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MyHeritage is the leading global platform for family history discovery. It enriches the lives of people worldwide by enabling them to uncover more about themselves and where they belong.
With a suite of intuitive features and innovative products, MyHeritage creates a meaningful discovery experience that is deeply rewarding. Users build family trees and discover new information and relatives through advanced matching technologies and billions of historical records from across the globe. MyHeritage also offers an affordable at-home DNA test revealing an ethnicity breakdown across 79 ethnicities and 2,114 geographic regions, and AI-powered features to repair, colorize, and animate old photos.
The MyHeritage platform is enjoyed by tens of millions of people around the world who treasure and celebrate their heritage. MyHeritage offers full privacy controls and is available in 42 languages.
MyHeritage Reviews Summary
MyHeritage is generally well-regarded for its user-friendly platform and extensive database, which many customers find invaluable for tracing their ancestry and connecting with relatives. Users appreciate the regular updates and the powerful search capabilities that facilitate discoveries. However, concerns arise regarding customer service, particularly related to billing issues and the difficulty of reaching support. Some users have reported feeling overwhelmed by the volume of information and have encountered challenges in verifying data. Overall, while the service is praised for its features, improvements in customer support and communication are necessary to enhance user satisfaction.
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When changing the laptop, I had a password problem. I wrote to the help desk. They called me and helped. Communication was very pleasant and helpful.
Thought i was mostly English, Dutch and Italian. Heritage had me with no English, 10 %
Italian, 18 %Greek 17%north African also Nigerian, Irish and Asian. Had done by ancestry
Guess what? 90% Italian, Engish, and Dutch plus 5% French. They then tried to tell me both reports said the same thing.so no refund of course.
Your staff member helped with finding my DNA results. There was a mix up on my part for giving the wrong password on my account. She was so kind and patient explaining what I could do to straighten out my problems. In the end, everything was resolved and I am so appreciative for her kindness.
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,
Trotz meiner dürftigen Englischkenntnisse, konnte mein Anliegen kompetent, schnell und positiv erledigt werden.
Ich bedanke mich und wünsche Ihnen ein schönes Osterfest.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen!
Albert Zentgraf
Dear Albert,
I regret to find your low star review.
I would like to follow-up on your inquiries as soon as possible.
Please email me at "catarina.vipsupport@myheritage.com" with the details so I may assist you on a direct basis.
Kind regards,
Catarina, MyHeritage Team
***************** Google Translate - German *****************
Lieber Albert,
Es tut mir leid, Ihre niedrige Sternebewertung zu finden.
Ich möchte Ihre Anfragen so schnell wie möglich bearbeiten.
Bitte senden Sie mir eine E-Mail mit den Details an "catarina.vipsupport@myheritage.com", damit ich Sie direkt unterstützen kann.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Catarina, MyHeritage-Team
I have called the for help staff 4 times with different very difficult problems and all 4 times I was very impressed with the intelligence and ingenuity and friendliness of your associates. Thanks for your help,
Larry albanese
Myheritage has improved quite a bit since last time I was customer. Still some things the adress, imo, the user interface is quite outdated when in Family Tree mode, also the cost is too high. Well worth the money, but for retired people it's way too much sometimes to subscribe for one year. Monthly payments should be allowed.
The most significant improvement is that today the staff at the service center has upped their skills tremendously, thus enabling us users to have a much better experience. I highly recommend Myheritage because of its sheer size, the cooperation with Geni and Familysearch and not the least, the excellent help I received from the support team. Thank you!
My third contact with support was excellent understood my problem at once and had a solution to my problem, it was fixed in 15 minutes, thank you!
First support contact more or less a disaster, we did not understand each other.
Second support contact suggested what to do but problem still exist.
Twice in one day I needed help. 1st to know when my dna kit would show up, and 2nd to have an old phonenumber deleted. I got the best service both times. Thank you so much.
I am Cherokee Indian, I know my ancestors and just wanted to test this DNA stuff... No American Indian at all in me... test is 100% wrong or they only test for eastern countries because I guess I'm 100% english and Irish... It's really laughable. Don't waste ur money!
Dear Joanna,
I'm sorry you feel this way.
Please keep in mind that even though you might have Native American ancestry, this does not necessarily mean that this ancestry is included in your DNA and might therefore not appear in your Ethnicity Estimate.
Each of us inherits about 50% DNA from our mother and 50% from our father. However, the percentages of DNA received from grandparents and further back are rarely divided evenly. Therefore, you don’t necessarily inherit the DNA of a given ancestor throughout the generations that have passed.
Since your ancestors’ DNA is not passed evenly to their descendants, one great-grandparent might have passed on 3% of his/her DNA to his great-grandchild, while another great-grandparent may have passed on 11%.
For example, if you have a Native American great-grandmother, you might have inherited such a small amount of her Native American DNA that it cannot be traced in a DNA test.
In addition, though you might have Native American DNA, it might belong to a tribe that is not part of the sampling used to build our Ethnicity Estimate. There are more than 500 recognized tribes which are ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse. The majority of these tribes have not contributed their DNA for research purposes which would allow science to establish better ethnicity models.
Therefore, the fact that we did not find Native American DNA in your sample does not mean that you are not Native American.
If your Native American ethnicity does not appear in the Ethnicity Estimate, you might also consider testing one of your parents or grandparents as it is more likely that Native American DNA will be traced in the generations closer to the Native American ancestor.
I'd be happy to assist you personally with this. Please e-mail me at catarina.vipsupport@myheritage.com so I can go through your Ethnicity Estimate with you.
Kind regards,
Catarina, MyHeritage Team
Changing email gave a problem of sync. With the help of a trained employee, the problem was solved in no time.
They take money when you've cancelled, twice the previous years fees without telling you!
Minus 1000 stars
Dear MyHeritage member,
I am sorry to read your review and would like to resolve the issue for you.
Firstly, I must clarify that MyHeritage informs all of any charge and its price on the automatic e-mail that is sent out after you enroll in a subscription and after every renewal or purchase a DNA kit. Also, one may view the status or cancel an annual subscription at any time when logging in to MyHeritage from the My Purchases page and incur no annual charge.
Your member experience is very important to us and we really do value the satisfaction of all of our members. This is why our terms and conditions read that If you are not satisfied with your purchased plan you may request a full refund by contacting Customer Support within thirty (30) days of the initial purchase date of the subscription.
I would be more than happy to assist you personally with issuing you a full refund. In order to do so, I’m going to need to locate your account.
Please send me a message from your registered e-mail address at shane.vipsupport@myheritage.com so I may assist you with this as soon as possible.
I will be looking for your e-mail.
Kind Regards
Shane, MyHeritage Team
Beware. They will post your private information on public web. Took me months to get it removed. They offer family search in their fee, but that's free to anyone. Maybe why they joined with Geni. Would Not Trust
Dear Lynn,
I'm sorry to read about your struggle with contacting our support team and removing your private information off of the web. Issues such as these can an indeed be frustrating and I'd be happy to clarify.
MyHeritage is with full accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law that enforces the removal of all information on online sites upon the request of the information's owner. This is why MyHeritage will not post private information on the web without your authorization. Any information that a member will publish on their site is controlled by them and can be amended or deleted at any time. It is the site creator's sole responsibility to ensure that the information they publish is either privatized or removed.
For more information, please see our privacy policy found here:
https://www.myheritage.com/FP/Company/popup.php?p=privacy_policy
With regards to your comment on the MyHeritage data subscription, please note that family search is actually free for all Basic members (MyHeritage free membership) and does not require an extra data subscription. To clarify, there are actually many other collections such as e.g. BillionGraves, and the Social Security Death Index that do not require an additional subscription. The data subscription is a separate membership for the genealogy research market because it expands as more historical data is uploaded from MyHeritage partners that require royalties on its use by customers.
If you are in need of any assistance with the removal of your information or any of our memberships, please feel free to e-mail me directly at rafael.vipsupport@myheritage.com.
I'd be happy to be your direct line of contact for any questions or requests you may have.
Sincerely
Rafael
MyHeritage
Unlike ancestry.com which I also did the dna test with, Heritage suckers you in then requires additional fees to actually see the information. After you pay them it took a long processing time then they withhold information they tell you they found and your unable to view/research until you pay them again. IMHO hidden costs, I wish I had not paid them in the 1st place.
Dear James,
I am sorry to see that you are disappointed with your MyHeritage experience to date.
When purchasing a MyHeritage DNA kit you were informed of what results you would receive. Testing your DNA with MyHeritage provides you with two types of results: An Ethnicity Estimate and DNA Matches.
Ethnicity Estimate - a comprehensive breakdown of your unique DNA composition. MyHeritage analyzes your ancestral roots in great depth to provide the most diverse percentage-based ethnicity breakdown, which includes 42 ethnicities from around the world. You will discover where your heritage originated from and how much each ethnicity is part of your ancestral origins, and even view the main life events of your direct ancestors on the Ethnicity map.
DNA Matches - This technology compares data from autosomal DNA test results and family trees to identify matches between users that share genetic sequences and indicate a family relationship. When you test your DNA with MyHeritage DNA, you are eligible to receive DNA Matches to others who have tested with MyHeritage, as well as those who have tested with other services. We allow users of all major testing providers to upload their DNA results to MyHeritage, widening your matching pool and making it possible for you to meet even more new relatives.
Indeed, MyHeritage is based on subscriptions. Mainly because It is not possible for us to stay consistent and offer so many record collections along with state of the art research tools without having a paid membership.
As you may know, many services in general, are subject to a membership charge, including the genealogy research market because it expands as more historical data is uploaded from MyHeritage partners that require royalties on its use by customers. That said, one may still very well research their family roots with a FREE basic membership. A FREE basic membership is a great start if you are just beginning the research of your family roots. This includes a free basic membership and a free downloadable Family Tree Builder program. Also, some records in SuperSearch are free (e.g. BillionGraves, Social Security Death Index). Some of our members will purchase a complete subscription that offers all research tools but many of our users prefer to only pay for some features as they don't really use the entire array of tools we offer.
Please message me to john.vipsupport@myheritage.com and I will try to help you with any questions or issues you may have.
Kind regards,
John
MyHeritage Team
After a 90 day wait due to a chip update', or holiday backlog more likely, we had our results. I bought this kit for all the family for Christmas. I had my results first, I was over the moon to find I was from such interesting places. But as my families emailed results started to come back the penny dropped. Strange, my results show over 3000 cousins in US and all over the world, yet doesn't match me to any of my immediate family, mum, dad, kids & the kids to their dad (my husband) all of us are aparently' from different places all over the world. None match. If we weren't such a close family, I would say My Heritage could break up happy homes! Don't waste your money, it's a scam!
Dear Sarah,
I am sorry to find your low star review and the issue you are having with your results.
We value the satisfaction of all of our members and strive to offer a first class service to our members. I would like to investigate your case personally, please send me a message from your registered email address to shane.vipsupport@myheritage.com and I will be more than happy to help you.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,
Shane, MyHeritage Team
Waited for over 2 months for my results to come in but they didn't. 1 month of delay and still no results and apparently the cause of this was a change of DNA chip. False promises and it is especially frustrating seeing how they still promised 3-4 week results while this delay was happening to many customers. I had to get a refund because I couldn't take the delays any longer. Would not recommend this company
Dear R K,
I'm sorry to read your low star review. Your concerns about the current delay are absolutely understood. Your feedback about the delay has indeed been escalated. We are aware of the issue and are working to resolve it as soon as possible for many of our members.
As you may know already, we do give an estimated time but the estimate is an estimate and does not reflect issues with samples and how DNA will be processed.
This is why our terms and conditions explain that scientific procedures may sometimes be delayed for a variety of reasons. Testing times may vary depending on lab volume, upgrades, and biological sample quality. Expected result dates are therefore predictions and not a guarantee of delivery.
I can assure you that ultimately, this new top-shelf chip will provide better insight into everyone's DNA research and progress and the value in it is great. It is true that MyHeritage believes that all of our DNA researchers will profit in their research progress ultimately with this new chip.
If you have any more feedback, please feel free to e-mail me directly anytime at rafael.vipsupport@myheritage.com
Sincerely
Rafael
MyHeritage
My wife had completed a Ancestry.com DNA kit that we completed on December 6,2018 and received by Ancestry on December 10,2018. I had my DNA results from Ancestry on December 27,2018. Those results were interesting, so we purchased the MyHeritage DNA in early January 2018. It was activated on January 19,2019. Then it took until February 8,2019 before the website showed they had even received the sample. Then the DNA tracker showed I would be getting results on or around March 3rd, which didn't happen. The website changed on March 4, showing my DNA was still processing. I called on March 5th, and was informed that they were backlogged because of the holidays. Okay, I get it - it's a busy time of the year. Then a week later I see an update online with information about a new process and a new expected date of March 27. That has now changed to April 17th. This will nearly 90 days after the order was placed, three times longer than Ancestry.com processed the DNA, and that was at Christmas time. At this point, I will be surprised if they ever deliver any DNA results. Do yourself a favor, and use Ancestry.com or 23 and Me. Anything but this company.
It has been months and my results are not out yet due to delays because they are replacing chips as they claim! I sent my sample with the fastest courier service so my DNA sample is in the best condition possible when analyzing and know becauase of the delays who knows what my results will be if there is any! I would expect them after all this wait to tell my to send another DNA sample! I think all the good reviews are fake! I depended on them when choosing MyHeritage! You are better paying more at another company and getting a good service! I've been in IT my whole life and their chip excuse is laughable!
Dear Hamed,
I am sorry to find your low star review.
I apologize for the inconvenience of your results being delayed. I understand that you are awaiting your results and we are aiming to provide them to you as fast as we can. However, testing times may vary and the expected dates for the results are therefore estimates and do not represent a guaranteed delivery date.
As you have stated, we are currently upgrading the chip used for DNA analysis to a new and more advanced version. This new chip will allow for new features which will be announced shortly. We are conducting this transition to the new chip with great care and diligence in order to provide you the most accurate results.
Please message me on shane.vipsupport@myheritage.com and I will try to help you with your issue.
Kind regards,
Shane, MyHeritage Team
I received excellent help. The staff was knowledgeable about the issue I wanted to resolve. I am pleased with the outcome.
I appreciate the MyHeritage support. While on hold, you're regularly informed of your place in the call line. Once my call was taken, Marc took care to understand my problem and was very kind in explaining the solutions. I never felt as if he was trying to rush to get on to the next call. He took his time with me to make sure that all my issues were satisfactorily taken care of.
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Hi Garry,
I'm sorry to read about your disappointment with your current Ethnicity Estimate.
Firstly, I understand that you received different results for a DNA test that you took with a different provider and your MyHeritage DNA test.
Both DNA tests, the MyHeritage DNA test and the DNA test you took with a different company, are based on different DNA samples. Although the DNA samples are taken by the same person, there can be a very slight difference in chemical nature and processing of algorithms. Therefore both DNA tests might result in slightly different processing based on different DNA raw data provided by two separate tests. Although the difference is so small and can almost be neglected, it could have an impact on how the algorithms process the raw DNA data.
To provide users with Ethnicity Estimates, we started by figuring out what DNA from different ethnic groups looks like. Thanks to the MyHeritage Founder Populations project we offer an Ethnicity Estimate with 42 ethnic groups around the world. This number will be growing as our ongoing founder's population project is ongoing and more ethnicities will be added to our current Ethnicity Estimate's beta version. For this project, we have selected more than 5000 participants to serve as references by virtue of their family trees exemplifying consistent ancestry from the same region or ethnicity for many generations. When we analyzed your DNA sample, we compared your DNA to those models to see what percentage matches each model. We focus on the 700,000 sections that are known to vary between people (the other 99.9% of the sequence is pretty much the same for everyone).
The good news is DNA research does offer a way to circumvent these obstacles by measuring and comparing one's genetic makeup to trace roots and find more insight into one's family history through digging through records, tree matches and comparing your DNA to others. Along with an Ethnicity Estimate, your DNA purchase gives you tools such as ancestral surnames, comparing trees and measuring one's shared DNA through a chromosome browser that has been proven valuable to the millions of our members to trace family history.
Our match algorithms have been proven to automatically find and compare similar DNA strands along with ancestral surnames, records, and family trees to find very interesting discoveries. New DNA is uploaded every day and the chances of that new information to match your research are great and it has helped many worldwide.
If you need any assistance with the progress of your research please don't hesitate to contact me directly at rafael.vipsupport@myheritage.com
I'd be always happy to help.
Sincerely
Rafael
MyHeritage