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CB Reference Archives.com Simple low class scam by losers who depend on the user not reading the terms and conditions
Archives.com

Archives.com review: Simple low class scam by losers who depend on the user not reading the terms and conditions 57

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Author of the review
5:22 am EDT
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First, they say FREE. So why does FREE require a credit Card? Next, they TRICK you into going through several steps/screens and then bam: no results unless you give them credit card information to see the results of the FREE query. Simple low class scam by losers who depend on the user not reading the terms and conditions and failing to CANCE the Service... these folds are depending on ripping off unsuspecting folks...

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ImaMom2
Nowhere, US
Nov 16, 2010 9:22 pm EST

I agree! I did read all the fine print and all that stuff. I understood they were going to charge me after 7 free days so what do I do? I cancel 5 mins later. I tried to cancel my membership on the website 9 times and after every time it just said it was cancelled no confirm # or email but I figured since I did it 9 times and it told me 9 times it was cancelled that I could guess it was cancelled. WRONG! They never cancelled it. After that I went through the same cancel process and it cancelled that time with a confirm email. Like WTF? There is no number for them. My bank can't find one and the only one that paypal has for them does not work. You call it and it automatically hangs up on you. THIS COMPANY IS A SCAM!

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vjancuk
US
Nov 22, 2010 5:22 pm EST
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

How do I cancel? Same thing happened to me. My 7 days passed and I havent been able to cancel! What do I have to do?! Please email me at vjancuk@gmail.com

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daveracer
Oakland, US
Dec 07, 2010 6:00 pm EST

I agree with the above complaint. I can't cancel since there seems to be no way to do that. I'm calling Amex now to report this and to request they do not honor the billing.

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NavigatorOfSupport
Omaha, US
Dec 22, 2010 4:07 pm EST

It may seem counter intuitive that a ‘free’ trial requires a credit card. Our free trial provides full access to all
the services of our site.

Entering into a free trial you agree to the same terms and condition of our site as you would being a member. Our terms state that a member would not enter into a relationship with our company without the intent to pay for those services. To ensure that intent is valid and that a transition into a paying membership is viable and smooth we require a valid credit card upon sign up for the free trial.

When we accept your credit card a $1 authorization is done against the card to validate the use of the card. This authorization is immediately voided and our company never receives or collects this money from your financial institution. Your card would not be accessed again until the end of the 7 days. If a cancellation is completed online before that your card would not be charged for the membership.

As far as canceling you can do so online in the Help Center under managing your subscriptions, a confirmation email is sent after successful cancelation as confirmation. You can also cancel by sending an email through our Contact Us links or sending one directly to Support@Archives.com. Our number is posted on the terms and conditions and is passed with every credit card transaction we process to the financial institution.

Thousands of people daily find the site and enroll in free trials. I apologize that your experience did not meet expectations. We do offer very upfront and easy ways to cancel the trial membership. We are also one of the most affordable family history sites available.

Sincerely,
Michelle Steinbeck
Director Member Services

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Kelly Atwell Bush
US
May 10, 2017 3:50 am EDT

I can not find anyone I have searched for. Including myself. using my name, state and year of birth nothing comes up. Complete waste of hours spent, trying to search for Geneology.

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Brever
AU
May 16, 2018 5:09 pm EDT

That's a load of [censored]: I tried cancelling my account, didn't receive a confirmation, and contacted you guys immediately through contact us to have my account cancelled and requested confirmation - none was received and six months later when I realised you'd been taking money out of my bank regardless you said if I could provide evidence that I'd attempted to cancel my account, you would refund the money, which I did only to be told you can only refund the last two deductions. So what you're telling people is a complete lie.

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Tired scams
Pahrump, US
Jan 05, 2011 3:49 am EST
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Total scam. Did a search on the first page and bam got a hit and of course when I tried to look at it, it says I have to pay to look the the "free" results. I pony up the money and try the exact same search, guess what--no results. Why does it say a hit up front, then when you pay for it it has no records.

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Broke Mama Bear
US
Jan 07, 2011 12:49 am EST
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Not good! Basically a useless site that says they have information and then produces nothing after several searches. But they get you up front leading you to believe they have info. Just a bad way of doing business stick with the real sites that don't take your money before they tell you what you're looking for. Yes they do have a phone number but you really have to track it down. I had to call through three times before my call went though to someone without the line going dead. They were friendly and cancelled my year subscription but I did get charged the $39 just like everyone else and I have the use of the site for a year! BIG DEAL! I won't be using it.

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Cooldivide
Amityville, US
Jan 21, 2011 12:54 pm EST
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Their phone number is [protected].

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The Silver Surfer
US
Jan 21, 2011 2:14 pm EST
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

You have to call your bank/credit card company and stop payment/refund and have them give you a new card with a new number and let them deal with their bank. PERIOD.

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bdevol
Pinellas Park, US
Feb 08, 2011 12:32 pm EST

i agree the same thing happened to me . didnt get any info i was looking for so i canceled and they charged me anyway. and no phone number to reach them. how convenient for them. im reporting them.

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TRUSTISKEY
US
Mar 06, 2011 6:18 am EST

SCAM!SCAM!SCAM! =SCAM It shows that it has the info your looking for and then after you become a member, IT MAGICALLY DISAPEARS! WHY ISNT THIS STOPPED. These people should have their tounges cut off, to remind them to tell the truth! This is one reason why I HATE TECH., their to affaid to try and con us in person!

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Lisa Hagen
Prentice, US
Mar 10, 2011 1:49 am EST

Same thing happened to me. Tried to cancel several times, received no email to confirm the confirmation then 7 days later my PayPal was charged. If they try to take any more PayPal has been authorized to refuse any future payments to them, but it sounds like they are completely a scam.
Now it seems that their site is completely inaccessible, maybe someone finally took legal actions!

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GTJ
Granbury, US
Mar 13, 2011 11:01 pm EDT

I was interested as well, but hesitated to give my credit card number without knowing the yearly cost after the so-called free 7-day trial. Got a nice e-mail back from them, but they didn't answer my question. I wrote a second e-mail again asking for the subscription cost. Again, I got a return e-mail and was informed that because of various promotions, they could not give me a specific price. I could almost smell the fishiness through my monitor. Stay away from this bunch!

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j.stiles
939 diehl road, US
Mar 14, 2011 2:12 pm EDT

I got on this site also.like an idiot i gave up the credit card #, viewed the site for several minutes and decided it was worthless and imidiatly canceled, but i too was also charged.going to call my credit card company and have it stopped/removed.

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Fancy fox
San Leandro, US
Mar 14, 2011 8:17 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

("What Now? We've kept your username and password active so that you can return to your account interface at any time. When you return, you can renew your membership plan for 1 year. (Sorry, only one free trial per household.)" THIS IS THE KICKER RIGHT HERE! They keep your username and password ACTIVE, even AFTER the $1.00-free week. In other words, because they show you active after the free trial, they can go ahead and bill you for the yearly membership. And they prevent you from cancelling so that they can say they never received the cancellation form...SCAM! So MS. Michelle Steinbeck, Director Member Services. Cancellation mean CANCEL ALL AND EVERYTHING WITH THE ACCOUNTS, NOTHING IS TO BE KEPT "ACTIVE". AND please cancel immediately just like you immediately took my dollar for the "free" trial. THANK GOD I cancelled my card the day after I joined. It had no money on it anyway...oh yeah it did have a dollar on it :)

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Unhappy in Iowa
Bettendorf, US
May 03, 2011 4:00 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Advertised as a 7 day free trial to find Names. I tried one name; company said they had a match; I signed up for 7 day free trial. A different name appeared but 7 days later I was billed for $39.95 on Paypal. I never tried another in that free sites had better and more accurate information. I only wanted the free trial to see if it was good enough to spend money on. It was not! I had no way of knowing how to cancel before they nailed me.

This company is a scam and does not deliver the goods!

CP

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Unhappy in Iowa
Bettendorf, US
May 03, 2011 4:01 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

It's a total rip-off.

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Domenica
Southington, US
May 22, 2011 4:25 pm EDT

Please help. I cancelled within 2 hours and now have a charge on my account for 39.99. How do I get this charge cancelled? I will be contacting my bank in the morning. This was a total rip off. Who else can I contact about this? Knew when they asked for credit card into it was wrong but let myself be scammed anyway. How can they stay in business?

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Dee2275
Lake Havasu City, US
Jul 05, 2011 7:11 am EDT

I cancelled next day, just read my bank statement...scammed for $39.00! Calling the bank and BBB, will do more checking who else I can call to help end this!

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fred farkle
Hesperia, US
Jul 27, 2011 6:48 pm EDT

Same story, different day. They reluctantly returned the 59.95 that was in the contract, but not the unknown 39.95. After 5 minutes on their site I realized it was a scam. I have been doing genealogy work for 20 years. I tested their sight by using someone from my family that was very famous in history. Guess what, no infomation was available for that person. There is more info. available for free on the internet, than on their site. No results were achieved by talking to a human on the phone either. Please be very wary of any offer with the word "free" in it. Hopefully enough people will complain and get these guys out of business. I have the utmost disrespect for scam artists like these people. I consider it a lesson learned the hard way.

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Jannakay
US
Sep 14, 2011 7:11 pm EDT

Same thing happened to me with Ancestry.com. No results after paying for membership. Not sure why because a few years ago this is where I found a lot of information in my genealogy research. What happened to all those records? Whats wrong with their search engines? Anybody got a clue? I know for a fact that 6 years ago the info was there, now its not! Im afraid to try Archives now either after reading all of this! Director of Archives can you explain this?

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bethperron
Winchester, US
Sep 16, 2011 6:17 pm EDT

this company is a total scam...scam they should go to jail..free means measleading customers...I ve they got me over $400.00 they are all crook, I think everyone should get a law suit against them..I will not rest until I get my money back, I'm going to write the media as well and the consumer. they debit your account and they dont even give you any informations! all they want is your credit card . they robbed people, so beware guys...watch out... they are crooked!

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Queen V
Moreno Valley, US
Dec 07, 2011 2:19 pm EST

If they charge after seven das, why did it take them 2 months to charge me. I recevied a message immediately stating that they culd not validate my account., now I have a 39.95 charge. I informed my bank that the charges were unauthorized and asked for a refund. I have the email from them to prove that's what they told me.

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Cadibell
Bronx, US
Jan 19, 2012 8:03 pm EST

I cancelled my membership a few hours after the 7th day and it was all down hill from there. I was billed 37 bucks first then when I put 80 bucks in my debit, they took all of it within a few hours and now all I have is 39 cents left...and they could't even find anybody for me. This was a total waste

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dolores balaban
Tamarac, US
Jul 01, 2012 3:26 pm EDT

Also people if you read the small print they automatically renew your account every year. They claim it is so your service is not interrupted. You gotta laugh. I finally cancelled, did not get any money back I'm just glad I'm out of there, It's useless. Dee bala

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searcherpat
US
Sep 25, 2012 8:16 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I also cancelled my "free trial" after only a few minutes, when I realized they were scamming. Have not went back into the site since, until the other day I accidentally clicked on a link in google and it took me there. Guess what? Found out I have an ACTIVE membership, can go anywhere on the site (not that they have anything at ALL). But here's the real kicker. They show an email address for me that does NOT exist. There is a password for access to the site that appears to be permanently set. I cannot change the email OR the password. The good side? With this strange email addy, THEY CAN'T REACH ME! Since I use a prepaid credit card for everything I do online, and the card that I originally entered the payment data under has been cancelled and I have now purchased a new card... if they are trying to scam me, they just ended up scamming themselves! They can't get money out of me! Mad as HE**, but at the same time, I'm having a huge laugh over THEIR stupidity.

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Leslie po'd
Plymouth, US
Oct 02, 2012 2:20 pm EDT

Total THIEVES I tried to cancel immediately after I put my info in Stupid me! $49.90 Oh HATE LIARS and THIEVES! there is no 7 day trial Post everywhere you can !

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Toisan
Long Branch, US
Oct 09, 2012 4:37 pm EDT

Same thing happened. Went for the free trial to search for divorce records for someone. Next day my account was charged $39.95! Didn't even finish making the profile! Called the number and no one answered the phone. Sent several texts and emails with no reply. Shouldn't the better business board do something? In these times no one can afford for companies that offer to help to just take their money!

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Tammy 1541
Lancaster, US
Nov 13, 2012 4:04 pm EST

I found Archieves.com when I goggled for help with geneology. I clicked on the Archieves.com site but before I could look at anything a yellow box appeared on the screen offering a free 7 day trial and it asked my name and my credit card information. It didn't tell me anything about partner business or what the charge would be. I didn't like the site and I found where to cancel my account and I did that. So I was shocked when I found my bank account in the negative caused by a $59.88 charge from One Great Family. I'd never visited that site or even heard of the company. Ultimately I did get a refund of the $59.88 but not for the $40 my bank has charged me for the negative account. It's BAD BUSINESS doing this to people. I've contacted the BBB about this.

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OnePowerfulWoman
Los Angeles, US
Dec 10, 2012 2:32 pm EST

People need to LEARN HOW TO READ! I read the agreement and therefore knew that I would be charged $7.95 after the trial period. I intended to cancel before the trial period expired, but like most people, I forgot. They charged one month, I forgot to cancel. I checked my bank statement for something else and saw the charge again this month, and decided to cancel immediately. I called and the representative Eric was very polite and helpful. I told him I wanted to cancel. He said, no problem. I will give you a confirmation number for your cancellation. He proceeds with, "May I ask why you're cancelling?" I informed that I meant to cancel before the trial period expired and that I didn't obtain the results I was searching for, and he offered me a refund for the second charge. I'm not for scams, trust me, and I will put someone on blast by writing a negative review as necessary, but in this situation, I have to give credit where credit is due, and I am giving them POSITIVE FEEDBACK for GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE. Save yourself the trouble next time and READ agreements that claim to be free in which you have to provide a credit card number and write set a reminder to cancel membership before it expires (write yourself a post-it on your computer or set an alert on your phone. Don't be so naive, people. Any person with common sense knows better.

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T. Fillmore
Fort Worth, US
May 30, 2013 10:30 am EDT

I cancelled the next day. I was billed $39.00 on my credit card. I called in after being billed for a renewal A YEAR LATER! The only information posted about this not being a scam is someone working for them. The agent was very nice, but refused to remove the charges because they happened over seven days before. It was within 21 days and before I even received a statement. Everyone keep posting! Let's run them out of business.

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Artsylilliputian
Sidney, US
Jan 26, 2014 9:05 am EST
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I wish I had seen this before I signed up for their free trial! I tried to get on right after signing up and they didn't recognize my email or password! So of course it was totally worthless so now I have to spend time and money to stop any charges at the bank and on my credit card. Multiple messages to them on their help sight have brought no response.
To Michelle Steinbeck: that does not happen! If you can't get into your account. I have sent several message through your "help" center and received absolutely no response. I call that a scam! If you won't let us into our accounts not only can we not use the site for the intended purpose we can't cancel!

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TELL N THETRUTH
US
Feb 17, 2014 9:01 pm EST

Call [protected] to cancel your membership . You can't cancel it on their web site . When you submit a membership cancellation you will only get an error message that says "oops there is an error". It's nothing but a scam . They try to trap you.STAY AWAY from archives.com. Trust me I know .
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katkaplan
willingboro, US
Mar 20, 2014 7:59 am EDT

I agree. Never sign up for this site. I keep getting monthly charges even though I went on and filled out their cancellation form and it said my account was cancelled. Do not get pulled into his site. It's a scam to get ahold of your credit card and keep charging those monthly charges. Stay away from this site. They never give you a direct number either.

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SARALYNN BRIAN
NORTH OLMSTED DRIVE, US
Sep 11, 2014 7:42 pm EDT

I want the charges removed from my Pay Pal. What a scam. The BBB should know about your business lack of support. I want a confirmation on my cancellation ASAP. I will be keeping these contacts to follow through with my full refund. You sent me two names that were not even the same spelling. SCAM LYNN BRIAN usaranc@hotmail.com

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SARALYNN BRIAN
NORTH OLMSTED DRIVE, US
Sep 11, 2014 7:43 pm EDT

REMOVE MY NAME FROM YOUR RECORDS SEND ME A REFUND WHAT A SCAM

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Janet Sherman
US
Jun 17, 2015 9:28 pm EDT

I agree, this company is a scam. We really ought to have SEC look into this horrid company. I can't get on and I pay to get on. They have NOTHING to offer. No website services, and they rob you of your money. Each time I try to log on I get the message that I must have be blocking my cookies, or the server is busy. They are worthless --worse than worthless. Where is an investigation when you need it.

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Roberta L (traffic cowgirl)
US
Jul 25, 2015 10:07 am EDT

My comments to Archives.com on cancelling:
"Your company makes finding the cancellation difficult. When I receive an email telling me where I can "change or cancel" my membership I should be able to find immediately. Not go through hoops to find the questions (Q&A), and then have to click on the "Help center" in a size 6 font. Your auto-renewel robbed me for a few years. As ancestry.com member I should not be double billed from the company that owns them. Crooked practice and I will be giving you low points for this. Including on scam websites.".
The site gave me little information. I should have worked harder to find the Cancellation process--but when I did I kind of gave up. Not this year. You can get a little information that you can find on a 14 day trial (free) trial/or go to a library that has a Ancestry.com membership for Free.

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Wraith31
US
Jul 29, 2015 3:15 pm EDT

total scam and no they don't do just a $1 authorization in fact never saw one only $9.99 charged to my credit card and is from Ancestry.com no less

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Pissed Off And Suing
US
Sep 26, 2015 2:35 pm EDT

Ancestry.com and Archives.com are scammers. They will charge your card even if you have followed the terms and cancelled in the required time frame. In fact they hit my card up BEFORE the required time for cancellation; they even stated to me that they charge for membership before the trial period ends, "that's the way we do it" was what an employee told me when I called (got it recorded too - in Arkansas one individual can legally record telephone conversations without giving the other party notice). Looking at the possibility of a class action suit against these scammers. AVOID ANY TYPE OF MEMBERSHIP WITH THESE SCOUNDRELS.

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Peter Tomk
GB
Dec 15, 2015 12:56 pm EST

Yep £8.95 a month charged to my credit card since June 15 when I completed the free trial email. Not used the service. Obvious scam - and I fell for it. Lesson learned. Have contacted the fraud department of my credit card provider and have cancelled any future payments to them.

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  1. Archives.com Contacts

  2. Archives.com phone numbers
    +1 (888) 896-4442
    +1 (888) 896-4442
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  3. Archives.com emails
  4. Archives.com address
    1300 West Traverse Parkway, Lehi, Utah, 84043, United States
  5. Archives.com social media
  6. Michael
    Checked and verified by Michael This contact information is personally checked and verified by the ComplaintsBoard representative. Learn more
    Oct 29, 2024
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