General Chat

Hi Ann, thank-you.

I really don't remember if my membership ever lapsed between 2003 and now; all I remember is that the cost suddenly doubled in the last few years and it took me a while to realise I was paying twice as much, this is when I stopped being "continuous". I've been a member since January 2003 and here we are just at the end of January 2012. I don't want to continue going over old ground but I do think there are several different price structures and I don't think that's right.

Ann Marie in GR Support emailed me this:

"I can confirm that if you auto upgrade your account for 6 months you will be charged £9.96.
This is at a discounted rate as the usual price is £14.95 for 6 months."

Helen, some are still on £7.50 a year. I think they keep long standing members on 7.50 - 9.95 a year because they may well discontinue if charged C£20 per six months, I wouldn't renew if they quadrupled the sub.
Discounts are offered randomly, there is no rhyme or reason and GR respond with claims that are very different to that of members. :-|

Has anyone else emailed GR about the 20% discount.

I have and according to Ann-Marie I have a discounted price for the year.I pay £9-95 for the year.. and just had an email back saying that I have a dicounted rate for the year.

Instead of paying £14-95 I pay £9-95.

This is the email she sent me..

Dear Susan

Thanks for your email

I can see that you are already on a discounted rate.
If you auto renew your fee is £9.95 for the year.
The current price is £14.95 for 6 months and £19.95 for an annual membership.

Unfortunately we cannot offer you the 20% discount as you do not pay the up to date price.

I hope that explains things for you.

Kind Regards,

Ann-Marie
Genes Reunited Support Team

Have I got this right?......according to that email one has to actually be paying the £14-95 membership fee before qualifying for a 20% off offer at some point??

Having NEVER paid £14-95 for my membership how come I was offered the 20% OFF my normal membership fee of £9-95 last year??

I was told at the time of the offer it was a LOYALTY discount!!!

Joan.

Joan,
That is how I have read it as well.
I got the 20%discount loyalty last year as well.

Personnally I think hat the CEO should come on the site and sort this problem out.

There is no way I would pay £14-95 every 6 months or £19-95 for the year.

There are free sites like Genforum that we could go on.

Sue

Sue,
That is yet another version from GR!
There was a thread up in the summer about discounts.
My renewal is in June. Someone had received a discount in May another in July - all on £9.95 p.a. rate. I emailed GR about this only to be told that the offer had been in September and was now closed! Uh???
I was eventually offered a small refund but they told me my card was no longer valid (double uh??) and asked for my bank details.
As far as I'm concerned it isn't about a couple of quid, it's about fairness - and them giving different reasons as they can't all be correct!

I have never been offered a 'loyalty discount'.

Evening Island - I haven't either. My renewal is due on the 8th and it's £9.95 for 6 months. How long before I'm considered loyal?

Goodbye, if your master is just walking in the door :-D

When your name goes into the hat Wend :-D
Master? LOL, 'I'm in charge' (was that Brucie?)

Now, there was a thread . . . . . oh no, silly moo-moo deleted it, didn't she . . .

Island,

Everyone that their membership is due and who pays only £9-95 should email Gr Team and ask them when there renewal is due can they have the 20% discount.
Thats just to see what GR say in an email then put it on this thread.

Sue

I pay 9.95 for the year & always have done. Last year. I too got the 20% "loyalty" discount. This year, no mention.
As was said previously, it´s not a matter of a couple of pounds & I didn´t expect the discount again this year. It´s a matter of what criteria is applied when offering the discount.
I also got a "loyalty" discount from Ancestry last year, but not this year although I think it was because FMP introduced a "loyalty" discount last year. Don´t know if that´s still operating.
It all seems very hit & miss to me.

FMP loyalty discount is ongoing but it has been reduced from 20% to 10%.
I got my FMP discount on renewal in September.

Joan.

I have just seen this thread ...so went and looked at my subscription details ..
it says ..you currently have a 6 month standed subscription WRONG.....
i have and always have had a yearly subscription then it goes on to say ...
you subscribed on 21st March 2011
your membership expires on 25th March 2012
I have sent them an email so waiting for a reply .
I joined this site in 2006
Hazelx

Well this just gets curiouser and curiouser. My membership was changed without me even being consulted and I am not gong to pay twice what other people are paying so it's farewell to all of you!

Anyone who wants to stay in touch can pm me! (Don't all rush.lol!!) Tomorrow is my last day, I am going to spend it C and P ing this thread to support.

Helen,
I've brought the subject of random discounts up a few times,on general chat and on suggestions, but no-one seems bothered about it. I've emailed GR and they just fob me off - either they or the members aren't being 'accurate', both sides can't be right.
I thought it was overseas members who only pay £7.50 p.a. because they might be exempt from tax but this is not the case. Some UK members still only pay £7.50. Why weren't their subs put up to £9.95 at the same time as the rest of us?

Probably because they challenged it at the time. I think it was the particular time when subscriptions were extremely random - they didn't make sense whatsoever and no one could tell what rate they were about to pay.

I wish I had challenged it at the time lol but 83p per month isn't bad for the 12 month membership so I'm not going to complain to much about not staying on the £7.50

83p a month isn't bad at all but it isn't about a couple of quid, it's about treating members differently and the ridiculous 'reasons' which just don't make sense.

It doesn't say much about valueing their members.

Exactly my point, Island, I agree it's "cheap" especially compared to A******y, for example, but I don't feel very well treated. I'll make sure your comments go through too. They'll love me! My previous two emails were answered very promptly.

Helen


I have nudged up this thread on Suggestions Board ... it dates from last December

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Bonuses for long term members
http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.page/board/suggestions/thread/1287838



On it, I posed the following situation, and asked a question:- ...................

"One thing I've always done is to change my membership from Continuous Membership to Single

I just go into My Account, then Subscription Details, and change to Single Membership.

GR has then sent an email to say my membership is due about 1 month before the actual date. You have until 1 month after the date your sub ends in which to renew at whatever offer they have stated ............ and you have not broken your membership.

I just do not like automatic deductions from my credit cards or bank account.

HOWEVER ..............

I've just checked the sequence of what to do, and notice that it now says Auto Renew On and Auto Renew Off

When I ticked Auto Renew Off, I got the following message:-

By turning off auto renewal your subscription will be left to expire on the 9th June 2012. Also any features purchased with this subscription will also expire on the same date.

This implies that GR will no longer notify, and there is no option to automatic renewal.

Please, can you confirm whether or not one can tick Auto Renewal Off, and still get a reminder from GR that your renewal date is coming up, or will there be no notification at all?

------------------------


I finally got the following responses ON THE THREAD ........................

1. All of our long standing members who choose to auto renew are charged the original price at which they joined. It is now £14.95 for 6 months standard membership or £19.95 for 12 months, so those of you on £9.00 are getting a deal better than half price!



and then later...................

2. Hi Sylvia - Apologies for the confusion. The sentence; "By turning off auto renewal your subscription will be left to expire on the 9th June 2012. Also any features purchased with this subscription will also expire on the same date" does not mean that we will not be sending you an email to remind you of your renewal. We will always remind you that your subscription is coming to an end.

'Features' are a form of mini subscription available to Platinum members. If a Platinum member wants to view Parish records or any other records not included in their Platinum membership they have the ability to add that 'Feature' to their subscription. This is what we mean by features. As you have pointed out it does not make much sense for Standard members, so I will have a think about how I can make this clearer.


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I currently pay £9.95 per year ..... although I was given a 20% discount off that both last year and the year before.


It is also NOT the subscription that I paid when I joined.

I paid £7 in 2004, it then increased to £7.50, and finally to £9.95 by 2007


....... and wasn't 2007 when ITV bought GR (and parent company FriendsReunited, etc) from the founders??????




sylvia

As some other people have mentioned, other sites have a loyalty bonus which in effect is what GR is doing.

GR will want to keep the long existing members because generally they don't need much from the site regarding their family tree as theyve been doing it longer so would usually have got more done.

As I said before, some of the long members spend their time helping new members and Gr will not want to lose their custom as they keep the site running.

Also some only join to chat and that's all that they are really paying for.

GR made it clear a long while back the consequences of not renewing your membership. I wouldn't have thought that there would be any questions about why they did at this stage it as it was quite clear at the time.

I just wonder why it's coming up again so late in the day. It's a shame to see you go though Helen. All the best x