Ancestry Reviews 15

I sent my DNA sample early January 2026, Ancestry show they booked it in on 21st January. Since then they have done nothing. On their website last entry is a further three weeks ago they show analysing.
A complete scam and waste of 40 pounds. My advice don't throw money away on these people !

Always with the up sale. Constant emails wanting to sale a new feature.

SCAMMERS. Terrible service and customer support. They charge you $25 for cancelling and don't help out when you wanna get a refund for only using free trial.

Mailed in my DNA and never got the results, they kept trying to get me to buy other services
Do not trust these people

I have submitted my sample a few months ago because I read their policies where they clearly state you can request the destruction of your sample after the analysis is done. Here we are a few months later and they still haven’t honored my request. Think twice or more before you make a decision. They state one thing and do another. I wonder now what conditions they respect and which ones not. Just don’t trust all they state on their website.

I joined Ancestry to find my real birth parents, I actually found my father quite quickly, however, for me there is a major failing that they are obviously aware of: you can leave a message for other members and they put a red dot against your messages link - problem is that if people do not login to their accounts they will never see the message. How difficult can it be for a company the size of Ancestry to automatically send anemail message to alert a member that they have a new message?

In my case there are 2 members who could hold the key to me finding my birth mother, but if they do not login into their accounts they will never know and I cannot progress any further - so back to not knowing!

A scam really. I paid for the highest package & all I got was the percentages of my DNA, with a story about the countries my ancestors are from which I could have just Googled for free, Then they try to charge extra if you want to know more, not good.

"AVOID AT ALL COSTS!" Scam service, with a six week delay to rip you off. Ancestry DNA test basically tells you where you live now based upon the information you have supplied them. They base the history of your ancestry DNA on where you "could" have come from, without any comitments where your DNA ancestry "ACTUALLY CAME FROM"!

I signed up for membership on the Ancestory site, used it for about 6 months then no longer used it, I have now been stopped £79 annual membership fee I never knew this was a membership that automatically got renewed annually. I have tried emailing on the address I was given to ask for a refund but got an answer back saying that address was no longer in use, I’ve been round & round the houses even tried to fill in a refund form but 2 of the fields would not allow me on, I am desperate to get the money back because I live overseas & only get a tiny UK pension that never gets reviewed, so only the same as I started receiving 13 years ago.
This site makes it impossible for you to contact them

I signed up for a free trial and then after a couple of days I decided it wasn't for me. I tried to cancel the membership and received information telling me that they would send a reminder nearer the time. I didn't receive a reminder and cancelled again. However, the company took my money even though I had not really used the system. The team are slot to get back to you. Still waiting 10 days after money went out.

What I dislike is that I purchased an Ancestry Account for 12 months and I am unable to use it for just my Husband and myself. I paid the $250.00 in hope that we could both use it to access our Ancestry and it's far too costly to get another. Very disappointed 😞

I've been trying to get a refund since around 28th June 2023 - for a DNA kit that I gifted to my partner and paid for in March - paid by PayPal. The DNA could not be processed twice. I've had many emails with support with many suggestions from them, but no-one was really owning the problem.I phoned Ancestry last week and spent about 40 minutes on the phone whilst all was checked by CHRISTI or CHRISTY. She said that she understood the problem and she had checked my username, phone no, post codes and many other proofs of who I am. She asked if I would mind holding for a couple of minutes while she checked something. We may have been disconnected as she never returned. She had my phone number and email address so she could have informed me of something at least. But so far nothing.
Today I wrote this message shown below with screen shots and attached files of my PayPal account and Ancestry account. I received a message saying I should fill in a form on the support sight. This didn’t make sense? So I forwarded the message to paypalsupport at ancestry.com, seconds later I received an email stating that my cancellation request to cancel my account had been received and processed!
Do you see a cancellation request in my email below? I am actually very happy with the Ancestry website and I’m enjoying very much using it, such that I renewed for 6 mths with all access: Your membership:World Explorer Membership Fold3.com Membership Newspapers.com Basic Membership Newspapers.com Extra Membership.
It seems that if you email paypalsupport atancestry.com which I did twice – an automated email is generated assuming that you wish to cancel? I’m still reeling. All I wished for was a simple refund. Now I’d also like reinstatement of my ‘Membership World’. Hopefully somebody can help me! Thanks for reading this.

Dear All

This is the last time I'm writing to you about the refund for the DNA test for XXXXXXX that you could not process twice. If this is not resolved successfully this time then I shall open a complaint with PayPal and post a complaint on TrustPilot

I've sent many emails and have been responded to by different people with different suggestions but nobody at all OWNS the issue. (No help desk with tickets I imagine?)

The last suggestion was that I call the Ancestry phone line which I did last week. I was on the call for about 40 minutes with CRISTI or CHRISTY. I do not feel it is wise to try another call to your support line given the previous very disappointing results or should I say non - results.

- I supplied all the relevant information she requested ( see below screen shots from Ancestry and PayPal - information she requested)

Also please see the attached files showing all the PayPal details for both the 2 DNA kits and the Ancestry subscription in my name

Requested by Christi/Christy:

- name on the account and other names
- phone no
- payments made
- postcodes
- the exact nature of the complaint

- she said that she understood the problem - I purchased 2 DNA kits from Ancestry DNA LLC and the one for XXX could not be processed successfully, in spite of trying twice. (Mine was successful) We opted for a refund, and then this saga began.

- CRISTI or CHRISTY had all my details, phone no, email address and so on. She said that she would go away for a few minutes to check a couple of things. She never returned or we were disconnected??.

- I'm still awaiting an email or a call from CRISTI or CHRISTY.

I look forward to hearing from you!!!!

Patricia Moynihan

When i purchased my ancestory DNA test i was under the impression that both my X and Y chromosomes would be tested. When i got my results they were very obviously incorrect, my fathers side was correct but my mothers side was incomplete given it did not include the data for the X chromosome (my mothers mothers information is therefore not included providing incorrect results). After these results I wrote a review explaining the situation only for Ancestory to reply trying to assure me that my results are correct . Not only is this false advertising but It is also a waste of money. Use a different company.

Careful of this site, they offer a trial period and then you cancel if you don't want to pay $25 per month to continue the service.

When I went to cancel, as they found nothing on my family other than what I typed in and it wasn't even a proper match, I pressed cancel on the 'cancel my account page' and thought that was that.

I noticed I was being billed still, so went to their site to cancel it again. Low and behold I found that there were FOUR more pages of additional questions and attempts to sell you more products before the cancel button transformed into a cancel button that actually cancelled my account.

I contacted customer support to ask for a refund of the $50 I had by then had extracted from my account by this company explaining that their cancellation system was misleading. They refused to refund me, citing it wasn't their policy- not even for this upcoming month which I paid for just yesterday. So in sum, their actual company policy is to create a system whereby cancellation is obfuscated then refuse a refund when the customer discovers that the service they didn't even log into or use has made some passive income. Quite the money maker, just don't let it be yours!

Called Ancestory.com within 14day cancellation period. Spoke with a young lady working from home who was happy to help only to then find later the adviser had failed to place cancellation order. No apology just told they have no record of call and when I asked to open a complaint just received repeated rambling about dates! I then called back following the adviser hanging up to get my complaint reference only to go through the same thing all over again!? The worst experience as a customer I've endured in a while, what should have been a quick resolve was unnecessarily escalated by unprofessional customer service.