Ancestry

Ancestry charged my credit card 158.54 in Aug 2020, all of my info was erased, when I called customer service spoke with a lady Purette., who was clueless, after being on the phone 1 hour, she could still not restore my service. Finally offered full refund, stating "I'm gonna make your day and give you a full refund" even though I had no access to my info for 4 months, still waiting to see if that appears. Thanks for the favor Ancestry...

I signed up for the trial and cancelled prior to the required date, but was charged anyway. Since I had used a debit card I rarely use, the charges were not caught right away. Once I called them, they stated they would issue a partial refund. That was a couple months ago, 6-7 phone calls, a bogus statement that the refund was issued on 3/12. You can't talk with anyone of authority, you can't get answers. In fact one of their representatives stated I should dispute the refund with my bank. Of course, my bank doesn't dispute credits owed, or charges older than 2 months. I'm pretty sure she knew this. I will NEVER recommend Ancestry.com. Their business practices are terrible.

I've had a tree at Ancestry on and off for eight years. I have even keyed (transcribed) some of the records. I understand the spelling errors, as they use members to read and type the information. I am not connected with the LDS church or the company. Just someone who enjoys researching my family.
My best advice is to be wary of other member's trees unless you are lucky enough to know the owner is related to you. I have seen many people just stick in names and dates, adding no records at all. Each census, military, birth or death record, will give your tree the chance to be more accurate!
Bottom line: a bit pricey for me, but I love the searching.

Ya, its great for the free storage, but beyond that the site is very useless. My mom tried to gift me a membership, and we sure learned quick this site is TERRIBLE. Customer service was either 15-30 min of holding, or they told you to call back the next day, and they did not fix the problems at all. It won't let my mom just purchase the account under mine because my name isn't on the credit card. The only reason I would suggest anyone to use this site is if they want to store and organize their ancestry work. Otherwise, the thing is useless and doesn't care at all about their customers.

I strongly recommend against using this service, including signing up for free short term membership, which I did.

Without my knowledge, they began charging $7.95 per month. When I began looking at my bank statement carefully, I asked them to cancel and give me a refund. They refused.

This unwholesome transaction was actually with a subsidiary of Ancestry.com, which is called Archives.com, which has a rating on SiteJabber of 1.2. My guess that this company uses Archives.com as sort of a test ground to see what they can get away with; then they adapt the biggest income generating ideas that cause the least outrage on the mother site, Archives.com.

Joined in 04 at 99$ per year. They then sneakily doubled the amount a year later without notification. Then, they kept "upgrading and improving" until navigation became extremely difficult. They used to hide their phone number until they got rid of e-mail and live chat. They censor your comments to other users and if you complain they delete your comments and your ability to comment. The records are good, but not this company. Census records are public domain and I can't believe that they charge for access. They charge big bucks for internet convenience. My advice? Find a pen pal in your research area who will help you for FREE without these pieces of crud making book off of your hobby. Or, make the trip to the library.

Being interested in my family history I signed up for a premium version of this site. Big mistake. It is almost impossible to clearly search for an ancestor. Even when you set for an exact search, most of the time nothing shows up even though if you broaden the search suddenly your ancestor shows up.

Or, as in one case I traced an ancestor to central Indiana in 1936. It is known she was in California in 1967, but cannot be found.

And other cases, two great uncles, brothers, an entry by someone not in the family failed to include their youngest sister, who happened to be my grand mother. And a first cousin once removed was listed as have only one daughter, born in 1947. The other, born in 1951 and a high school classmate fails to show. And the original poster do not correct the date when pointed out the them.

If the annual fee was $25.00 this site might be worth the price. However $198.00 a year it robbery.

I did cancel my account before being charged.

I set the date on 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 ($19.99 x 2), 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 customer's money so there was nothing she could do other than cancel my subscription AGAIN. I've since read Ancestry.com reviews and found, based on other customers' experiences, this really is their policy. I also now have reason to doubt the results of my Ancestry DNA test. Ancestry.com should be investigated for fraud.

Had huge problems with my wife's Ancestry sample, received no updates on progress, given phone numbers which did not work, spent hours trying to resolve the problems, still waiting with no results. Take the money quickly but complete lack of back up service and little interest in ones problems. Conflicting information given

Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time calling customer service. I can't think of a worst experience trying to communicate with someone who clearly had problems speaking english. I asked to speak to the manager and it was even worse. Very disappointed. Never got resolved..

I'm a disabled Veteran and my wife is getting chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer. EXPENSIVE. I contacted Ancestry during the St. Patrick's Day sale of 2022. Explained my situation and requested to buy the Full Access for one year at a price of $113.00 each. They refused, saying it's only good for one six-month renewal. It didn't matter that I've been a customer since 2012 or about my situation. They are just out for money!

Ancestry is mostly a good site. It is fairly user-friendly and can be very helpful if you are a discerning researcher, but overall it is way overpriced and plays dirty by charging cancellation fees, auto-renewing subscriptions, and forcing you to cancel free trials multiple days in advance of it ending so as not to incur fees. I forgot to cancel my free trial and ended up paying $50 ($25 for the subscription, $25 for "cancellation fee") despite not using my account at all during the time I was charged for. I would recommend only using this site if you're planning on blowing money.

Can we go back to the previous Ancestry, please. There are a number of errors on this new appearance - my predecessors were living in Aberdare, not Aberdeenshire, for...'s sake - and there are other errors that I have discovered - I can't go back and check every entry. The contemporary events photo inserts are really irritating - most are totally irrelevant. If I want photos, i'll put them in myself. Get rid of them. And it's complicated now to see the media that I have attached to incidents. Also I object to being told that my wife 'passed away' - she was killed in a car crash. Altogether very disappointing.

This 'renown' [infamous in reality] company has plenty of tricks, real bad service and faulty product [see other reviews]. They've kept my money and have botched two dna test results I've sent to them. They've sent plenty of emails with lies and excuses and they've wiped out some of my account info on the purchases. I trusted this big company and feel like a fool; it's been several months now. The pandemic is a poor excuse to try and justify their crooked practice and seem able to get away with keeping $108.95 of my money. I don't need to use more derogatory language to explain my anger at being fleeced twice bc a point anyone can relate to is they never sent the results or refund. No product no refund. I need the help of any view who understands these shady practices by 'big companies.' The hell with politics it's just too much when a company this big pulls these cheap deals during a pandemic. Help me in calling out this type of practice we consumers have to stick together.