This site is the worst. I was trying to remove my information from them like how spokeo and intelius have all your information under pipl dot com . All other websites remove your information without a problem, but archives dot com will not. I hate to get religious, but they are MORMON OWNED and affiliated with ancestors.com which is the same. I don't know how the BBB works, but they need to be reported. They refuse to take down my web information.

Started trial to see what they had to offer....which was little/no information or a link to the .gov websites to order the appropriate forms. I also saw the advertisement which looked like a screenshot of the death certificate I was looking for and the ad said I could see it right away, but this is not so. Deceptive advertising.

DO NOT GIVE THESE GUYS ANYTHING> We have had the exact experience as those above. Found they charged our card for a renewal, immediately called them and they basically said too bad they would cancel my account but not refund what they had just charged because it was outside their refund policy.

I decided after a couple of months that I no longer wanted them to bill through PayPal directly and removed PayPal as my billing option. I wanted to make the decision month to month whether to renew based on value. I assumed they would bill me. Instead, they continued to bill through PayPal - indicating that if I wanted to change billing, I had to cancel the contract. Repeated emails with customer "service" resulted in continued frustration. I ultimately cancelled the subscription - don't join in the first place!

Very deceptive. Leads you to believe with a click of the mouse you will be able to view documents like birth, marriage and death certificates that may be helpful in working on your family tree for a small monthly fee. In reality most of the information is not documents but rather data that you can get for "free" by just surfing the net.

I signed up for the 7-day free trial. When I clicked on the county and state record it stated in a bold font that $0.00 would be charged. After I submitted it, it changed to $49.90 would be charged. There was no phone # listed on the site. Through 'Contact Us' I immediately sent a request to cancel the order and cancel the free trial. A few days later the charge showed up on my credit card. I got their phone # from my credit card, but they refuse to remove the charge. I am going to pursue getting the charge removed but don't have a lot of hope based on other people's experience with this company.

Scott P. I cannot believe that every single person on this review page has something negative to say about archives.com. The only conclusion I can come up with is that the millions who have actually HAD a great experience with the site is just simply not saying so. This is now the second year I will be using the resource, and I just love what I've accomplished. I use it often and have been doing extensive research into 16 different lineages. I have been able to (with much patience) trace most of my ancestors back for 300 or more years. I'm sorry to hear how some have lost out. I love using this site. The only thing I have to complain about is that they do not have extensive background in continental Europe. Otherwise, I've really enjoyed the results.

Votes (0)  •  Comments (1)  •  Link to this review

shelby h. Not my experience. Ancestry has much more info.

2 weeks ago  •  Votes (0)

I have been doing Genealogy for nearly 30 yrs. When I went to Archives.com they stated that I was a member, yet I could not sign-in. I even went as far as to give a credit card, and would have actually paid for info, but the site continued to refuse to give me access. I wrote to "support@archives.com" and received NO RESPONSE. I wrote again, and again. FRUADULANT comes to mind. I would not give this site any stars. I will contact my credit card service to refuse payment if they have the nerve to try to take any $. I deal with many genealogy services and this one brings the words SHAMEFUL FRUDULANT SCAM to mind!

They count on people not checking their credit card bills so they can keep the subscription for as long as possible. They also make it impossible to contact them to cancel or even call them I could not find their phone number anywhere on the site!!!

Stay away, they are scammers!

Here is the "latest" scam from AncestryDotcom.

I enrolled in Ancestry and dutifully gave them a CC#. I cancelled within 5 days and got the confirmation of the cancellation and the $39.95 never appeared on my CC bill.

However, they gave my CC # to a "marketing partner" called One Great Family (OGF) who immediately charged my account for $59.88. I called OGF who immediately cancelled my membership but couldn't refund my money. Instead I was referred back to Ancestry.

At this point, I could see what was going to happen, so I called Visa and filed a dispute on the charge. They blocked the charge until they could investigate,

Then came the "finishing touch". Someone, probably Ancestry, sold my CC# and the buyer started using it. Thankfully Visa sensed fraud and called me. I told them that I had not made the charges and Visa shut down the account and will be reversing all the charges.

For the record, I'm filing a complaint with the Feds and with my State Attorney General.

This fraud has to stop.

If I could, I would give Ancestry and One Great Family MINUS 5 stars.

Votes (0)  •  Comments (4)  •  Link to this review

View all 4 comments

Donald B. I am guessing the writer actually meant "archives.com" not the company they did mention which I believe gets good ratings

9/20/12  •  Votes (0)

Michelle M. If you go to their "About Us" page at archives.com, it states, "Archives.com is owned and operated by Ancestry.com—the world's largest online family history resource."

12/29/12  •  Votes (0)

Pamela D. The ties to Ancestry.com may explain why I received a message from archives.com saying I had a subscription to it and my membership would be renewed with $39.95 automatically charged to my account. But I have never used archives.com. I have only used Ancestry.com for a free trial period and never used my credit card for "full" membership. I don't see how archives.com could have access to my account. It could have been a fishing expedition, I'll keep an eye on my account.

1/27/13  •  Votes (0)

sharon l. i did a free search on archives.com and the next thing i know they've taken $39.95 out of my Paypal account without authorization! i didn't even sign up for the free trial! no one has answered the phone # at archives.com so my hubby called ancestry.com and they patched him through and he got a paypal credit. it's pretty unnerving to think they can just take money out of my paypal account. wtf is up with this company?!

2/19/13  •  Votes (0)

Horrible and unprofessional! I have just gotten off the phone with manager Melissa, who did nothing to help me get my money back (I was charged 2010, 2011 and 2012). They refunded the money from this year, as it was placed yesterday, but as of previous year she suggested I should take care of my finances and that they don't do it for clients!! Now the aspect that angered me and that I see described in previous comments: to sound professional they claim they always send emails prior to placing charges on a card. GUESS WHAT? NEVER got any...When I asked Melissa about it, she claimed (!) they were courtesy emails and they didn't have to take responsibility for them getting lost! After I said it was odd I never got them, three years in a row, and how I suspect they were never supposed to be delivered, so that I wouldn't really know about the charge, she claimed I should be responsible for my account regardless if I get an email or not. Well, nice customer service, Archive.com - let's just admit, you DO count on people not noticing your charges and the courtesy emails you should send that you so proudly emphasize NEVER make it to clients inbox. They don't go to their junk folder as you strongly suggest, you just NEVER SEND THEM (they will say just about anything to make you look like a fool who doesn't have control over their life and will blame their shortcomings on you or your email account pushing their emails to its junk folder). Ironically, just when I was ready to hang up on Melissa, I got an automatic email from Archives about the phone call I placed AND I GOT THIS ONE!! So, the marketing emails MAKE IT to my inbox, but the ones about CHARGES DON'T? Right, I get it. Keep counting on people not noticing the charges and then bombard them with your ready to use phrases that are formed specifically to corner the client, make them look stupid and get off the phone, so you can keep their money. Lesson learned - NEVER provide your credit card for a FREE trial. ARCHIVES.COM is a SCAM.

Am going to cancel my free trial immediately. I think their records are in very poor disarray, their trees & "my Records" are not user-friendly and furthermore, it is very hard to discontinue. If you do sign up, keep the first email they send you. It has the link to where to go if you want to cancel. They certainly DO try to trick people into unwanted subscriptions. You get what you pay for!

I, too, regret that I did not read reviews for this bogus "company" prior to signing up for the 7 day free trial. I talked to two people (their customer service offices are in Omaha) who seemed to be reading off a script broken record style. One supposedly was a "supervisor"...in reality probably was the desk buddy of the previous person I spoke to. I asked for the address to send my request for a refund of this worthless service and for a contact person to whom I could send to their attention and he would not give a supervisor or head of customer service name. When I asked for the address of the corporate headquarters, he said he wouldn't give that out because customer service is in Omaha. Really? So what if all us unhappy customers wrote to the corporate headquarters and flooded their office with the stories of their atrocious and borderline scam service? I plan on sending letters there AND to "customer service" whose address is PO Box 391146, Omaha, NE 68139, at least that's the address according to the faux customer supervisor I just got off the phone with. I wonder if these people are aware that they have a non-credible rating as compared to a reputable company such as ancestry.com? I could only hope that as is stated on this site, that the owner of archives.com does see these reviews. Oh, wait, that would mean that the higher ups actually care about their reputation out there...somehow I don't think they care the least...only about the money their are raking in at the expense of the unknowing public.

I should've read these reviews first. The previous descriptions are fully accurate. As useful as, but less transparent than every other "free" public records scam out there.

I paid $10.00 for a 3 month membership through an online coupon. In my opinion archives.com are deceptive regarding the scope of information they have to offer. After 3 MINUTES I knew I had thrown away my money. Total waste.

It's not bad enough that they fraudulently charge your credit card after promising that they won't and don't allow you to cancel after promising that they will. When you decide to try to use the site, since you were forced to pay for it, it is absolutely useless. These people couldn't find their own mother is she was living next door to them. It's a shame that sites like this don't get shut down!!!!!!!!

Came across the clickthrough ad for this website, while working on another similar website. They advertise that a credit card is not needed. I started to join, but did NOT consumate the sales and THEY STILL CHARGED MY CREDIT CARD. When I called them to dispute the charge, they start telling me all sorts of stuff. I had to go to the credit card company to dispute this charge.

Would give ZERO STARS if there was that option. My mistake, should have read others reviews first before I fell for their "free 7 day trial". Had to enter credit card info-another RED FLAG I blindly ignored. My card got charged immediately, the site is horrible, the phone # they provide for customer service is constantly a fast busy signal(even more bogus) and I got bilked out of $ and had to deal with credit card fraud paperwork to ensure they don't take even more$. STAY AWAY...

They are thieves. The 7 day free trial is a scheme. They will charge you no matter what. I'm trying to figure out how to get them arrested for robbery.

Votes (0)  •  Comments (1)  •  Link to this review

Emily R. LOL

12/5/12  •  Votes (0)

I had a suspicion about this site, and almost did the same thing as described above: provide my CC info, check it out, then possibly cancel if it was bogus info.

THANK YOU ALL for taking the time to write about your experiences! I'm sorry you lost money, but I really appreciate you taking the time to warn others like me. :) You saved me money I could not afford to lose.

Votes (0)  •  Comments (1)  •  Link to this review

Loxanna M. Yes thank you, I wanted to know if this site was shady or not so these reviews are helpful. For all you out there who were taken advantage of by archives.com know that at the very least you prevented them from making money through future searches by warning people. Post this type of warning everywhere you ccan online so that people know and avoid that company, that way you are kicking them where it counts!

2/16/12  •  Votes (0)