General Chat

" I was reduced to Free member for a couple of days"

- I remember that :-( :-S

and yet I got the discount that very same June that Island was denied it!



................. except that they then charged my credit card in US dollars (having quoted the subscription, both full and discounted, in £ sterling), sending me an email to tell me the amount charged.

.............. as I live in Canada, they seemed to think that was obviously our currency :-S


Having calculated that there was a charge to convert £ to US$, then another charge to convert to Can$, plus the charge for using foreign currency from the credit card company .......................

I decided that I would be paying almost double the discounted price, and asked to pay in £ sterling, as in every previous year ...... and as I do on every other site!

I wanted the credit card charge in $ removed and replaced with £ sterling

It is notable that GR does only show the cost of any subscription in £ sterling, and does not show it in any other currency.


It has ended up that I have to have my residency permanently showing as UK .............

.............. they said they were insisting that all overseas members pay in the currency of their country if available (not all were/are) ......... otherwise they have to pay in the currency of the nearest other country. :-S :-S


so Canada pays in US$, New Zealand presumably pays in Aus$


It all took so long that I was reduced to Free member for a couple of days before THEY got it all sorted out ....................

................ I was then charged the full amount of £9.95, and then refunded the discount they had promised me one month earlier.

I was assured that this would not affect my standing as long term member, and the grandfathered clause


It will be interesting to see what happens come May/June this year.


If it does change to the "new" subscription of close to £15 per 6 months ...... then that might just be the nail in to coffin regarding GR and me

I don't think it worth that much money to come on here, and spend my time basically "working" for GR!





sylvia



NOTE:- My credit card statement indeed showed that paying in US$ cost me one third more than the cost of paying in £ sterling ............... even though both transactions included a foreign currency fee from the cc company.

That's what's so unbelievable SRS!
They've either got very thick skins or they can't read!

Aghh Sorry Island, I misread your post.

I realised that you got the info from GR, I hadn't realised they meant the previous September. That is bizarre.

SRS, it was GR who said the offer had ended in September not me.

In this instance I queeried why discounts had been offered in May and July 2011 but not to myself in June of the same year. The response from GR said the offer had ended in September - as I emailed them in the July, that would have been the previous year!!!

I recall a similar thread to this, quite one some time ago being whooshed by GR!!

I don't think we shall ever get to the back of GR re this subject,it's brought up regularly & nothing changes.

Joan.

I just copied and pasted all this thread, 15 pages of Word. Goodness me! Next to copy all the links sent by other people.

Thanks to all of you. I could afford to pay this - if I wanted to - but firstly I am aware some people can't, and why should they be penalised?? - and secondly, really, Genes need to get their act together.

If my hissy fit goes some way to helping that then I will be happy.

I was offered the discount last year but I think Island is correct to say that it is ended now. My subscription ends in February and I haven't been offered a discount this time (although when I look at the subscribe page it talks about 50 free credits with standard membership) I'm just wondering whether that will apply to all members.

Just looking in. Thank-you, Mau.

I will still be able to read the threads, I believe, but I will only be able to pm previous contacts. I am amazed at the arrogance of GR in assuming they can get away with pulling the wool over people's eyes. Or, more likely, they just haven't give this any thought. I would rather pay Ancestry for their efficient service than be subjected to this silliness from Genes. Such a shame.

I once again will say my subs are due in July and I have never ever been offered a discount.

When I wrote to GR querying why others were given it I was told 'I got good value for my money' ,well yes but so have other members :-S.........this is still a controversial subject and goes on and on and on ....Groundhog Day.... :-|

Mau

edit: should add i'll be sorry to see you leave Helen

Island


my sub is due in June ....... and I WAS offered the discount of 20% both in 2010 and 2011.


The subscription of £9.95 thus became something like £7.95



sylvia

And my annual sub is the same as it was in 2007 so that bears out Sylvia's post. :-)

I know Ann! lol. 'Everyone' renewing either side of June was saying they'd had a discount LOL I looked for the thread but think it was deleted. :-(
I don't like missing out :-D

I had a discount in April last year.

SRS,

It is the randomness of discount offers that is the puzzle!

My renewal is in JUNE. On a similar thread last summer some said they'd been offered a discount in MAY while anoother said they'd had the discount on renewel in JULY. All on £9.95 per year, all long time members.
On emailing GR to question this they replied stating that the offered had ended in SEPTEMBER! So is it the members or GR who are fibbing here?
There was no mention of discounts being based on how members use the boards but I'm sure they would use that as yet another reason if they pick up on it.

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

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

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.

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.

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