Suggestions

After reading some of the messages in this new suggestions,Iam wondering if you ARE listening? I will put my name on the list , as I hate the new tree!!!!!!! Its too hard,its not easy and takes away enjoyment due to the frustration of being slow,adding and editing.. its not a good idea this.

One lister (Francesca)says 97% are against new tree. Another (Sylvia in Canada) says that 80% are in favour. I am confused.

I get the feeling over these last 3 weeks that 97% against is not that far off. Certainly a very significant number are saying that they can't or won't use the tree any more and are talking about leaving, removing Auto Renew from their subs renewal etc.

But nothing from team. Last announcements were 2nd Aug (all is well) and 9th Aug (made screen a bit darker for you). Is it ostrich management and they hope this will blow over?

Personally, I think they owe us an announcemnt that recognises this well of feeling and indicates whether they think it is sufficient for them to at least consider changing course. THye have over 400 unhappy customers - probably vastly more if you add in the silent majority.

goldielocks - as has been said elsewhere, comments need to be sent to

[email protected]

You may get a standard response, but at least your comments will have been noted.

GR don't spend time reading the Boards. That's not what they are employed to do.

What’s the restaurant marketing slogan?

If you enjoyed your meal, tell your friends
If you didn’t, tell us.

On that basis, people who aren’t bothered by the new format are happily getting on with it. Those who don’t are the ones posting on the boards.

As has been pointed out on many occasions, the suggestions board is for members to put forward suggestions for changes to the site.
Regardless of whether the posts on here are relevent or not, the board is totally useless if, as you say, the Genes team don´t read it.
If they do read it, they can´t fail to be aware of the discontentment of many members.
Like others, when I joined, all I had was a tree facility & access to the boards for help and advice. That´s all I have now & I´m quite content with it. Few of the recent changes affect me in any way so I have nothing to complain about. I do though sympathise with members who have paid good money to use facilities which they were promised & which don´t appear to be accessible.

The help given on the site is invaluable. The rest is superfluous & expensive.

I like DetEcTive's restaurant analogy. When it comes to number-crunching the percentages of the total membership who either love or hate the New tree format (and the various shades in between these extremes) only GR actually have any strong data. They know how many new relatives are being added to members' trees and the number of members they've lost since the 19th July 2012.
Sadly they are keeping their cards close to their chests and are refusing to publicly acknowledge that there is any membership discontent at all. Speculating about the views of the silent majority who don't post on the Boards or Blogs, based on the views of those who do, is fun but maybe should be left to statisticians. But I think we should bear in mind one well known characteristic of the British public. How many of us would actually complain to the waiter when we are served up a plateful of inedible tripe?

If a customer is happy they will just carry on as normal and or recommend the site to friends

If a customer is NOT happy they will tell everyone

whether a web site, or their local garage it makes no difference

That's human nature

Roy

Hi everyone,

we just want to reassure you that we are reading posts on here. We look at our message boards on a daily basis as we do like to know what our members are saying. Sadly we don't have the time to reply to everything. That really would be a full-time job and, as I am sure you all understand, the team are very busy.

If you are having problems using the website then we would always suggest you take a look at our help pages, which are kept updated, or you contact our support team for a personal reply. Any bugs that you report to us will be passed on to the development team and fixed.

We have hundreds of thousands of visitors to the site every month, and in the main the feedback has been really positive. But it is really important that we know what you think. When we released the new look site a few weeks ago we did react to your feedback and have already made some changes. We have made the font on the message boards darker. We also made the boxes smaller, meaning there is less white space.

We have also been reacting to feedback about the tree and made some changes there. In the coming weeks we will be adding some new views and the ability to create marriages between existing relations. In other words, if you have a relation who married another relation (such as a cousin) you will be able to create a marriage for them.

We know that tree printing is also something else that you'd like. Again, this is something we are going to be looking at and making sure we get right over the coming months.

If you do have any feedback or suggestions then you can also send it to the Genes Product team. Our email address is [email protected].

I will try to look in and post whenever possible though. There is quite a lot going on right now and just not enough hours in the day!

Kind regards,

Estelle

Roy: My understanding of human nature is a bit different to your own. I worked for years as a Citizens Advice Bureau Advisor. I can assure you that many clients, who were motivated enough by a grievance to visit C.A.B., did not in the end proceed with making a formal complaint. Even if we offered to phone or write to the suppliers of shoddy goods or services, on their behalf, many felt that they would rather avoid the stress and conflict this might entail. Nobody knows how many aggrieved customers just remained silent and resentful and didn't even bother to check out their rights.
I don't think it would be wise to assume that 100% of people who do have good reason to complain actually do make their voices heard. I think that is far too simplistic. Human nature is a lot more nuanced than that and any sweeping generalizations are rarely credible.

Francesca, Their is a big difference between a formal complaint and the complaints made on the community boards, Formal complaint are not on the community boards,


First the people making complaints and seeking advice using CAB but did not follow it up? is pretty much the same with GR, How many members who have complained on the boards actually have made a formal complained to GR?

My point is that when people are happy with a service or product they are not likely to complain because their would be nothing to complain about but they may recommend the company/site/service to others on occasion,

But when people are NOT happy they will tell everyone? meaning that they will tell family friends the bloke in the pub the taxi driver who drove them home from the pub and so on, and yes that includes having a rant about it on the boards,

And yes some may go on to seek advice from the CAB and make a formal complaint but i guarantee they will have all told (someone) about their grievance and generally the more unhappy they are the more people they will tell


Hope this clarifies my understanding of human nature

Don't ignore Estelle's Post!

Thanks for the update :-)

Roy: I'll accept that it is a universal law of human nature that all dissatisfied customers always voice their complaints when you can persuade me that all GR members elected you as their spokesperson and that you've fully consulted them all. I take it that you don't believe in the concept of the silent and resentful customer.
I'm beginning to feel like Alice through the Looking Glass.
Estelle says ..."in the main feedback has been really positive". Hasn't she read her own official GR Tree Updates Blog ? Now that's what I call spin!
I would even venture to suggest, though certainly never guarantee, that there may even be some unhappy members who blame their own technical inadequacies for their inability to cope with the New tree, rather than the flaws in the tree itself, after reading how much it is adored by everyone else.

I know what +++DetEcTive+++ is suggesting but I have sent the same email twice to that address and got nothing, following SylviainCanada's suggestion to re-send it & demand a reply, but still nothing not even a plain acknowledgement....

I agree with Francesca, Estelle must be on a different website if she thinks the "feedback has been really positive". The reason Estelle may be busy is because so many people are so unhappy...

And the worse thing is that unlike a disappointing restaurant you cannot just say "Oh it's no good anymore, we'll go elsewhere". I have invested a huge amount of time and some money into my tree and someone has just decided to scrap it & replace it with a child's version...I cannot just walk away and try elsewhere, especially when I have a subscription that runs to December...that's what is really annoying & that's what GR don't seem to understand.......or care about.....

That's unfair Francesca.

Neither Roy, you, I or any other member of GR know the true statistics. Only GR do......assuming that fellow members have used the correct link to express their opinion...

[email protected]

No, Roy hasn't been elected a spokesman. Nor have you. Nor have I. It does work both way, you know ;-)

Francesca, The problem with believing in the silent and resentful is that they are invisible and their for cannot be counted and i am NOT anyone's spokesperson elected or otherwise

I speak for me and i say what i think,

Its called having an opinion

As for Estelle, You may doubt what she said and think its only "spin" but thats just your opinion which you are entitled to but at least as Estelle does have access to the all the data to make that assumption/statement then i think that her opinion is more valid than that of the members


Roy

Malcolm, Have you checked that your email details held by GR are up to date?

GR don't reply by private message (PM) they send an email to the email address listed in your account

Roy

To Roy

Yes they have and yes I have checked my In box fpr the last 10 days and nothing there at all......

Can we have an apology from those who continually say that Estelle and the team do not read these threads. Her letter has pulled the rug from under their feet.

I would expect the team to know waht we are thinking. I would expect any management of any company to be aware of what their customers think. Statistical probability supports Francesca (as do I). What Roy and Detective are saying is purely conjecture and they want to believe that silent people agree with their point of view.

And they feel bolstered by the continual official "good feedback, one of two problems" line that Genes are taking.

I think it is very brave of Estelle to put her head above the parapet (and I mean that sincerely). None of us members can sort this mess out, and I am sure we appreciate they are curently working very hard on certain issues. But there needs to be a clear indication that there is a mess and it is being addressed.

I am fed up with contnually crossing swords with Roy, Detective, SylviainCanada et alia on this particular issue. I want to carry on enjoying this site - as we all did to a reasonable degree till a month ago. I want us all to be fluffier again :-)

I dont think it was said the staff NEVER read these threads...it was more that they may NOT reply.....that is why it has been suggested by the team and other members to complain directly by emailing them

I would also refrain from using peoples names on here particually if they have not posted on the thread...I do not know who you or Francesca are, but you only appeared when you were unhappy with the tree

I like others are sick of hearing about it.....if you dont like it take your tree elsewhere.

I need to renew my membership shortly...so must dash

Jax I have been a member for over 9 years and have been happy till a month ago. I have plodded away building up a tree that has been a help to many as well as myself.

I came on Community to see if anyone else hated the new tree as much as me and have found literally hundreds - many on here for first time. As more and more critics of the new tree have come on (often for first time) they have immediately been told the same things.

It is often difficult to follow the thread they started because of all the same stuff every time. And, yes, we have been continually told it is a waste of time moaning on Community threads.

Why don't you leave us disgruntled members alone and start your own thread "I love the new tree. What do you think?" Then you can R & R everyone who disagrees with you for being off topic.

I am going to start R & R'ing if, every time a new person comes on here to complain about the new tree, they are told the same things that have been said many times before by the same people.

John, I could not disagree more, So before you get all giddy and pull any rugs from under anyone

First, Regardless of what Estelle said about reading the boards "daily"? they may scan the odd thread but i would dispute that because

a, The lack of response to threads on all boards

b, The site has been unusable in the past with errors and its only when members have posted on GR's face book page that any response has been forthcoming

c, When the site has had serious problems in the past the response that GR have posted is along the lines of, Hi, guys sorry for the errors you've had over the last day or two but we had only just found out, usualy as i said before after members posted on FB,

Second, (What Roy and Detective are saying is purely conjecture and they want to believe that silent people agree with their point of view)
my response as in my post above 21 Aug 2012 19:06 is

(The problem with believing in the silent and resentful is that they are invisible and their for cannot be counted)

I take it that unless you are privy to official data that the rest of us have not then your analysis is also pure conjecture and that you also believe that silent people agree with your point of view,

Third, (And they feel bolstered by the continual official "good feedback, one of two problems" line that Genes are taking)
I cannot speak for the others but You have seriously underestimated Me in particular with that statement,

Just because i have not joined in and slated them on the boards does not mean that i have agreed with the way they have handled the situation,
I was actively on their case months before this last new version was thrust on members,
I have continually hounded GR both through the contact us and the feedback facility plus multiple complaints to them on FB to the point that i was banned from posting on GR's FB page months ago and i fully expected to be banned off GR
(How may members complaining have gone that far for the cause) ???

All this whilst still trying to help members with look up and research advice plus the help i give members on getting around their technical problems with the site,

And lastly, I do not cross swords I prefer to use a machine gun and i don't bear a grudge But i will debate and have an opinion on most things


Roy