Ancestry

The best way to describe this company is to say they are thieves.

My wife bought a DNA sample test kit from these guys back in July 2018. The goods came to NZ, I sent the test away and it took some time to return with the results.

To cut to the point. Exactly $797.34 has been stolen from our account by this company over an 11 month period. The bank details made to purchase the initial DNA test was used to deduct further transactions. To make matters worse there was no paper trail whatsoever. Nothing telling us this money had been coming out. Moreover in our account the transactions appeared as a eftpos transaction and didn't list their company name.

This came as a shock to us as we were on holiday when we noticed a lump sum come out. We emailed back and forth. They completely dodged all the questions and responsibility. The first email even said "I'm sorry these transactions were not from us, perhaps it was a third party"

We managed to get back 1 payment they stole, however there is still over 500 dollars outstanding that they say we will not be refunded.

I would not recommend this company to anyone. The sheer dishonest practice is disgusting. I wish that we had never supported this outfit.
There are many other companies to chose from and these guys will not be your only option.

This brings me to the conclusion,
If you are signing up to this ancestry test outfit, you may be buying this as a gift for your friend or family. Be wary, they are not a trustworthy company.

Ancestry is great for taking your money but giving you poor customer service. They have no cyber-bullying policy and refuse to do anything about it. They refuse to accept any responsibility and are more protective of the bully than the victim. In this instance, the victim did all that Ancestry asked them to do but the bully did not. Yet the bully still has control of the family message board and strictly controls who can see what. The bully has gone so far as to claim that a state issued birth certificate is not sufficient evidence to acknowledge a person. You can talk to people at corporate but they choose to protect the bully. I guess its going to have to get to a level where people are hurt before Ancestry steps up and realizes that their policies are not even worth the paper its printed on, if printed, or the zeros and ones on your computer screen. They only care about getting their money each month from you. Their customer service reps can't even follow a supposide standardized company policy. Often times the CSR's take it upon themselves to try to resolve an issue that is all ready at the corporate level. I do not recommend Ancestry.com anymore.

Ordered the AncestryDNA kit and got fascinating insights into my heritage. Simple saliva test, but the results took a bit longer than expected. Overall, a wonderful eye-opening experience!

This company is concerned with profit over customer satisfaction. I have been paying a yearly subscription for my husband to have an account for over 10 years. Last January I apparently started an account for myself.( I was waiting for the DNA test kit to be sent to me and then had to go into the hospital for neck surgery. This put me stationery and not able to use my computer at all for months. All this while they have been charging me 24.99 every month( for 10 months!) I contacted them today ( which is not easy) to let them know they have been charging me for services I have never used. I've never even opened the account. They say it doesn't matter, there is no refund for monthly accounts.
We are seniors on a restricted budget. I can't possibly afford to have 2 accounts. Especially when they are not being used. When I called, it was clear that they did not care at all about this customer and don't even care if I discontinue my husbands account.
How does a company exist without customer satisfaction? I am so disappointed. This should have been a total refund since they have not given me any information all this time! Steer clear of this company -unless you have unlimited resources.

We were so excited to get our family DNA results. Then they came: Western Europe. My family originated in Western Europe, really? Really? Western Europe? Not France, or Austria, or a region of (I repeat) WESTERN EUROPE? No! Western. Europe. Like we could not and have not narrowed it down ourselves, but NO! WESTERN EUROPE.

That's what you get for your money at ole Ancestry.com, a pronouncement that your white, western european family originated from somewhere in WESTERN EUROPE: Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Ireland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Vatican City, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria, and others!

You can find some good information, but you have to be smart about it. The DNA matches are the best part since I have found some relatives that I didn't know.

The issue is that the computer can only pick out information if it's entered accurately but since any user can enter or use the information there are some glitches.
- Someone entered a married name for a wife instead of the madden names, so the computer picks up the married name to find the parents, then the information is incorrect. Then unfortunately this information gets used over and over again down other's family trees.

- Names of parents do not match or are entered incorrectly, example Smithe vs Smith, then someone will make it look okay will change the name to suit their family tree instead of finding the correct information. Then of course, this gets copied by someone else and so forth

- It's almost impossible to find a correct date unless you actually research. There is way too many dates listed for each event (mostly marriages) and a lot are duplicates. I had a grandfather that I had to scroll through six pages just to get the next person. The system needs to be setup to merge the duplicates.

Started out in December and received errors during the process, this will be the 3rd times I'm giving samples of my DNA. And still waiting.

As I write this, I am still able to access the "Classic" format. I venture over to the new format a couple of times a week. They are slowly adding features that I use... BUT. There is more "clicking and scrolling" with your mouse. Not a big deal unless you have arthritis in your hands. The background colors are extremely difficult if you have vision problems. Also if you want to print something out, if the page has any color in the back ground you use a lot of ink. The "Classic" format was black print on white background.

Then, the one change that has many disgusted with Ancestry: Putting square or rectangle photos in a round circle. It looks horrible! Sure, they shrink down the photo to fit into the circle but then you have grey background surrounding that photo. It's ugly!

Funny, tho. I saw one of their new advertisements today. Those pictures on the tv screen are rectangle. They should show them shrunk down and fitted inside the grey circle.

My tree will be going private and my information will not be available to the public. That means that the subscribers will not be able to see what information I find and record on my ancestry tree.

Also, once the Classic view is no longer an option, I will be canceling my subscription.

Do not do not waste your money

What I received as results was 50% Baltic 50% Eastern European
Now that stretches over a very large stretch of The world

The advertisements and commercials make you feel that you're going to zero in on something that is unusual or something you did not know

They wouldn't even answer the phone when I called them but Amazon was outstanding and refunded my money

Again do not waste your time and money doing this

Very dissatisfied customer Delaware

Every one has secrets. I woke up to finding out my mother who owns her own "pedestal" the one she so proudly sat on and dictated to us 3 kids and how to be perfect every single day of our lives, is actually a big whore. 3 kids, 3 different Dads, and she had her husband for 50 years convinced he was the father. She made him pay child support after the divorce, she reminded us daily on how bad of a father he was, he "beat" her, he was "jealous", he was selfish, he was this he was that. She forgot to leave out she was a cheating lying whore and was having affairs with his best friends.

You may know who your parents are, but there are dirty secrets everywhere. While you think your DNA test may be harmless it may kill another. I have 20+ families members who have not ate, have not slept, who spilled more tears in a week then in 30 years. Grandma is not Grandma, Dad is not Dad, uncles, aunts cousins. My birth certificate is lie, my life is lie. I haven't worked in 4 days, my sister is contemplating suicide ready to go back to the nut ward. The man that raised me, my father is crushed. I have never seen him cry so much. There is so much agony. I wish this on NO ONE.

I used my Grandmother last name because I already know the history of the name and many facts.The name is Elser which is of German origin.It started from Germans born on the elster river and was also the surname of Georg Elser who bombed the burgerbrau kellior where Hitler gave an annual speech on the anniversary of his failed beer hall putsch. Many Nazi's were killed but Hitler left 5 minutes before the massive bomb exploded. Georg was arrested in 1939 2 weeks aftyer the bombing and kept alive by Hitler, but killed days before the prison he was kept in was over runby the allies.Ancestor.com knew none of this.It's sup[osed facts were garbage and ridiculous.In fact I could have merely googled elser and got better information

I did my 14 free day trial and cancelled it and still got charge I called to speak to representative to get money back omg more than 30 min on phone not even update on calls like other websites that they would call you back so you won't lose turn it's ridiculous I hung up 3xs already and still more than 30 min to speak to someone I guess I got screw on my money and over draft fee in bank account never again and will tell family members to be careful on free trial they still your money very angry and dissapointed

Limited data base in Asia region. I wanted to find out what is the specific ancestral region I belong to; instead, I received results stating "East Asia" which includes "Russia, China, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma), Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Palau" (copied directly from Ancestry website results). Ridiculous, right? I don't think that is sufficient information for $100 they ask for their test. The company does not disclose to public the fact that data from that part of the world is not available to them in the amount sufficient to break it down into more specific regions. I called customer service to claim at least partial refund, but after one hour spent on the phone, I was unsuccessful. They kept redirecting me from manager to manager and not answering questions directly. Although they admitted over the phone that they don't have enough data from Asia to break it down into more details as they do in other parts of the world, they said that they will not refund me. Such a fraud. I could have just threw $100 in a trash cane because the data they provided me with was not even supplemental to what I already knew.

Finally retired and able to devote time to a Digital Family History. This site
Is extraordinary at "connecting" family members. I have two "trees" going:
Birge Family Tree (married into), Harrington/Lee Family tree is my blood lineage.
My Harrington ancestor was a 2nd. Lieutenant in the 7th Cavalry... unfortunately with
CUSTER at LITTLE BIGHORN! Henry Moore Harrington... on Lee side we are related to Robert E. Lee who "lost the BIG ONE... THE ENTIRE SOUTH and at Jamestown settlement 1607 but killed by Indians! I have forgiven them since. Mrs. B. p.s. I KNOW... wrong place each time... oh, also... one of the Minute Men at Lexington so we "started" the war my other relative lost!

My results randomly changed. Large percentage areas disappeared entirely. Other areas i didn't even have in my dna rests, now show. I don't know if i even trust these results anymore.

I started searching my family history 35 years ago in 1978. I have researched the Orlando Library (which has a remarkable family history center), the Miami Library, most importantly the DAR Library. Two family history libraries, one here in Winter Park, Florida and one in Washington DC. I stopped in Jacksonville to visit there library when I came out my passenger side window was smashed and $250 was stolen from my purse. So, you can see I was very serious about my mission.

I aplaud Ancestry.com. If you have any common sense and have a knowledge of American History, seek confirmation through the Internet or your family stories that have been passed down, they will provide you the information. It is up to you to verify information through many sources. I have been a member for many years, and they have provided links and historical information in one place that would have taken me years to uncover, most likely never. Yes, there is much miss-information, people eager to add names. But if you approach this will intelligence and and do some research, you will gather a family tree that is most likely accurate.

I had half of my ancestry back for over 8 generations about a year ago. Now I paid for another 6 months to finish the other side of my family.

I was going to finish the side of my family that I thought would be easier since I know those people and lived with them. I can't even find my grandmother's parents. When I was trying to find my mom's family it wouldn't even show her siblings. When I looked at my mother, my brother didn't exist. One of my aunts was put as dead. I called another aunt and asked if she died and she said. "No. She lives just a mile a way."

So I decided to just reinforce the family tree that I already had researched.

Everything I knew before is not there now. Ancestors that I knew all of their profile, Birth, spouse, death, parents and children is all gone. Now I cannot go back three generations and nothing makes sense.

I can only give up and just keep what I have and not be able to confirm any of my previous information.

My family tree with all of my ancestors is gone. What gives?

I feel sorry for any beginners.