Genealogy Chat

In the case of airline you can usually cancel or amend a flight,but usually you'll be charged some sort of penalty or lose a deposit for doing so. I don't think they would insist on sending you the ticket anyway regardless and charge you in full.

I personally think the GRO should be more flexible, ok a 7 day cooling off period probably wouldn't work here, as they usually have a 4-5 day turnaround, but cancelling an order within 24 hours of making it should be possible, or at any stage before sending, perhaps with a small fee.

I am perhaps old fashioned in thinking businesses should value their customers a little by accomodating them like this..bu there you go!

Peter,

Four years ago I ordered 3 certificates from Oldham. They were the first certificates I had ever ordered, and I knew no better.

The Registrar's Office wanted £7 + £1 postage for each certificate. I also had to include an addressed envelope of a certain size ..........which is actually not available over here, so I had to get the nearest size that I could!

The 3 certificates came in the same envelope, by airmail ........... so it cost me £3 for postage, which was NOT the cost of the stamps on the envelope!

They would only accept a money order for the £24, so I had to make a special trip to the bank, and pay their charges.

The £24 cost me something close to $60!


Is it any wonder that I find it easier to deal with GRO, and charge it to my credit card?



Sylvia

I think it depends on the office whether or not you pay extra for postage.

I ordered a marriage cert from Huddersfield recently and it was just £7. It came next day. As you say, it is usually a handwritten copy made just then.

I gather that some of the larger local offices are getting copying equipment, so it may be possible to be sent a facsimile of the original entry, but surely even this is a copy of the original cert?

Some local offices, London ones in particular, will not issue certs for genealogical purposes at all. Others, treat them as low priority.

For example, Liverpool RO state on their website that Certificates for family history research are processed within 2 to 3 weeks or less, depending upon the time of year and the demand for other certificates.

Liverpool also state that a charge of 50p will be made for all certificates not collected personally or for all credit/debit card transactions under£50.

Did you realise that it is more expensive to obtain a certificate from a local registrar's office?

You have to send a stamped addressed envelope with the request and enclose a cheque ................ OR if you live overseas like me then you have to add an extra £1 to the amount that you send to cover the cost of postage. And, of course, unless one has a UK bank account, one has to go and buy a money order from the bank, with its associated extra charges!

GRO charges the same £7 whether you are in the UK or not.



In addition, what you get from the registrar's office is a copy of the original taken at this moment in time by someone in the office. In other words ................ what you see has been interpreted by someone else.

What you get from GRO is a photocopy (or computer printout) of the information they have on record .................which was of course copied by someone years ago when the information was first received at GRO.


I actually prefer the latter .................... it may not be my ancestor's actual handwriting that I see, but at least I can try to decipher the ancient copperplate instead of having it filtered through someone else!


Sylvia

There are still many Registrars Offices who will not issue certificates deemed for geneology, the Islington one in particular. From posts on the boards I do not think a majority of researchers would appreciate the GRO having a 7 day "cooling off" period, most of us a far too anxious to receive the certs.

I agree with Titus, Why use the GRO for certificates, ? I always send for mine from the appropriate register office,, Say who and what i want,,wife of,,husband of,,child of,, occupations ,etc,,,, They would rather you put as much info as possible so they can get it right and if its not the correct entry they send your cheque back, I always get mine back within a week and sometimes by return post,
And,,,,contrary to what other people have said,,i have never found a local reg office that refuses to issue a certificate,,

I am afraid that you would get a similar response from an airline if you tried to change or cancel a booking made in error on-line, and that could be much more expensive.

Peter

Under the terms of The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000, consumers have a "cooling off" period of 7 working days from the date that the order is placed in which they may cancel orders placed by distance contract. The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 do not apply to business-to-business transactions.

The consumer's right to cancel does not apply where goods or services are clearly personalised or made to the consumers specifications, or once service provision has begun.

FAO Richard

Forgive me for being the eternal cynic, but I found your phraseology rather quaint.

"...just for the sake of customer satisfaction."

"Pocketing all the money ... does suggest a money grabbing disdain for their customers, and hardly portrays them in a favourable light."

This could be applied to a large section of UK businesses today!

Perhaps GenesReunited should take note?

Tom :-(

"The index was not incorrect, I realised that the certificates that I had ordered were not my family. It was my error, I accept that. However, I was of the opinion that you have the ability to cancel any order made on the internet. I think it's the 7 day cooling off law or some such thing"

Exactly Summer Scribe, this is why I've been vociferously backing you all the way on this one. I'm not convinced either they arn't actually breaching the law there, and even if they are not it is still bad practice.

I've ordered certs before and wasted seven pounds when they turned out to be unrelated to me, and wouldn't for a second expect a refund, but many people here seem confused, as this is clearly NOT the case here, you wanted to cancel before the order was processed, and I for one think you should have every right to do just that.

I do think you should be able to cancel - that's appalling. £7 I think is reasonable for the service (although with a hobby like this, if you want to do it 'right' and get the certs, you spend a fortune added up!) but I think there should be some refunded surely!

With any service you are normally able to cancel within a certain time limit, I think it's shocking you couldn't. I always use the online service, and will continue to do so, but I only buy certs at the moment if I really can't get any further without them (as money is tight). I'd be mightily peed off if this happened to me.

Titus - you don't work for the GRO do you? ;)

Rosie, I would say so, if you filled in the checking point correctly. They should have refunded you £4 and not sent the cert. I would call them, but as you can see they're not exactly great with the customer service.

Hi all,
I almost always go to local reg, but you do have to know the parish or at least a choice of two parishes but if you give them a date they will search a year each side.
Gill

The index was not incorrect, I realised that the certificates that I had ordered were not my family. It was my error, I accept that. However, I was of the opinion that you have the ability to cancel any order made on the internet. I think it's the 7 day cooling off law or some such thing.

I agree that it should have been easy to press a button and cancel, after all, what happens when it goes through the checking process? I hadn't used any check points but if I had then I would only be charged £3 and the certs cancelled. I'm not sure what the difference is. Even if they'd charged me the £3 admin charges for them.

I originally looked into using the local registry office but found it would cost me £18 to consult their books as they would not do the search for me and I didn't know the exact dates.

Of course, they can't know whether you're ordering your own family or some random persons certs, but why would they want to send out info to people who do not want it. It costs them postage and processing time after all. As has been said, what happened to customer service and how long would it take to go into a computer system to cancel it? Two minutes, surely.

I don't know anyone else that you order from that if you wish to cancel your order then you can't.

Not really Peter, The GRO are a business running a paid service and therefore should have some concept of customer service and flexibility. Customer IS always right after all, surely?

Its a bit like getting shouted at by the caller of a wrong number for answering the phone....!

Perhaps it would be best to carry out all the prudent checks that the persons are related BEFORE placing the order? And why wouldn't they (GRO) not send out certificates that were unrelated? Surely thousands of certificates must be ordered every week that are not related to those that order them? Or am I missing something?

Denis

Hi,
Have just read your last email iro BMD share. I also have several certs which proved to be nothing to do with my family. How do I go about putting them on BMD share?
Coreen

Summer,

How do you know that the information on the IGI is the accurate information??


There are mistakes on there ............ especially if the information is "submitted" and not "extracted"?


Sylvia

Agreed Reggie, but there should be some flexibility.

The cert takes 4-5 days to process. She'd realised her mistake within hours and attempted to cancel by mail and phone.

Realistically in that time frame, no one had probably even actioned the request yet, it would still have been in a queue. How hard would it have been to cancel at that stage? Just add a note or press a button?

I feel they should have at very least refunded half, and taken the other haf for the trouble, just for the sake of customer satisfaction.

Pocketing all the money and insisting on sending certs they know full well are not in any way wanted or required anymore does suggest a money grabbing disdain for their customers, and hardly portrays them in a favourable light.