to explain their failures and/or give totally misleading information.

    Advise all genealogists to keep all tree information on their own computers and to back it up with an independent storage service or maybe even two. I now have over 40 years of family information and would not frankly trust it with anyone else. Ancestry is obviously not any longer interested in giving serious service - it's all about money and trapping people into total dependence on their site.

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    Reviewed July 17, 2014

    The download I was lead to believe was necessary to install locked up my genealogy program and any files that I had opened and saved in 2014 are locked and now held hostage until Ancestry fixes the issue. I had to reinstall 2011 and use that but I have had to re-create many files I had opened. 20 years of genealogy is no longer accessible to me. Until I hear there is a fix, I will not install 2014 on my new computer that I purchased because right after 2014 froze, other issues started occurring on the old computer. Not sure if they were related but had too much other information to take the chance of the whole computer locking up on me.

    I made many lengthy calls to the tech support people and have sent near weekly emails to the consumer complaint email address one of the techs gave me. The only response is that it is a programming problem, not FTM and Ancestry. What other options does a person have?

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    Reviewed July 15, 2014

    I purchased a Groupon for about $99. First I didn't receive anything. I emailed them quite a while after purchasing and I finally received a kit. I followed their instructions and sent in my dna. When I finally received the results by email, all it told me was that I am 100% European. No Country breakdown. Europe is a big place and they could have just come to that conclusion from my last name. What they try to do is get you to spend even more money for more information. This was a total waste of money.

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    Reviewed July 15, 2014

    For the past several days Ancestry pages are slow to load and sometimes are just not opening. Then when I try to read census pages there is a film over some or all of the page making it impossible to read. I get a message to use the basic image but there is no difference when I do so. An email from the company or a message on their website to let the customers know what is happening and when the problem may be resolved would be greatly appreciated. In fact, for the past year there have been times when Ancestry just didn't work as usual. Editing information or new information would not be saved to one's tree or some resource pages could not be saved. I will only tolerate this until my subscription is due to be renewed because I have no choice. If improvements are not made and an explanation is not given I will definitely not being renewing. It costs too much to put up with the poor performance I am experiencing.

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    Reviewed July 15, 2014

    After being a devoted customer for over 2 years, and purchasing 6 DNA tests, they are no longer offering support for the DNA I have bought. They state I can download the raw data (which I have done) but that's it. I made these purchases in good faith. But now have no idea what to do with "the raw data". I have cancelled my expensive subscription with ancestry.com. I do not trust them anymore. When it expires I lose all the photos and documents I have collected all these years. I wish now I had gone with another website, I am out well over $600.00 and have to start over somewhere else. I urge anyone considering ancestry.com to think long and hard about it, because what you pay for is not what you get. I feel duped and stupid for ever signing with them.

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    Reviewed July 7, 2014

    I understand that Ancestry had a server attack weeks ago. But the service is still so slow that when I do a "save" or a "search" I then go make coffee or something while I wait for the page to load. They need to post the status of their fix on their home page or something - now that you cannot email them for customer service, you have to call. They should be proactive and communicate instead of ignoring the problems - or forcing you to call them. They KNOW there are problems, so why not keep subscribers who are paying monthly for their service updated?

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    Reviewed July 6, 2014

    I have had intermittent experience with the 2014 FTM sync process with Ancestry.com servers. If I sync small changes and additions to my FTM tree (usually less than 20 changes and/or additions), the sync process works well. If more than 20 changes/additions are made to my tree and synced with Ancestry.com, I receive a failure message (sync cannot be accomplished). I have contacted Ancestry.com representatives about this problem more than 6 times in recent months to complain and request that they fix the problem, and have received replies ranging from Ancestry.com reps acknowledging the problem, to "IT" reps blaming my computer for having virus protection not compatible with their badly written code, and also stating that others have complained about the sync non-function.

    My only recourse has been to disconnect my current updated FTM data on my computer from Ancestry.com, and completely re-sync to the Ancestry.com servers in order to take advantage of their backup service (re-sync seems to work well so far). As a result, I now have 6 going on 7 Ancestry.com backups reflecting past sync failures. The Ancestry.com sync problem appears to be longstanding, and without any current fixes in sight. I suspect that the problem will continue until they run out of Server space for duplicate trees.

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    Reviewed July 5, 2014

    While the site has the notice about an automatic renewal, it was not something that I saw when I signed up. When I got the charge on my credit card, they would not refund me and I was a few day late in calling them. When I explained I had just got the bill and saw it, it did not matter and the customer service representative was rude about. I used the site maybe three times and found it useless for me in my search. Felt it was A total scam on their part to not do the right thing and be more transparent on their fees.

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    Reviewed July 3, 2014

    Ancestry recently announced that they were dropping support for several of their products including Genforum and My Family. They gave us until September to download our data from My Family and promised us a tool to help the download process. Our family has had a very active My Family site for years with thousands of pictures, annotated with descriptions and comments by other family members as well as documents and conversations between members discussing the family. Well the tool Ancestry provided was quite disappointing. It downloaded all of the pictures with no annotation, no comments, no text at all. The documents, history and conversations are completely missing. Years of work and collection of data will be gone unless we find an alternative. I urge everyone who has a tree with Ancestry to rethink this relationship. Your data can disappear at any time. I am taking steps immediately to get my tree on my own computer and under my control.

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    www.ancestry.com