Never Again!!

[Chester]

My batch processing FF (616) was completed, and was stated as so, about 5 days ago. May 5th was supposed to be the last day of my estimated range.

I downloaded my raw data that day.

Two days later I received about 72 pages of matches

Two days after that, they totally disappeared.

Today I logged in, after their "maintenance" to find I am in processing hell.

I can still download raw data and see My Origins.

And under "Complete Order History" it states I was batched on 4/1/15 and was completed on 4/28/2015

But under the red and white square, "Awaiting results..View Your Pending Results" it states I am "awaiting tests", with an estimated date of 05/20/2015 - 06/03/2015
and this note...
"Results for your Family Finder test have been delayed. We have updated your predicted completion date, and action by you is not usually required. Note that predicted dates are an estimate and subject to lab volume and quality control."

Sorry, but mine was already completed on the 28th.

I was getting ready to order both a y-DNA and a Mt-Dna test for family members, but at this point, it won't be from here.

Who else performs these tests?

[T E Peterman]

I also had a cousin in Batch 616. The thing that I noticed was that they changed the estimated date from "Apr 22 to May 5" to "May 20 to June 3". This change was made on April 29. One day after they did this, the Family Finder results were ready.

I'm not sure why the erroneous change message was posted, but suspect that it was an IT glitch. I would report it, or at least ask Darren about it.

I have no complaints about what happened. The quality of the tests offered & the associated analysis is so much better than that offered elsewhere, that I don't frustrate myself over the IT issues, format, messaging etc.

Timothy Peterman

[E19463]

...
I have no complaints...

This reminds me at a scene in a Monty Python movie when the guy was singing "Always look on the bright side of life", while hanging on the cross. I admire your optimism!

[T E Peterman]

I log into this forum every day and read complaints from a few Family Tree DNA customers who have had a major problem that forces them to complain.

I have been a customer of Family Tree DNA since 2002 and, over the last 13 years, have been involved in ordering probably over 100 tests for myself & a moderately sized pool of relatives of mine. Although there have been a few hiccups a long the way, the overall service hasn't been as bad as what I read about here. Moreover, of the 720,000 roughly people who have tested, I have to wonder how many of them would echo the complaints of the few here, or the silent approval of countless tens of thousands.

I have gained an immense amount of data, covering y-DNA, a bit of mtDNA, and a lot of autosomal DNA. I consider Family Tree DNA to be innovative, when it comes to offering tests & developing tools for data analysis.

I am also a customer of AncestryDNA. Of course, they threw out everyone's y-DNA & mtDNA results and don't offer that kind of testing anymore. They don't offer a chromosome browser; they don't have anything close to an ICW tool (in common with). If you don't have a tree, it isn't worth testing there. I have discovered that the centimorgan threshold at Ancestry is far below that of Family Tree DNA. The trees of DNA matches are, of course, only as good as the people who built them. I find their service to be a good way of testing hypotheses; add speculative ancestors, always with a question mark, to your tree & see if it generates matches. I find their leaf hints to be a useful way of locating prospects for an autosomal transfer to Family Tree DNA, especially if they are 4th cousin or distant. The new DNA circles are laughable; apparently they aren't aware of the likelihood of back channel kinships. You can't see when your matches were added & I have yet to find a way to download a list of them.

I have tested at 23andme. They do autosomal, y-DNA & mtDNA in one test. You can message all of your matches, but you can't see who they are unless they accept your invitation to get acquainted (most don't respond). You can't see when your matches were added. The terminal SNP listed is based on the ISOGG tree from 2010 (I think). They don't have a growing pool of terminal SNPs that you can test, nor do I think you can order any new tests from your sample.

I have a list of a few things that I think Family Tree DNA could do better: a good multi-person chromosome browser (ie, if three or more are selected for comparison, it will only show the segments that all three or four share; instead of all of the segments that the subject shares with each of the selected matches). Another wish list item would be a global tree, where all kits could be attached -data wouldn't have to be added to each tree. Add it once and you are done. Would be nice if the name on the tree & wouldn't force a name change on the kit. This could be extended to a "one tree" approach for all Family Tree DNA participants, with links between all people sourced. Contradictory data could be added as alternate lineages. Links would be marked by Family Tree DNA as either supported by DNA, debunked by DNA, or undetermined -but this last would require the IT department to do some heavy lifting, so I doubt it will ever happen.

Timothy Peterman

[E19463]

Timothy, if I would be FTDNA I would give you a medal for being my dream customer and honor your loyalty in many ways.

But I am not FTDNA.

[T E Peterman]

I'm just stating the facts as I have experienced them.

Timothy Peterman

[jbarry6899]

I'm just stating the facts as I have experienced them.

Timothy Peterman

My experience has been similar to Timothy's, though I too have been frustrated by the recent delays. In addition to Ancestry, FTDNA and 23 and Me I have also tested with National Geographic, which I found to be only minimally useful in refining my haplogroup, and with YSeq. YSeq has been very responsive and economical, but does not provide for matching or for projects. I do plan to create a panel for our surname project and purchase that from YSeq as an alternative for members who do not want to order BigY because of the cost. I have not used Chromo2 testing nor Full Genomes Corp. Although costly, my strategy has been to test through several of the available companies as well as to purchase tests for other project members. So far, that has been successful.

Jim Barry

[E19463]

... I too have been frustrated by the recent delays.
...

Just recent delays? Honestly?
I would say not so recent but rather ongoing since last year.
I have no understanding for denying the reality.

...
I was getting ready to order both a y-DNA and a Mt-Dna test for family members, but at this point, it won't be from here.
...

Nobody would.
I would not recommend risking to alienate family members because of this delays and everybody telling you that everything is alright is not honest to you.

BTW: I am not payed by FTDNA.

[jsarnacki]

It seems a shame to give up all the research potential because of 1 bad experience (or because of delays that eventually get resolved - which is other people's main complaint).

I am confident that FTDNA will resolve your technical problem, as they have been resolving everyone else's technical issues. Computer systems are known to have bugs, and they seem to always respond to computer bug issues. If you saw results, you will see them again and probably very soon.

While I won't say all my tests have been "smooth sailing", I have gotten all results back and have been slowly sifting through them to find true matches that can be confirmed. It is slow going, but I have already made a couple significant discoveries and have successfully confirmed several branches of my tree with a degree of confidence that I am very pleased with. Now... if only everyone had great trees for me to work with, I would be a happy camper.

[MMaddi]

This reminds me at a scene in a Monty Python movie when the guy was singing "Always look on the bright side of life", while hanging on the cross. I admire your optimism!

Oh yes, absolutely no hyperbole involved there. Waiting for results at FTDNA is like hanging on a cross.

Really? I don't think so. Maybe it seems that way to you, but please put it into perspective. While FTDNA's problems with producing results and communicating that to customers is certainly frustrating, I don't think there's any comparison to hanging on a cross.

[Tenn4ever]

Oh yes, absolutely no hyperbole involved there. Waiting for results at FTDNA is like hanging on a cross.

Really? I don't think so. Maybe it seems that way to you, but please put it into perspective. While FTDNA's problems with producing results and communicating that to customers is certainly frustrating, I don't think there's any comparison to hanging on a cross.

Agree.

[MMaddi]

Just recent delays? Honestly?
I would say not so recent but rather ongoing since last year.
I have no understanding for denying the reality.

Here's the difference between you and the two people to whom you're responding. They're longtime (several years) customers of FTDNA and you're a recent customer. I can understand why you're very critical of FTDNA, since your only experience with FTDNA has not been positive, but actually quite negative.

I have to echo the assessment of those two to whom you're responding. I first tested with FTDNA in 2005, ten years ago. I have had about a couple of dozen different tests done, including the Big Y last year. I have to say that I can't remember any test that took agonizingly longer than I expected.

I'm also the administrator for two big projects, one with 2,000 members and the other with 900 members. Except for a handful of very long delays for Big Y results (out of over 350 Big Y tests), I don't think there has been any pattern of excessive delays for project members, including in the last year.

You certainly have a right to complain about the long delays and lack of communication about delays that you've experienced. But please don't brand anyone who will say something positive about their experience with FTDNA as without doubt some sort of shill or a liar, as you did in another thread today - http://forums.familytreedna.com/show...&postcount=108. You're actually insulting someone you don't know when your beef is with FTDNA.

[E19463]

... I can understand why you're very critical of FTDNA, .

No, I like FTDNA and the idea behind but not the delivery times exploding from days to weeks and even months: http://forums.familytreedna.com/show...8&postcount=17

... You're actually insulting someone you don't know when your beef is with FTDNA.

You are right, I do not know the person and also I am not a native English speaker, both can lead to misunderstandings and disagreements in wordings. But I do not have a beef with FTDNA but rather with people disregarding the rightful expectations of customers when it comes to delivery times, especially considering the (golden) past.

[E19463]

Oh yes, absolutely no hyperbole involved there. Waiting for results at FTDNA is like hanging on a cross.
...
While FTDNA's problems with producing results and communicating that to customers is certainly frustrating, I don't think there's any comparison to hanging on a cross.

I was referring to Carla as she wrote: "The wait can be excruciating..." see there: http://forums.familytreedna.com/show...3&postcount=50

Merriam Webster tells us: "Origin of EXCRUCIATE, Latin excruciatus, past participle of excruciare, from ex- + cruciare to crucify, from cruc-, crux cross, First Known Use: circa 1570" http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/excruciate

[travers]

No, I like FTDNA and the idea behind but not the delivery times exploding from days to weeks and even months: http://forums.familytreedna.com/show...8&postcount=17





You are right, I do not know the person and also I am not a native English speaker, both can lead to misunderstandings and disagreements in wordings. But I do not have a beef with FTDNA but rather with people disregarding the rightful expectations of customers when it comes to delivery times, especially considering the (golden) past.

You keep posting about someone who got their results in 9 days, that was never the typical wait time for results in the past. The posted wait time was almost always 4 - 6 weeks, of course some would come in earlier than expected when sales were slow and at times it would take longer but 9 days was never the norm.