AncestryReviews 636

I was an Ancestry member for well over a decade. Paid annual memberships and had great customer service experiences, until now. They tell you that annual memberships save you money but that leads you into getting bigger packages and then automatically renewing your subscription and you cannot get a refund as it is written into their policy to deny refunds. Canceling now and never returning to Ancestry!

I cancelled my membership at Ancestry.com / Ancestry.org in early July of this year (2023) by calling the support line. Today I was reviewing my bank account activity and noticed that I was still being charged every month since July. I realized it was my fault that I did not make sure it was canceled, so I canceled it online. Ancestry charged me $25 fee for cancellation and still charged me the monthly membership fee as well. When I called to find out why, they basically said that they do not have any records of me calling in July snd that they will not refund my charges for this month either. My advice to anyone using this service is to be careful of being charged after cancellation.

I would vote ZERO stars if that were an option! Absolutely worthless for doing any type of search, and when you try to cancel the "free" trial, they STILL BILL YOU! AND CHARGE A $25 "CANCELLATION FEE"! SCAMMERS!

Ancestry rates keep going up and up. They nearly doubled my costs and started charing semi annually to mask the scam. I pay for Newspapers.com plug in which has not worked for over a year. They refuse to address it. Now they have the nerve to make software fixes and want to charge me another $9.99 per month to use them.

So their overpriced non-functioning software doesn't work and now they want me to pay more to fix it. What a crock! SCAM SCAM SCAM

I had my hopes up just to be let down I took the dna test waited the first thing they told me my dad had past away nothing about my mom or my brother or sister I had to get on another site and search I found my dad sister and brother basically I was told not to call again see ancestry wants to hear the good story's not the bad ones I wish I would have just left alone

The site is not easy to use. They trick you into spending money and charge cancellation fees. Don't buy!

I paid full price several years ago for the DNA kit. Sent it in found it very useful. Then they ask us to fill out traits info, now we have to pay for the info of traits we supplied them for free. No I can't even get into DNA due to their new 2 step rule. It's impossible to sign in, even with a code. Grrrrrrrr! Bah humbug stay away from Ancestry DNA

A total waste of money. Relatively quick processing but I didn't get my haplogroupes... Guessing nationality is useless - I already know it...

I had my DNA analyzed some years ago and thought I would do it again as the technology is so much better now. But the results this time were much less precise, not more. Very generic references to Scandinavia whereas before the test pinpointed Sami and Nowegian, no information about my Dutch heritage this time (and I look just like my Dutch grandmother so don't be thinking anything), no mention of the Italian or maybe Greek (would love to know which one), or the 1% Ashkenazi Jew. Some general information about Germany (hey, thanks I didn't know anything about Germany!) when the prior test was more specific, namely Alsace.
Waste of money.

My daughter paid to have her family tree traced. My Grandmother was a pure breed Lenape Indigenous North American. My daughter's family tree results didn't show she has any Lenape Blood running through her veins. My Grandfather met my Grandmother on an Indian Reservation in Ontario Canada in the late 19th century. My grandmother had no birth certificate and her birthday was approximate year,month and day. When my Grandmother and Grandfather migrated to central Pennsylvania. She had to purchase forged birth certificate. That gave her the last Name of Moore. My Grandmother didn't even have an actual last name. Her last name was considered the name of the Lenape Sub Tribes Name she came from. My Grandmother's immediate family members came from somewhere along the Delaware River in Pennsylvania. She could fluently speak her native language and learned to speak the English language fluently. If Ancestry is accurate? Why doesn't my daughter's family tree show she has 25% indigenous native North American Blood running through her veins? It shows just the available immediate family members information they could find. As soon as there is no record of a immediate family member. My Grandmother is a immediate family member. These ancestry companies fail at giving you a accurate family tree. No real DNA test costs $100.00.Im am in no way mocking these ancestry tracing companies. When these ancestry companies can find all the information of your family tree. They can give you a very accurate family tree record. Back to at least 1700's. Starting with the first 2 people that started your family tree.

I 'Had' been a member of Ancestry.com for 14 years. Recently, Oct 2023, Ancestry updated how their interface works (OR in my case did NOT work) and there was NOT a way to 'Contact us' either through chat or a phone call while online. I was having an issue with a duplicate person, which is VERY common on Ancestry, I needed to delete this person, so I did. Keep in mind I was working in about the 1450's, where the records are messy at best. When I deleted this 1 person, it removed every person in my 'Tree' from that time up to about 1800, over 1000 people. So I used their 'Chat bot' which is a f'ng waste of time, when finally I was able to chat with a person. "We cannot do anything if you delete a person"... come on I was on IT for 35 years, data is still there. I was so upset I canceled my account and had EVERYTHING deleted. 14 years of research, with piss poor service. Plus they would not apply the remainder of my account balance to my wife's DNA account. So I got screwed out of about 9 months or $300+ that was left. DO NOT USE ANCESTRY.

This site offers a free trial. I thought great try before I buy. I signed up under my Apple ID. Unbeknownst to me when they are getting info that I felt necessary to use their site. One being my personal email, they were setting up another account through my personal email. So I had two trials going. I did not feel I was getting adequate info from their site and proceeded to cancel through my subscriptions on my Apple ID. And in 7 days got hit with a full charge for not canceling trial. I called ancestry and in a sing song voice the operator told me not our problem. So I chocked it up to a lesson learned. Created a password for account under personal email so I could go into that account and cancel it. Then guess what I got hit with a $25 cancelation fee. So unless you can afford all this. My recommendation is do NOT sign up for anything. Because that FREE TRIAL will end up costing $57.99. So there goes a big chunk of my grocery bill for the week. Thank you Ancestry.com.

I paid more money to subscribe to Ancestry as opposed to other genealogical research sites, as their claim and other online reviews stated they have the greatest depth of information. I soon found out they have a lot of information, but the data may not be true. When you accept their hints, even though the sight lists if you are researching the same person, it often creates a duplicate. This causes chaos in your tree. I have tried to reach their support on multiple occasions, and they have no answers and will not escalate. Don't bother with this site, just do your own internet research.

The chatbot was better help than the customer support that was rude to me when I requested a refund for my DNAkit. They are stealing people's money, providing 0 results (I've had 3 kits rejected since May) and being unprofessional to their customers.

Unless you are buying it for someone who has an email and good with details don't do it. My mother tried to do it on her own messed up and now I can't get my money back cause she put the wrong email address in.

The fact our OWN ANCESTORS information is kept from us until they have their monetary gain is blasphemy. Can't see anything with a free account unless you pay.

I have been a member since 2020 and was happy enough with the site, however realised today that I have been overcharged for the last 6 months and when I queried it I was advised "no refund policy"! But it's an error! I've been charged to use the US site ( which means converted to Aussie dollars I'm paying almost double!) And when I threatened to cancel my subscription after 3 years they were more than happy to cancel and get rid of me! Terrible consumer service and a refund policy that serves only their company bottom line.