Is The HELP DESK Dead?

[lgmayka]

FTDNA customer support promised to report this issue to IT, but asked for more examples of lost SNP results.

I also went through my list of all project members who transferred Geno 2.0 results, and found 9 more whose Geno 2.0 SNP results were not showing up in their accounts (in addition to 3 noticed the other day and now corrected). I sent that list to FTDNA too.

[lgmayka]

Almost everyone who ordered any of the Deep Clade Extended tests is missing SNP results!

FTDNA customer support promised to report this issue to IT, but asked for more examples of lost SNP results. I went through my list of all project members who ordered a Deep Clade Extended test, and found that most of them were missing at least one SNP result. I submitted the list of 79 kit numbers to FTDNA.

The most serious losses are clade-defining positive SNP results:
L2+
L22+
L23+
L25+
L38+
L48+
M198+
M241+
M378+
M423+
M84+
P303+
P311+
P58+

[lgmayka]

Almost everyone who ordered any of the Deep Clade Extended tests is missing SNP results!

In another forum, another project administrator reports:
---
The U106 Haplogroup project noted this issue with the loss of L48 results from individuals who took the various Deep Clade Extended tests and have reported the issue to Janine Cloud. We did have a backup copy of the SNP results page prior to the release of the new haplotree (and prior to these results being lost) and had sent FTDNA this backup.

We did receive a message where FTDNA believes to know what caused this major glitch, and they would be fixing it in due time. They are simply swamped with work at the present time.
---
If FTDNA has known about this serious database corruption for some time, then it is very unfortunate for both us and them that they did not inform project administrators or even their own Help Desk staff.

[lgmayka]

Suggest you avoid the helpdesk logjam and write direct to B Greenspan about this debacle.

I have done so.

[Everwaiting]

I can attest to the fact that they are working hard to catch up. I received an answer to an inquiry today - Sunday - during the Memorial Day weekend!

- Martha Hicks

[gtc]

Our worst DNA nightmare is true.

I found a copy of my project's SNP database from 3/27/2011 and began to make comparisons. Almost everyone who ordered any of the Deep Clade Extended tests is missing SNP results! It is not obvious in every case, because many project members ordered later SNP tests, or transferred Geno 2.0 results, etc. But the pattern is clear, and utterly shocking: Many, many SNP results have vanished from customer accounts without a trace!

Suggest you avoid the helpdesk logjam and write direct to B Greenspan about this debacle.

[lgmayka]

There are probably many cases like this, but they are difficult to identify unless the customer has specifically copied his full SNP results from long ago and compared them against what FTDNA now presents.

Our worst DNA nightmare is true.

I found a copy of my project's SNP database from 3/27/2011 and began to make comparisons. Almost everyone who ordered any of the Deep Clade Extended tests is missing SNP results! It is not obvious in every case, because many project members ordered later SNP tests, or transferred Geno 2.0 results, etc. But the pattern is clear, and utterly shocking: Many, many SNP results have vanished from customer accounts without a trace!

[lgmayka]

In the case of a missing order, that's definitely something that engineering should be looking into.

I agree that the most serious cases are those in which the paid order is itself missing, or too ambiguous to determine which results are missing.

1) One kit ordered an upgrade from 12 to 25 markers under the very old name CohanimMatch. (That was merely the test name--he does not actually belong to haplogroup J.) The full 25 markers are visible on our project web site but not in his account, and in fact even the CohanimMatch order itself is missing. The Help Desk was worse than useless--they had the chutzpah to "confirm" that he never ordered the upgrade at all. This strongly suggests that FTDNA has migrated to an entirely new database and has simply dropped some of the old data along the way.

2) Two kits ordered the Deep Clade Extended b and c, respectively, back in the 2008-2009 period. Their most crucial SNP results from those tests are missing from everywhere. There are probably many cases like this, but they are difficult to identify unless the customer has specifically copied his full SNP results from long ago and compared them against what FTDNA now presents. In these cases, I have gotten only silence from the Help Desk.

[efgen]

I can only suspect that FTDNA has attempted to migrate to a completely new database, and not all customer data was carried over properly. We have to hope that FTDNA was not stupid enough to delete the old database which still holds the now-missing data.

I don't think this is what happened, although I can't offer a definitive explanation at the moment. The couple kits that I've checked into, the orders and results were in the database, but there were glitches causing the results to not display on myFTDNA. Those were simple fixes. In the case of a missing order, that's definitely something that engineering should be looking into.

Elise

[efgen]

I have written to them about a month ago and still no answer. How long is it going to take - about half a year? I really want to order upgrades but how to do that since my previous results have disappeared? Why should I pay to be tested when I don't get the test results at the end?

It shouldn't be taking a month to get a response. Did you receive the automated response with your issue ID number? If so, please reply directly to that (to keep your response with your original issue, otherwise it goes to the end of the queue) and ask if there's an update on your issue.

Also, if you'd like to send me your kit number via private message, I'll ask about it when the office re-opens on Tuesday.

Elise

[Jim Barrett]

It Is No Wonder

They're buried alive under a mountain of email, trying to dig their way out
Elise

1. Redesigned a website that was working.
2. Replaced FAQ with Learning Center.
3. New design for Big-Y.
4. New Haplotree.
5. New Population Finder.
6. Display micro-alleles.

Historically, any time FTDNA makes a change to their system they have problems. Mass changes = mass problems!

[lgmayka]

Why should I pay to be tested when I don't get the test results at the end?

This is indeed the most disturbing issue in a long time--the mysterious, silent disappearance of test results for which customers have paid good money.

The other day I actually got a response in one such case. Shockingly, the rep actually claimed that the customer had never ordered any such upgrade! Luckily, in this case, I had proof.

I can only suspect that FTDNA has attempted to migrate to a completely new database, and not all customer data was carried over properly. We have to hope that FTDNA was not stupid enough to delete the old database which still holds the now-missing data.

[trifud]

I have written to them about a month ago and still no answer. How long is it going to take - about half a year? I really want to order upgrades but how to do that since my previous results have disappeared? Why should I pay to be tested when I don't get the test results at the end?

[efgen]

They're buried alive under a mountain of email, trying to dig their way out

Seriously, they're working really hard, trying to get caught up. If you're waiting on a response to email, please be patient. Sending more email won't help They need to get to your email in the queue.

If you were trying to call, I'm guessing you were on hold for a while. Hold times are unfortunately long right now too.

They're working on expanding the Customer Support team, but of course the hiring and training process takes time. Two new people did just start within the last week or two, so hopefully they're getting up to speed quickly and will be able to help make a dent in the backlog very soon.

Elise

[shamus]

I have tried to reach the help desk for several days with no response.

What is going on?

Is anybody else having this problem?