Genealogy Chat

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR LONG-STANDING MEMBERS WITH AN IMMINENT SUBSCRIPTION RENEWAL ...

My apologies if this has already been discussed (I did a search on "subscription" and nothing came up on this board!).

On 31.12.11 I paid £9.95 to renew my subscription for another year. Have just received notification of my imminent renewal and this time it will cost me £15.96 (and that, apparently, is a "special offer").

Does anyone know why this has gone up by over 50%???? (Needless to say, I'm considering very seriously whether or not to renew, both from the basic cost point-of-view and in principle due to the cheek of the percentage increase).

Would welcome any comments/explanation. Many thanks.

Penny

I woud query it back. at £9.95 you are a long term member and they may have got confused with your membership.

New members pay a lot more than us older members

From the Subscriptions and renewals section in the FAQ under the Help tab at the top of this page

How much does it cost to renew?

Renew your subscription from 2 weeks before or up to 4 weeks after your renewal date, and you’ll only pay the original price of your subscription package. And if you choose continuous renewal, you’ll keep paying the original price. But if you renew your annual subscription anytime from 4 weeks past your renewal date, you’ll pay our current prices.

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/help/faqs?key=361

Roy

Thanks, Roy and Shirley, for your replies.

I've now checked out my account and have been a member since 2003 (of FR before I got interested in family history).

I've also checked out Roy's link and it would seem that I should definitely only be paying £9.95. Now off to contact GR - will post their reply when received!

Penny

I would turn auto renew off...then as soon as your sub is due check to see how much they want to charge you.

I have been a standard member for the last two and a half years at £9.95 for six months (before any discount) a year ago GR sent me an email saying they were going to charge me £34??? which was what I paid when I first joined as a gold member....when subs expired I was only asked for the £9.95....so it may be just a glitch

I also had a "renewal reminder" for £15.96 (I think)-I contacted GR via the "contact us" and queeried it as I have had continuous membership since 2005,they have confirmed they have corrected it !

You need to keep your wits about you on here :-)

Apparently no "confusion" on GR's part - here's their reply to my query:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Penny,

Thanks for getting in touch.

Historically we have always allowed members to renew at the price they originally paid so long as it was not a special offer price. However, over the past few months, we have been working hard to introduce lots of key new features including the Keepsafe, blogs, family history articles, new records and more. As a result of these additions, we feel that it is fair to ask our members to renew at the current price. Your new subscription is the equivalent of just £1.66 per month. Genes Reunited continue to offer one of the best value subscription options in the family history market, and we hope that you will continue to discover your family history with us.

Kind Regards,


Lisa
Genes Reunited Support Team
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Is this going be the case for all long-term members with a subscription renewal coming up???

I have decided NOT to renew in view of the above. I rarely make use of GR these days (have not had any contacts regarding my family tree in over a year) but thought that a tenner was a small price to pay for keeping the "door" open on the off chance. I also don't have any need of their "non-indexed birth and marriage records" and the 50 free credits offered with Standard membership as I already have an annual Ancestry subscription.

I know that paying another £5 is not much, but where will it end ... another £5 next year ... and the year after???

Would be interested to hear from any other "oldies" who have found themselves in this situation.

Penny

Mine is like Jax's, £9.95 for 6 months and due at the beginning of February. I shall await the renewal notice with interest.

Just for information, this is what appears in GRs Terms & Conditions re. Subscription Renewals:

"A continuous Standard Membership is automatically renewed every time your membership lapses and your credit card will be charged again based on the membership type you previously subscribed to. Credit card charges will be processed on the renewal date as stated in the notice of renewal sent by email to the holders of continuous Standard Membership. This notice of renewal will be sent by email 14 days before such automatic renewal. Where the Standard Membership fee is going to increase we will send you notice of renewal 28 days before such automatic renewal."

According to the last sentence, I should therefore have received my renewal notification on 3rd December (28 days prior) rather than 18th December (14 days prior)!

Penny

If that´s the case, they can forget it.
I enjoy the chat board & try to help with search requests if I can, but don´t really see why I should pay more for helping out.
I have on occasion asked for help myself, but there are other forums where I can do that for free.

Surely the new records are not available to standard members and if you want to access records you need to be a higher than standard member so pay more for the privilege. Maybe they want to 'weed out' those of us who are just standard members.

And in any case would it not be polite to put this on the announcements instead of waiting for people to find out for themselves? :-(

I agree Ann.
Just another example of GRs total disregard for it´s members.
You are quite correct in saying that people with basic membership can´t access the records held by Genes & personally I have never seen the point of Keepsafe nor the blog.
As far as I´m concerned, all Genes have achieved in the past 18 months or so is to make the site unuseable for quite long periods.

I am due to renew in Feb, have been a continuous member since 2005 and have recently paid £9.95 I think it was, for a year's membership. It's a bit of a pain if we are to be charged more, half the 'improvements' we haven't asked for and have seemed to me to be unnecessary, so it annoys me that we have to pay extra for someone to keep fiddling around with things. I don't do much on my tree at the mo as can't get my head round it all, too much else going on so I just use General Chat for light relief and to keep in touch with people I have come to know over the years.

In these days of economic difficulty it seems a shame to up the charges, and maybe lose more old time members especially.


Sign of the times I suppose!

Lizx

I've been a standard member since 2005.

The last few years GR have given me a discount.

I don't use their records, because most of my ancestors are Scottish.

I won't use Keepsake.

I don't really like the "improvements" and I was very annoyed when I couldn't use my tree properly for months!!!

I haven't added many names to my tree this year. I read the boards every day.

There are many other sites I could use ~ free!

Are they trying to bump out members who have been here for years?

NOT IMPRESSED







:-P :-P :-P :-P

maybe with the increase
they will be able to afford a moderator that on the boards 24/7

if so i dont mind at all :-D

"key new features including the Keepsafe, blogs, family history articles, new records and more"

Not interested in Keepsafe, can not remember the last time I had read a blog, not interested in the family history articles or new records.

So nothing I would be prepared to pay extra for.

Dont you need a tree or somesuch to use this keepsafe? Do I want any long lost family members contacting me?....No

I am not complaining about the price unless they put mine up too, but its looking very doubtful whether I will renew anyway...If I want to chat can do that on FB for free and there are very few people looking for help on the boards these days with dozens of people replying to the same request...I really cannot be bothered

This is the reply from GR to my e-mail queerying the sub rate on 11 December:-

"Thank you for your e-mail,I am sorry you were not given the correct renewal rate in your e-mail. I have made an adjustment from our end,and you should now be able to subscribe for the correct amount"

Kind regards
Nia
Genes Reunited Team

In view of Penny's experience I have e-mailed them again for further clarification as I suspect a lack of "communication" with the accounts department !

My sub is due on the 22nd and I also am dubious about continuing at present-and there is no longer any reason not to leave and rejoin later should one wish to if the discount is removed :-)

Apart from my tree, which on here is very basic & which I haven´t looked at for about 3 years, for the price of basic membership, Genes offers me nothing that I can´t get for free on other forums, so why do they think I will pay an extra 5 pounds per year for nothing?
Clearly, they only want members who are prepared to pay the top membership rates.

This is the reply to my e-mail to GR for clarification:-

(I mentioned another member had been told that the full sub has to be paid now)

"Thank you for getting in touch re one of your contacts renewal rates.
We are slowly moving everyone to the new renewal rate and as this is a gradual process it will affect different members at different times

I hope this helps and we look forward to seeing you on the site soon"

Kind regards

Rachel
Genes Reunited Team

From this it would appear that £15.96 is the new annual sub