Genes Reunited - Refusing Refund

mleonard79

Hi Everyone,

I am at the end of my tether with Genes Reunited. I received an email from them just over 2 weeks ago offering a free 14-day trial of their gold membership. As I hadn't done any work on my family tree in a while and wanted to get back into it I decided to take the offer up. I read the T&C's so I knew how to cancel before any money was taken in case I decided I didn't want it. The relevant part in their T&C's is:

You may notify us of your wish to cancel your Gold Membership of the Genes Reunited Service at any time during your Free Trial Period by logging onto the Genes Reunited Service and changing your Gold Membership status from “continuous” to “single” via the “My Account” page or by emailing us at [EMAIL="support@genesreunited.co.uk"]support@genesreunited.co.uk[/EMAIL].

I immediately changed my membership to "single" so I wouldn't get caught out and that way if I wanted to take up gold membership at the end I could just choose to pay for it. I checked it was on "single" several times during the trial and it definitely was.

When I had a look at the records they have available, however, I discovered that it is only records for England and Wales and as my tree research centres on Scottish and Irish records this part of the memberhsip is of no use to me. I enjoyed using the site during my trial though and decided I would take up a standard membership at the end at £9.95 for 6 months.

Lo and behold, however, I got an email from GR the day before my trial we even due to end with a receipt for £34.95 for payment of gold membership for 6 months! :mad: I assumed it was a system error and if I just emailed them they'd downgrade me to standard and refund the difference but after explaining that I had followed the T&C's etc I just got some kind of auto-response quoting the T&C's for continuous membership and saying no refunds are possibe.

I have sent 2 subsequent complaint emails quoting their T&C's as well to their support team and it's as if they don't even read them - I just keep getting a similar response that doesn't even begin to address my issues. There is also the fact they state you can cancel a membership within 7 days - they are ignoring this part as well.

I have looked, without success, for a phone number for them as I don't see any point in continuing to email repeating myself over and over just to get the same ridiculously incompetant responses. If anyone has any other contact details for them I would be grateful. Also I was wondering if there is anyone else I can complain to? Trading Standards perhaps? There must be some sort of statutory right to cancel a service within a specified timeframe.

I'm flabbergasted that they offer these free trials in order to entice people to become paying customers and then would rather alienate someone who has decided to become a paying customer and a potentially long-term one at that like this rather than just downgrade them to the membership that actually fits their needs.

Any help appreciated.

mleonard79

Just bumping this thread with an update - I managed to find a phone number and speak to someone who said they would get someone senior in their support team to look into my case. I have just received another email from them, though, this time basically calling me a liar and saying there is no record on their system that I changed my membership from continuous to single and that they log every click :mad:

I KNOW that I did change it but it seems it's my word against theirs and they are just not going to refund me. Where do I go from here? Is there anything else I can do? I just can't believe they want to treat customers like this. Thanks for any help.

maninthestreet

Phone your card provider and request a charge back - tell them you did not authorise the charge.

mleonard79

Hi Mainthestreet - It's probably been about a week since the payment was taken now as I've spend so long wrangling with them by email - can I still do a charge back this late?

Also if I can is there anything they can do in return? I've spend the last few weeks doing a lot of work putting my tree on the site and I don't want them to just delete me or something and I'd lose it all. Thanks for the advice.

rachfrost5

hi,
Im having the same problem with Genes reunited. They have taken money out of my account this month and sent me a receipt - which i replied to asking for them to refund the money (it says at the bottom of the receipt that i can have the money refunded if i reply within 7 days). They have replied and said that i ticked the 'automatic renewal' button - which i dont remember doing! i only wanted to try it for a couple of weeks and never actually got round to using it at all! They said they sent me an email 2 weeks before payment was taken warning me and i should have told them to cancel at this point - i didnt even receive this email!
ive replied and said that it says on the bottom of the receipt that i can get a refund within 7 days and they must refund it... so will have to wait and see! i might also try the charge back thing also. I feel like i have been cheated! i wont be using this company again!

mleonard79

Hi Rachfrost,

They can be quite immovable on this point. It took me 6 complaint emails before I got someone decent who finally refunded me so the only thing I can suggest is to keep at it. The automatic renewal thing is in your "My Account" section about half-way down. You need to have "single membership" ticked and then they don't take any money - in my case I had ticked it and some kind of system error occured. I hope you manage to get a refund.

Regards

Michelle

Cantomax

Once again Genes Reunited are refusing a refund. They claim they emailed me a notification beforehand - but I never received it. I have emailed twice now and got rude unhelpful replies back. I have contacted my card supplier to advise them of the unlawful transaction, so we shall see what they do.

Who can I complain to about this? Is there an ombudsman? or Trading Standards maybe?

They say I should have seen the email because it was in my inbox on there account but as I have never used their service past the trial window I never check the inbox there.

Any help appreciated as I am furious that they can be so casual about taking my money without my consent!

nomoneytoday

Did you take a screen print?

timbo58

Screen prints are useless as they can be faked.
I would write to them a final time saying you'll do a chargeback unless they reconsider a refund.
Unless they are VERY sure of their facts AND are prepared to argue with the bank and possibly take to a small claims over it then the sensible thing is for them to comply since most merchant banks charge excessive fees for doing chargebacks making it uneconomic to argue unless they are VERY sure they will win or you won't do a chargeback at all.
FWIW in the case of auto renewals EVERY similar site would have these ticked as YES by default IME: no business reason for it not to be I'm afraid, it should be pretty clear on the sign up procedure however.

debbyard

I have had nothing but trouble with genes reunited. I havent used this company in 2 years, when suddenly 6 months ago they started taking money from my account. Each time I emailed them and they responded with saying they hadnt taken it. I have disputed it each time with my bank and so far have managed to get it back. But in the last month they have taken $64. from my account and I have been forced to cancel my cards to stop this. I email them and still get told its not them. Maybe someone else is using my card. Its the same excuses everytime. In the last 6 months they have taken almost $85 from my account. Please, beware of this company. And check you statements, because I didnt know everytime the money was taken except from checking my bank statements.

debbyard

Just a little update on what I wrote yesterday, I have recieved the September amount they took from my card back from the bank. The amount they took last week is still in dispute. Hoping to get it back soon. And you wouldnt beleive it. I check my bank today and the bast***s have taken more money. The bank says they wont get this amount as I had cancelled my card before they applied, and it will drop off my statement. Well I hope it does. Or another dispute is going to be started. Please everyone, dont give GENES REUNITED your card number. They use it as they feel fit and then say it wasnt them. BEWARE OF GENES REUNITED. THEY ARE SCAMMERS.