Ancestry.co.uk – You’re Very Sneaky!
It really gets my back up when I feel like I have been conned…. but if I was to read the small print on the website they would say that they are going to do it .. but without any warning it really annoys me.
I refer to Ancestry.co.uk, but this post could elude itself to a whole host of websites that suck you in and then when you have forgotten all about them, sting you for a subscription fee. I was just paying a chunk off my credit card bill tonight (flights & car hire to Marbella for next May) when I see £41.95 from Ancestry.co.uk. My first thought was that I hadn’t subscribed to Ancestry, but then my second thought was perhaps I’d been on the site, but ages ago.
The more I thought about it the more it came back to me and I was sure it was a free trail that I signed up for, where you have to put your credit card details in, but you always say to yourself that you’ll have a play and then unsubscribe before you get charged. I suppose that was the plan, but I thought it would be ok as the card I used expired at the end of May, but had also forgotten all about it. (Hmmm no idea how they can take payment from an expired card?)
Once I had regained my login for Ancestry by doing a forgot Username and Password section (must be very well used) it all came back to me. I signed up on 31st December 2009, must have been that dull bit on New Years Eve, for a free 6 month trial on a special deal. I remember going on the site as I’m a bit of a family historian but couldn’t for the life of me figure out what to do. The site comes across as there to make it easy for you but it needs really specific data like full date of births and dates of death which I just haven’t got, even though I’ve got hand drawn family trees for all sides of the family dating back hundreds of years.
So after an hour or so faffing about on Ancestry I gave up and probably went to join in the festivities. Yes I should have cancelled the subscription, but perhaps my intention was to come back and try again. What really annoys me though is that in the 6 months that I have been a “member” of the site I haven’t had a single communication from Ancestry to even remind me about my membership or that my initial introductory 6 months were running out, or any communication to ask if I wanted to resubscribe to a certain membership levels.
Perhaps Ancestry.co.uk see all these dormant accounts and start to rub their hands together as suddenly it’s a big pay day 6 months after you have run a promotion getting people to sign up to the site. I think I probably used the site for about 2 hours tops and didn’t gain anything from it at all. Now I’m in the situation that I have now paid for the next 6 months, so do I leave it and set myself a reminder to cancel it before the next payment gets sucked from my Mastercard or cancel it now? In fact if anyone wants to have a play, do some research or create some family trees on Ancestry.co.uk for free then I can give you my login details as its paid up until Christmas!
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Cheers Paul, I’ll give the 1901Census site a whirl .. I’ll have to get some d.o.b’s dug out first.
Login details for your “free trail with Ancestry.co.uk” on its way to you via email! Enjoy
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My old man is very into his genealogy, and I’m sure he goes on about the Church of the Latter Day Saints as a resource where he finds a lot of old birth and death certificates for his research.
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Another one is CreditExpert – as they do a similar deal where you get 6months free but never remember it… the really annoying bit was finding out that you couldnt cancel online – only over the phone and only at 9-5 m-f times… which is when your least likely to call!
I do feel that they miss a trick here, as whilst its nice to get some free cash, they end up with less users and less engaged users! -
1901 census is a much better site, you just pay a fee and as I remember you can look at so many entries before your fee runs out. This is where you need information as accurate as possible before you go online. Another good one was 1837 online.com
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Actually, now I’ve checked out Ancestry.co.uk, the website itself is pretty ace – it’s closed off a few unanswered questions already and I’ve found that some great-uncle-or-other died in WWI, which is something that seems to have been lost in the family memory
Cheers Becky! BTW – if you want to try it again and want a bit of help using it, give me a shout (seeing as you’ve paid for it!)
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Ouch.. I know just how you feel! ive stiched myself up a few times by signing up for a free trials and then for 1 reason or another forgetting to cancel only to discover 3 payments down the line!
like you i dread to think how many millions of profit are gained in this way each year!
Well im glad you caught it before you ended up deeper out of pocket.. I would also be really grateful if i to could borrow your login.. i only have a couple of things i’d like to see if i can find out so would be most grateful for your help..
Take care & many thanks.. Jase
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Ok it would be so brilliant if i could use yoyr login, the prices are way to high and i would like to look at my grandad/ grandmotherswho died before i was born records. Email is ajrw@fsmail.net Thanksss xx
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before paying any subscriptions anywhere you can get lots of info for free on (freebmd) or (yorkshire bmd if you’re in yorkshire) or I’m sure other counties will have their own version. Only when you have found out enough info from the free sites need you go to the likes of ancestry.co.uk because they do have the census files from 1841 onwards but just play the pay as you go game as its often enough time and credits to satisfy.
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Hi
If you’re still happy to share your ancestry access I’d love to use it. Did some research a long time ago and it would be great to get back into it.
Thank you -
I agree wholeheartedly about how sneaky Ancestry is in this regard. (Though they are not the only ones.)
But to add insult to injury they also make it unnecessarily difficult to cancel your subscription. There’s no automatic unsubscribe that I can see. You have to telephone them and only then in UK office hours.
This is customer UNservice on the grandest scale.
They may have a monopoly on certain family data, but I’ll now make very sure that I can’t get it anywhere else first.
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Ancestry is way too expensive for me, but I’d love to have a go so I can leave my daughters some family history. If the offer is still on, please send me the logins…many thanks
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I am also caught in the money trap of ancestry.co.uk.
Started out fine with 2 months of subscription and found a lot of information on my family. BUT trying to cancel for the summer period turned into an unending marathon of errors. It IS possible to cancel online although difficult to find due to conflicting instructions in different parts of the webaite.
Thought I had cancelled after filling in the requested details but realized afterwards I had no proof, as the process ended with a text that flew past before I could read it and POOF, the whole page disappeared. Sure enough I was billed for another month so now I’m back to square 1.
Something that happens constantly is that after logging in, as soon as I try to activate any of the links on my account page about my subscription, a box appears asking for my log-in information again. This happens again and again, then I’m cut off totally by a message that another computer is also logged on to my account so my log-in is blocked for half-an-hour!!!!
After the same sequence of events repeating, I’ve come to the conclusion that this is fraudulent behaviour on the part of Ancestry. I believe they deliberately put all kinds of road-blocks in the way of the cancellation process so people just give up.
I am now going to try one last time and then ask my bank to block any further payments to Ancestry. I’m also going to look into how to report them to the consumer protection people at the EU.
But before that I’ll be retrieving all the information I’ve paid for from Ancestry on my family tree and will not return to them unless they change their policies.
And I’d advise everyone else to keep clear of them.
Don’t just give up – that how these kinds of companies can continue! -
Thanks for advice. I haven’t the time to waste trying to cancel complicated subscriptions though would have really liked to have had a look on the site. My mother is elderly and is prone to forget simple things. A gentle reminder of facts would be nice to share. If the offer is still on, please send me the logins. Many Thanks. Kathy
Oh I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve nearly been had by Ancestry.co.uk. They’ve got a huge and ruthless affiliate network too – they’re almost unavoidable if you’re researching the family tree.
Luckily, I need no reminders that I’d need loads of reminders to cancel any such subscription. It’s a hateful way of doing business – they must be racking up huge profits from people who aren’t even using the service.
If you’re interested, something like http://www.1901censusonline.com might be better – you can just pay a fiver here and there whenever you want to look up something. You’re right though – you do need a couple of specifics to get started, but if you can get somebody concrete in the 1911 census you can get back to the 1830s pretty easily (unless your family’s a bit mental like my wife’s)
All that being said, if you’re not joking about the login I’d love to have a play with it!