MyHeritage taken money from my account

[George Jamieson]

Hi All,

On the 17th Feb 2016 MyHeritage took £90 from my bank account after I told them I did not want to renew my membership. Despite several emails to support, asking for an explanation and a credit, no word from them until today. I have received an email stating I was issued a credit on the 17th Feb.

No credit has appeared on my bank account. They have kept my £90 for 2 weeks.

They claim to have 81 million users. How many do they take money from without authority ?

Please be aware of this and pass it on to any others users.

George

PS I did not renew my membership as the site is of little use to the serious genealogist. Its full of unproven trees.

[MoberlyDrake]

I have read numerous other instances of this online, which makes me reluctant to subscribe to MyHeritage. It surprises me that FTDNA and other companies partner with them, given the complaints. And so far, no one has been able to tell me what they have to offer in the way of primary documents that Ancestry and FamilySearch do not have.

I think all companies should offer customers a way to turn off automatic subscription renewal.

[George Jamieson]

Hi MoberlyDrake,

Finally I have received a reply to my 3rd email to support. No explanation as to the reason for ignoring my instruction, requests for help or a credit.

Apparently it can take up to 14 days for a credit to appear in a bank account. It has been 16 days today since the money was taken. I have just checked and there is still no credit.

I will add a similar post to the Project Admins Forums asking them to remind their members to check any subscription with MyHeritage and to bear this in mind if considering taking one out.

George

[kora]

George,

Your credit card has to have customer protection. Call them and tell what has happened, first they have to block My Heritage's access to your credit card in the future. Usually credit cards work with the customers to resolve the problems, and a call from your cc company carries more weight in the eyes of My Heritage.

Good luck! BTW, I am posting this info (without mentioning your name) on another forum, where users actively recommend My Heritage. People should be aware.

[George Jamieson]

Hi Kora,

Thanks for the advice.

I have today received my credit. 17 days from the original instruction not to renew my subscription.

There seems to be thousands of complaints online about MyHeritage subscription problems. Its a sad day when FTDNA find it wise to partner with such a company. Obviously MyHeritage are aware of this long standing issue and judging by the dates of the complaints going back years they have not found it necessary to address it. Due diligence would mean FTDNA were also fully aware of the problem but chose to ignore it and subject their customers to the possibility of such treatment.

In the future I will not consider any FTDNA recommendation to be in my best interest.

George

[dna]

Since that might help other users, how early in advance did you notify MyHeritage that you are not renewing?

Mr. W.

[George Jamieson]

Hi Mr W,

The day it was due to be renewed.

George

[1/2finn]

I don't think same day is enough time to stop a withdrawal set up for that day - that being said, it still shouldn't take over 2 weeks to get your money back.

[George Jamieson]

Hi 1/2finn,

there are several clues to the way MyHeritages considers you as a customer.

They don't include any FAQ's about cancelling your subscription. It says in the T&C's that cancellation must be made at least the day prior to renewal. I read a forum post somewhere that as they take up to 2 days to respond to a request to support any cancellation should be made at least 3 days before.

They don't remind you about renewal prior to grabbing your money.

They don't respond to support request.

Then they take 19 days to return money that doesn't belong to them. There is no way to justify that.

I said I would be happy to post any explanation they care to supply as to why they treat customers so poorly. They didn't bother.

George

[Babushka]

Hi 1/2finn,

there are several clues to the way MyHeritages considers you as a customer.

They don't include any FAQ's about cancelling your subscription. It says in the T&C's that cancellation must be made at least the day prior to renewal. I read a forum post somewhere that as they take up to 2 days to respond to a request to support any cancellation should be made at least 3 days before.

They don't remind you about renewal prior to grabbing your money.

They don't respond to support request.

Then they take 19 days to return money that doesn't belong to them. There is no way to justify that.

I said I would be happy to post any explanation they care to supply as to why they treat customers so poorly. They didn't bother.

George

I don't know what kind of Interest they would earn on holding your money for 19 days, BUT, just think of all the other customers in the same position as you, waiting for refunds. A thousand or more customers waiting for a refund for 19 or more days would most likely earn My Heritage a fair amount of Interest I should think. It sounds pretty much like the PPI scam that Banks used. Maybe you should demand the Interest back also.

[singingfalls]

You have to outsmart the devils. Pay through paypal. It will demand you pay annually. Do it. Then go to your paypal account and remove their ability to automatically renew. On your Paypal page find "Purchases". Under purchases look up "Preapproved". Find their account and "Cancel" preapproval. TaDah! Why they even can get away with it is a mystery to me.

[George Jamieson]

Hi Singingfalls,

We shouldn't need to outsmart them. They should respond to any complaints in a professional manner.

But that's useful advice. Thanks.

George

[Daragon36]

MyHeritage DNA is also a scam. When they first allowed for people to upload their DNA they said in the original blog post that those who uploaded during the Beta we would receive their Ethnicity Report for free. Low and behold after they got past Beta testing and released their official test, they changed the blog and didn't give a thing to the people who uploaded. Essentially what they did is baited us all to upload so that they could build up their Reference populations, and didn't give us anything in return. Nothing you can do legally to them because they are based in Israel and the Israeli lobby tends to get laws passed providing protections to their country and companies. MyHeritage is something I do not recommend to anyone either. Their site is complete rubbish.

[George Jamieson]

Hi Daragon36,

I agree.

In the same way many of us have uploaded Gedcom files, containing years of hard work and expense, to companies that consider it of little value but are happy to charge others to view it. In my case I uploaded 30 years of research to another well known ancestral company and what did I get in return ? Nothing, and I have to pay to access the contents of other folks Gedcoms. They advertise access to English BMD's records when in fact they can only offer access to a scanned page of the indexes. I had a exchange of emails asking them to clearly state they could only offer access to indexes. It was a waste of time and I think it is still the case.

I've stopped sharing with companies but happy to share with other researchers.


Another issue is the devaluing of my research by hobbyists who do not understand that they need to prove their additions. My tree was growing at an alarming rate and I tried to verify the new additions. I simply gave up in the end as I was spending more time correcting what I would consider obvious mistakes. The companies don't care as it increases the size of their database and attracts more customers.

George