RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: anne on Tuesday 18 May 04 15:35 BST (UK)
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I dont know what to think of Ancestry.com.I came across an ad a couple of days ago and it stated that if you enter your family tree into their system they would let you look at so many millions of records free of charge,so i patiently sat for a couple of hours at a time and put my family tree into their files,lo and behold when i tried to get in free as they had stated they wanted a credit card number which they said wouldnt be activated until a 2 week period had lapsed,thats providing of course you remember to cancell it before they use it.I just think its very misleading,they didnt say enter your family tree but we need a credit card number first.So i have deleted the whole tree from their files just out of pure principle.Does anyone have any thoughts or is it just me being a bit spiteful.Anne. ???
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I don't think you are selfish at all. Ancestry.com are in affect making money off your family tree. I'm not totally against people making a business enterprise out of genealogical data but I don't like Ancestry.com's less than honest approach.
It is a common bad practice to demand an upfront credit card, in my opinion, as companies know they will make money out of the forgetful few who let a payment go through.
Cheers,
Pam
;D
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Thankyou Pam i totally agree with you,my husband said the same thing,if people like us didnt put the information there in the first place they would have no records to search.I just think its awfull unfair,i think if your putting your tree on a system like theirs they should allow free access even if it just for a couple of hours.Regarding the credit card,i havent got a credit card only because i dont want one i dont want to be lineing someone elses pocket with my hard earned cash,i must sound like a right tight*** i dont mean to be and i'm not.I hate the thought of people being ripped off by malicious companies who end up being millionairs with our money.Anyway Pam sorry i got a bit side tracked there for a moment.Thankyou for agreeing with me.Anne. ;)
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:o yes i agree as well everyones after money !!!! :)
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I am sure you will hear as many good stories as bad with regard to Ancestry.
I'm one of the many who signed up for the 'Free' Trial. I never did manage to access the site - kept getting very odd error messages. So tried to cancel before getting charged. What a nightmare that was, in the end I resorted to phoning them and got them to send me an e.mail confirming that I was definitely cancelled and would not be billed. Needless to say it put me off trying again.
Suey
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:'( Another bad side :'(
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Hi,
I signed up for the two weeks free trial and I've got to say I had no problems at all. I cancelled via email after one week of the free trial (wanted to leave a bit of time in case I had problems) but again I had no problems and received a confirmation email back very quickly.
I can't justify the expense of subscribing to ancestry right now, but I am also very grateful to those who do and who help others (like me) with regard to look-ups.
Sasha.
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Hi Suey,What i was getting at was the way that Ancestry.com can mislead people as you yourself said as did my husband what if someone signs up like you and then has an awful problem getting out as you nearly did.That must have been a nightmare for you,i think there should be a law against companies like them.Anyway getting sidetracked again sorry Suey.Anne. :)
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Anne,
As another person who put information into Ancestry before finding they wanted credit card details I totally agree with you. It is very misleading, I could not even sign up to the free trial period as I do not have a credit card. (I would not be safe with one!) I am now being bombarded with spam from them. >:(
I hear good reports and bad about Ancestry, . They are also very generous sponsors for FreeBMD, without their support FreeBMD would have trouble continuing.
However, companies do make money out of people who forget to cancel before the trial period is up. I feel this is a very cynical marketing ploy and whenever I hear of a company using it I am immediately suspicious.
Kazza.
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Thankyou Kazza,i didnt mean to upset anyone i was just makeing a point,i love this site,i do stray back to the other sites i used before i found this one but i cant find them any where near as good as this site.I would just like to thank everyone who has helped me,they are great people and i wish i could meet them face to face,i would give them all a big KISS,mind after seeing me they might be sick.HA HA.No seriously a big thankyou to everyone on rootschat.Anne. :)
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;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
PS :-* :-* :-*
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I also agree that their site is not very clear but was happy to sign on and pay but again they only take credit cards not debit cards so I was unable to. So thanks to all those that do looks up = good on yer.
Jean ;)
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hi Anne,
i totally agree and after seeing your posting and having the same problem i took my tree off the site.so if that makes us selfish, i would say being selfish in this case is sensible :D
And Kazza if you are being bombarded with spam from them, make a filter to block the domain name [i dont know what it is, so ie if their name is info@ancestry.com make a filter to block" @ancestry.com."
this applies to any spam problem that members may have
jaq
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Dear Anne,
You are not being spiteful at all !
There is nothing worse than false promises :'(
Ancestry have the money and the ability to access lots of records. Anyone researching family history will be given this choice sooner or later and this topic is very worth discussion. I am glad you brought the subject up.
RootsChat
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Jaq,
Yes I have already filtered out Ancestry spam, but it makes me angry that they send it in the first place. They only got my email through their dubious sales practices.
Kazza.
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Another warning on Ancestry .com.
Be very carefull of the information that is shown as family trees.
Parts of my family are listed by people I've never heard of, and the information is just plain wrong. >:(
Cheers
Geoff
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Hi all,
I signed up with Ancestry for a free two week trial. I cancelled in good time, in fact within about ten days. I did not have any problems cancelling. After this I found their message boards very good at getting info , and eventually led me to an excellent lead who supplied me with several hundred years of info.
More recently I received a subscription to Ancestry as a part of my Xmas present (last Xmas), and I love it. I originally found my grandfathers 1891 details from Ancestry, which I had spent countless hours searching for, from 'bad' leads from birth certificxates, other census etc.
I now spend half my life either in this site, the familysearch site or one of the census I have bought etc. More recently they have been adding detail for 1871 and 1901, for free (or rather, part of the subscription).
I cannot speak highly enoough of Ancestry, and I rank then as my number one in my best genealogy links on my own site. I should point out, I get affiliate sponsorship through this which all goes to a good charity, so I am biased, but everything I have stated is true. I will definitely sign up for another year next Christmas.
My links are at my site, please feel free to email me with any other good sites that should be considered.
Thanks
Kevan
http://kevw.net
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:)anne
ijioned up for 2 weeks free
but then found out i was to late to cancell and now im stuck for a year paying about 15 dollars a mounth for a site i dont use be cause i wasn't quick enough to cancell it
diane >:(
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Hi,
No not selfish at all, I signed up initially and cancelled well within time, but one thing I am impressed with is the continaul addition of new material, e.g. 1871 and 1901 census for the UK are regualarly being added to .
I will sign up for anoither year at Xmas, but then I spend half my waking life doing some kind of genealogy searching.
Best
Kevan
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I was supposed to get 3 months free with purchase of "Family Tree Maker," started to fill out application then saw need for credit card ... which I do not have. And yes I am now getting spam.
I find the LDS (Mormon) site is very helpful and sites like this one INCREDIBLY valuable to me so far!
Ancestry.com is American (not Canajan like me, EH) and they are very into having mostly American info on their anyway even if they claim to be worldwide.
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I even put goods back on the shelf if its not priced. I'm not a tightwad either, but it is just a way of getting money out of people in a deceitful manner .
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Quote (soz, can't remember how to use the "quote" box thingy): -
"companies know they will make money out of the forgetful few who let a payment go through."
They're also pretty good at ignoring the emails they ask you to send to cancel the whole deal! I joined up for one of their 14-day "free" trials ... sent the required email well ahead of time ... but they still charged me for the following month, and there was no talking sense to them or getting them to comply with their own stated terms and conditions.
One of these days, they ought to learn the adage "the customer is always right". It seems, instead, that they think the customer is always a dupe!
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There is one thing I do not like about Amnesty and other sites of it's ilk.
They convince people to place their family history with them, then they charge like
wounded bulls to allow others to access it. >:(Crikey, they got it for nothing.
I will never give my work to these websites, but I will give it to anyone that
contacts me with connections to my tree. ;)
Cheers
Geoff
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In the dim dark days of yore when I had just started my search for family, I saw a 14 day free trial period offered by Ancestry.
I had no idea what to look for at that point, but thought it just might be of some use.
I started to fill in the required details and then came to the questions about the credit card and baulked. I got in touch with them and said if it's supposed to be free, why do you need my credit card details? I give that information to NOBODY.
I was pleasantly surprised when they came back with a "special password" for me to use for the 14 day period and they apologised for requesting the credit card information. The password was only valid for 14 days and after that access to the normally paid areas was denied.
If they could manage that about 10 years ago (or more) surely it could still be managed today?
Unfortunately I didn't find anything of use, but as I said, I was raw and new and probably missed a lot which could have helped.
With so much more available after all those years, would that be worth trying now? It certainly can't do any harm - all they can do is either give a negative response or ignore the enquiry completely.
Just a thought or three,
Philippa
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Hi Ann
Most libraries Have Ancestry Free to use once a day for one hour and you can also print off what you want for 12 pence thats where I go They are very helpful and it is a big help for people who don't have a credit card good luck Manus
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Just to point out that this thread is now 6 years old!!
For some reason it's been resurrected - "Christphered" for those of you who remember our friend, RIP!
;D
I'm going to lock it - if you need to discuss please start another on the Lighter Side - ta.