ArchivesReviews 158

Signed up for a free 7 day trial on 5/16. Had to enter credit card info so I gave them my PayPal business debit card. Canceled on 5/23, they confirmed via email that my membership privileges were canceled as of 5/23. WITHIN THE SEVEN DAYS. On 5/24 they attempted to take $7.95 out of my PayPal account AND to take $49.95 out. No money in account (debit card) so that failed. They tried again five more times in the next month. During that month long period I repeatedly:

1) called their 800 number only to be told by a live person that their computers were down and they couldn't access my records.
2) went on-line and canceled (receiving an on-screen confirmation that I would not be billed anymore and that I had no payment record on file)
3) sent them an email requesting they stop billing me

As of yesterday, June 27th, they were still trying to bill my PayPal Debit card for $49.95. I have deliberately swept all of my money out of my PayPal account while this is going on because I am not going to let these crooks steal $49.95 of my money.

Today, June 28th, I finally reported my PayPal debit card stolen and asked for a replacement.

These people are either incompetent, or crooks, or both. Whatever - don't make the mistake of giving them your financial information, you WILL regret it.

In the fall of 2013 I did some rapid-fire genealogical research towards my sister's 40th birthday, to gift her a fuller tree. I used several sites including fold3.com, rootsireland.ie, & ancestry.com. Re: ancestry.com, I took the 14-day free trial, cancelled on Day 14 and had no troubles. However, I did begin to see $7.95 charges this spring in reviewing our 2013 charges for archives.com. I do not have any record (neither email confirmation or registration, any emails thereafter from them re: marketing, nor any cancellation emails... neither any records in my Password Wallet) of having registered with archives.com. NONE.

They claim I did. They have a date, a mere 2 weeks out from my sister's birthday, by which I had completed my work for the season. At this point, in April, they only allowed a one-month refund of THIS month's charge, but said Monthly Memberships Are Nonrefundable. I understand that, for someone who registered intentionally--which I did not. It is in the fine print. That is all well & good. BUT, I did NOT ever register for a monthly subscription, nor do I have any evidence of having registered for a short-term trial.

I suspect that their partner, ancestry.com, shared my information, or that via ancestry.com I referenced an item on the archives.com site, and thereby the two accounts linked in some way, yet I did not click the archives.com button.

Regardless, it would be no skin off their nose to give me the 8 months' refund, when their records can surely demonstrate that I have NOT used their site at all since August 2013. So, what's $60 to a massive company? Apparently, it's a lot, b/c I cannot get it back.

DO NOT EVEN GO TO THEIR SITE. I am terribly disappointed. I agree with the reports below mine that something is rotten in the state of Utah.

For almost two years I have had a paid subscription. I agree that this site is a real scam! Not much info is available and now there's another huge issue. A few months ago I requested that my subscription be cancelled, i. E., not renewed again in May, so I don't know yet if they'll charge me for a renewal. Today when I try to access archives.com and their members.recordsbase.com, there is a message warning that the site's security certificate has EXPIRED! Now what? My subscription has not expired yet!

HORRIBLE. HORRIBLE. DO NOT GIVE ARCHIVES.COM YPUR CREDIT CARD! Requested a certified copy of my parents marriage certificate from the New York City Clerk of Courts. They said it would take up to 2 months to get. So I came to Archives.com because they misleadingly seem to say that they can get your records and expedite them much faster. So I paid $181 for 3 copies thinking I would get them within a couple of weeks. However... ONLY after you pay does an invoice state that it will take 74 days for Archives.com to get the copies. I even paid (sucker) an additional $12 to "expedite" the records but again ONLY after you pay do they state how long it will take. At that point there is no way to cancel. To make matters worse, Archives.com outsources the whole thing to a third party - USVital. Numerous phone calls to their "customer service" go straight to a voice mail that promises to call you back within 4 hours. None of my calls or emails were returned for 2 days until I left a last message saying I would dispute the charges. Only then someone from another agency calls me to tell me "too bad - we don't care about any of this - your out of luck." HORRIBLE. HORRIBLE. SERVICE AND BORDERLINE SCAM. DO NOT USE ARCHIVES.COM.

I signed up for the 7-day trial seeking to verify family information from elderly members. Was unable to find verification and could not find information on myself. Called the phone number for customer service within an hour to cancel and Matt said he would document my cancellation. Then a charge showed on my card. When I emailed the customer service they responded to say they show no record of me calling and I would be charged.

I, like Spencer B., do not have the negative experience that seems to be so prevalent in postings here. As a matter of fact, if you research reviews by companies who compare and rate ancestry research sites (including their customer support and knowledge) it is consistently ranked second only to Ancestry, com. I also couldn't help but notice some of you in this string are actually complaining about Ancestry.com and not Archives.com. At any rate, I subscribe to Archives and another family member uses Ancestry and we compile our findings to get a better family tree. Yes, I actually find info on Archives that is not found on Ancestry and the same is true the other way around.

The first time I noticed charges from this website, I called to tell them I had never signed up with them. They assured me I was not in their database, and the charges could not be coming from them. The next time I called, it took about 45 minutes, but they finally found that someone else had signed up with my card number, but they would not tell me who. They said they protect their members. So if you are a thief, this is the site for you. And, they said they they would only credit me for one month's charge, but after some arguing, the gave me 5 months credit.