I don't want to appear to be defending FindMyPast (I have no affiliation with them whatsoever) but I can imagine the people involved in this project there must be running around like headless chickens or rabbits in the headlights.
Every dataset any company releases has transcription errors and ommissions to a greater or lesser degree.
(The LMA dataset was put online with Ancestry in 2009 and despite asking for the gaps to be filled, they remain.)
I don't like being used as a guinea pig to 'test' the accuracy of their data and if we are doing a good job here picking holes in things, imagine what it's like on every other genealogy forum out there. I don't know who transcribed the data and why there appear to be so many errors. You may be finding them because you know what should be written there.
They can and have tested the data and the systems - which don't appear to have failed yet. After the unpopular website upgrade earlier this year, I joined the 'working party' to be involved in other projects. Sadly work committments prevented me from attending the sessions for this, but I know that plenty of others did. They do have past experience of many thousands of people all hitting the website at the same time looking for results.
I really do sympathise with those of you who spent hard earned pounds buying credits and being disappoited with the lack of results.
The same happened with the 1911 census and the spectaular internet meltdown of the 1901 census which came online, went bang, and disappeared offline for another 6-8 months (I forget which).
It could be all to easy for them to take the whole thing offline and face the flak for that.
They are damned if they do, and damned if they don't.
It's hard asking you to have patience while FindMyPast sort these things out. They have committed to the project with TNA, they want the best outcomes for you - the paying customer, themselves (and their shareholders).
This dataset isn't going to go away. It will be there for a very long time and I hope in due course becomes part of a subscription package as the 1911 census did after about a year.
I'm sure they are grateful to us for providing feedback, even if it is negative. It points them in a direction and gives them the opporunity to sort things out.
I hoping to get to Kew one day next week to check out my own families, I don't have many to look for so should have time to do some look-ups for you and will sort something out for that when I know what day I'm going. It should give those of you without credits the opportunity to ask me to check an entry out for you that you have found by using the search techniques but aren't sure if the entry is correct.
