Complaint Review: Ancestry.com

This company provides online databases for genealogy research for the general public. At renewal time, I received an email stating they would renew for $40. When I got my bill, the bill was for $160.

It seems they send out one email for every different database they provide. Thus, I got (they say) 3 emails, each with a price for that database. Being a normal internet user who gets duplicate emails all the time, I only opened one. It said the renewal price was $40, so I let it go.

After I got my credit card bill, I found they had charged my account for $160--the other prices being in the other 2 emails, I guess.

By the time I found out the charges, my email server had deleted the original emails. I had printed one copy, but couldn't find it. So I got onto their web site and emailed them (from their own web site) to cancel my subscription. No reply.

Finally found my copy of the email and called the 800 no. What a waste of time!

1) They don't read domestic emails (my email cancelling the service), only international emails. How would I know this? "It's in the Terms and Conditions." Who ever reads the terms and conditions?

2) I couldn't find a phone no. on their web site. "It's in the Terms and Conditions." What normal person would think to look there?

3) They would prorate my service, $45 for the 3 months' service I hadn't used. What generosity!

I have never run into such crooks before: they send you a separate email for what you think is one product; they don't post a phone number where you can find it; they have email customer service on their web site but it doesn't work unless you're emailing from overseas and they don't tell you this; they will only prorate and charge me for service I did not use. What a ripoff!

ANCESTRY.COM: BEWARE!

M.
Marietta, Georgia
U.S.A.