Terrible Customer Service!

[GeoMetric]

Few weeks ago my brother's Family Finder results were published. I am listed on his matches, but he is not listed on my matches. I called FTDNA (Gene by Gene, Ltd.) to notify of my problem. The first girl documented my issue and said it would be fixed by Monday. Tuesday comes, still not fixed. I call a second time requesting them to fix this issue, I give the employee my brother's kit # (He said they didn't have it???)he claims with the kit # my problem will be fixed soon. I wait few more days, no fix, so I call yesterday and request to speak with a supervisor, he is in a meeting, not available. Today I call and request to speak to a supervisor, they take my number again, and state he will call. He finally calls and gives me the run around that many kits are broken and they are working on it. Terrible customer service!
I have now went on my Linkedin account and found many employees, the president, managing partners, etc...I will give the tech team a few more days, if not fixed I will contact Max Blankfeld, and Bennett Greenspan to start!

[gtc]

He finally calls and gives me the run around that many kits are broken and they are working on it. Terrible customer service!

Terrible IT department! Customer service guys are at the end of the pipe, trying to deal with the consequences of yet another IT department snafu.

if not fixed I will contact Max Blankfeld, and Bennett Greenspan

The buck stops with them.

[Carolyn52]

Terrible Customer Service!

Yes, it is terrible customer service. Actually, there is no customer service to speak of. Family Tree DNA ignores inquiries, even simple questions which are not addressed through their learning center. I feel I wasted $300 by using Family Tree DNA. The family finder/my origins didn't show known and documented genealogical origins. I wish I had known that the Family Tree DNA staff are really good at blowing their own horns and lousy at providing decent customer service.

[dna]

Yes, it is terrible customer service. Actually, there is no customer service to speak of. Family Tree DNA ignores inquiries, even simple questions which are not addressed through their learning center. I feel I wasted $300 by using Family Tree DNA. The family finder/my origins didn't show known and documented genealogical origins. I wish I had known that the Family Tree DNA staff are really good at blowing their own horns and lousy at providing decent customer service.

Dear Ron and Carolyn, there are three issues here so let me elaborate on them a little, as some other forum readers might also benefit from my explanation.

Due to the need for data privacy and security FTDNA Customer Service team does not have access to much more information than you can see yourself on your screen. Thus they might not be able to tell you what exactly is/went wrong. Is this a problem with the way FTDNA organized its operations? Many here think so. There were already discussions in the forum that offered suggestions how to improve the service without compromising privacy or security.

There appears to be a widespread problem with matching. It likely impacts almost everybody over past two weeks. FTDNA is silent on the reasons and ETA for the fix/return to normal. Depending on the test (Family Finder, Big Y, etc.) the problems manifest in different ways. It could be related to improvements some people seen being announced via a pink banner on their pages, but that is just a guess on my part.

Carolyn, myOrigins specifically shows only information about the very deep ancestry, that is 1000 years ago or much older than that. In many regions of the world there were significant migrations between that time and the time family names were established and genealogically relevant records started being kept. myOrigins would reliably distinguish whether you are from Japan or from Europe, but I would not use its findings to prove or disprove whether, for example, someone has German or Polish origins. Actually, with the exception of recent migrations to Europe, it appears to me that European populations are like smooth transitions from one population to another.

W. (Mr.)

[LynCra]

What is this pink banner you are referring to? Don´t think I have seen that.

[dna]

What is this pink banner you are referring to? Don´t think I have seen that.

Those who had done Y DNA STR testing, but did not have Big Y test, had for some time an announcement that

Haplogroup predictions are currently being updated using new data. Your haplogroup prediction may change upon completion.

Please see http://forums.familytreedna.com/show...t=37250&page=4 for some additional details.

Mr. W.

[lgmayka]

I feel I wasted $300 by using Family Tree DNA. The family finder/my origins didn't show known and documented genealogical origins.

Family Finder is only $99. Did you buy it for three different people, or did you buy other tests as well?

MyOrigins is one way (algorithm) to interpret your raw data. You are free to download your raw data, then upload it to Gedmatch and try other algorithms.

However, no such algorithm is going to be perfect until we have surveyed every rural area of every country on earth. My own extended family is essentially 100% rural southeastern Polish, but most algorithms tell us that we have 5-15% British Isles or Scandinavian. This is highly unlikely, of course--free Protestant Northwestern Europeans from independent countries are unlikely to have chosen a life of Catholicism, serfdom, and foreign domination in the recent past. The more likely explanation is that our rural area is rather distinctive genetically (as we have already shown by Y-DNA tests), and has not been specifically sampled by academic researchers.

The bottom line is that the primary purpose and value of Family Finder is its matching of autosomal DNA. Ancestry percentages are nice for cocktail-party conversation, but are not generally useful as a genealogical tool.

[GoofusBroadway]

Those who had done Y DNA STR testing, but did not have Big Y test, had for some time an announcement that Please see http://forums.familytreedna.com/show...t=37250&page=4 for some additional details.

Mr. W.

My brother had a Big Y, with results received last week -- about the 6th, I think.
He that pink banner.
His haplogroup is still not displayed correctly.

k.

[citizendave]

Thank you for the explanation

Dear Ron and Carolyn, there are three issues here so let me elaborate on them a little, as some other forum readers might also benefit from my explanation.

Due to the need for data privacy and security FTDNA Customer Service team does not have access to much more information than you can see yourself on your screen. Thus they might not be able to tell you what exactly is/went wrong. Is this a problem with the way FTDNA organized its operations? Many here think so. There were already discussions in the forum that offered suggestions how to improve the service without compromising privacy or security.

There appears to be a widespread problem with matching. It likely impacts almost everybody over past two weeks. FTDNA is silent on the reasons and ETA for the fix/return to normal. Depending on the test (Family Finder, Big Y, etc.) the problems manifest in different ways. It could be related to improvements some people seen being announced via a pink banner on their pages, but that is just a guess on my part.

W. (Mr.)

It is reassuring to hear an explanation that affirms some of my own guesswork. I hoped that I would find in this forum any information other customers might have gleaned regarding the missing match data.

I may submit a new request, in case I did not include the kit number of the account with the problem in my original request for service. New matches are trickling in -- we can see a total of 10 now -- so maybe it looks like it's working. At the risk of adding to their burdens by submitting a new request, I would like to make sure they know we are still missing over one thousand matches.

[dna]

My brother had a Big Y, with results received last week -- about the 6th, I think.
He that pink banner.
His haplogroup is still not displayed correctly.

k.

Of course, your brother should not be subject to any Y DNA haplogroup predictions .

Information provided by you points to the system changes/updates/fixes starting on the day he received his Big Y. As it appears to me that those who received their Big Y on the 5th of May managed to get their Y DNA haplogroup assigned to whatever Big Y discovered for them.

W. (Mr.)

P.S.
Does he still have that pink banner?

[Sarmat]

So, this seems a fitting thread for my experience with FTDNA Customer Service today...

I got a seemingly random email from them this morning with the subject line "Update on Your Request {285019}".

The body of the email simply read, "Thank you for contacting Family Tree DNA. I am seeing that there are now matches showing up. Are you still encountering the same problem?"

I searched my email inbox to see if I had any previous correspondence related to ticket # 285019, but I have no prior correspondence related to that number.

I wrote back to say that I'm not sure if I'm still encountering the problem, because if I actually submitted that ticket it was so long ago that I don't have any recollection of what the original problem was.

I asked them to provide the original text of my submission, but they never answered.

[GoofusBroadway]

Of course, your brother should not be subject to any Y DNA haplogroup predictions .

... W. (Mr.)

P.S.
Does he still have that pink banner?

You ARE clever He's downstream of DF27 (past FGC11397, I think). Technically, the P312 isn't incorrect, but still...

Pink banner wasn't there this morning, for sure. I don't recall if it was there last night.

You know... I try to avoid complaining, but sometimes it seems like the FT-DNA IT department might be peopled by high-school-aged folks in multiple IT departmentS, none of which communicate with each other.

k.

[GeoMetric]

Truth is all we ask!

Dear Ron and Carolyn, there are three issues here so let me elaborate on them a little, as some other forum readers might also benefit from my explanation.

Due to the need for data privacy and security FTDNA Customer Service team does not have access to much more information than you can see yourself on your screen. Thus they might not be able to tell you what exactly is/went wrong. Is this a problem with the way FTDNA organized its operations? Many here think so. There were already discussions in the forum that offered suggestions how to improve the service without compromising privacy or security.

There appears to be a widespread problem with matching. It likely impacts almost everybody over past two weeks. FTDNA is silent on the reasons and ETA for the fix/return to normal. Depending on the test (Family Finder, Big Y, etc.) the problems manifest in different ways. It could be related to improvements some people seen being announced via a pink banner on their pages, but that is just a guess on my part.

Carolyn, myOrigins specifically shows only information about the very deep ancestry, that is 1000 years ago or much older than that. In many regions of the world there were significant migrations between that time and the time family names were established and genealogically relevant records started being kept. myOrigins would reliably distinguish whether you are from Japan or from Europe, but I would not use its findings to prove or disprove whether, for example, someone has German or Polish origins. Actually, with the exception of recent migrations to Europe, it appears to me that European populations are like smooth transitions from one population to another.

W. (Mr.)

Your explanation on why FTDNA has terrible customer service is a joke. The money and PROFITS this company is making is enormous, would you like to see some numbers? Stop making excuses and spend the money to fix the problem!

[dna]

Your explanation on why FTDNA has terrible customer service is a joke. The money and PROFITS this company is making is enormous, would you like to see some numbers? Stop making excuses and spend the money to fix the problem!

I am not making excuses. I am describing the situation (including writing about the dissatisfaction).

And yes, I would like to see the numbers.

W. (Mr.)

[khazaria]

In principle I agree with Lawrence Mayka that it would help to have separate categories for all known distinctive populations, if they are truly distinct and don't blend too much with their neighbors.

David Wesolowski did include separate "Polish" and "South Polish" categories in the oracles for Eurogenes's K13 and EUtest V2 K15 models. But it seems a further separation to focus on Southeast Poland's Podkarpackie region would be beneficial, at least for ultra-specific tests like his.

MyOrigins does need more reference samples too.