Check out our latest communities fighting
AI scams on Reddit and Facebook

business logo of Ancestry

Ancestry

1.6

On SmartCustomer, businesses may not offer incentives or pay to remove reviews. Learn more about our Review Guidelines.

How would you rate Ancestry?
grey stargrey stargrey stargrey stargrey star

Ancestry Reviews Summary

Ancestry has a rating of 1.6 stars from 637 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers dissatisfied with Ancestry most frequently mention customer service, free trial and credit card. Ancestry ranks 54th among Genealogy sites.

service
173
value
169
shipping
73
returns
89
quality
153

We monitor reviews for authenticity

New Jersey
1 review
1 helpful vote
Follow Catherine M.
Unfollow Catherine M.
Share Review
Report Review

HIDDEN CANCELATION FEE!
November 26, 2021

If you ever want to cancel your subscription they try to hit you with a $25 cancelation fee that is not mentioned anywhere during signup!

Canceling is super hard and took me several texts, calls. Truly ridiculous!

Date of experience: November 26, 2021
California
1 review
1 helpful vote
Follow arthur m.
Unfollow arthur m.
Share Review
Report Review

Scammers
November 25, 2021

They charged my credit card after I had cancelled. When I called to dispute the charge they made it very difficult to eventually approve a refund.

Date of experience: November 25, 2021
Michigan
1 review
4 helpful votes
Follow Tony K.
Unfollow Tony K.
Share Review
Report Review

Rip off
November 14, 2021

Paid $24.87 month then I cancelled. Was charged $25 CANCELLATION FEE. Hard to believe it's legal. Sad

Date of experience: November 13, 2021
Texas
1 review
1 helpful vote
Follow Karen I.
Unfollow Karen I.
Share Review
Report Review

I was swept up in the madness of thinking I needed to know my family history. So I bought the kit and took Ancestry up on a 2 week free trial, naively thinking I'd be notified at least a day before the trial ended. No, that's not what happened. I was notified the day the trial ended, and after they'd already sucked money from my bank account. I was already disappointed with the website and how difficult it was to navigate or make changes to, now I got to be further disappointed by their atrocious customer service, the end result was they made it suspiciously hard to actually cancel my membership. Silly me. I should have read the reviews first.

Date of experience: November 6, 2021
Massachusetts
2 reviews
1 helpful vote
Follow Elaine V.
Unfollow Elaine V.
Share Review
Report Review

This company is concerned with profit over customer satisfaction. I have been paying a yearly subscription for my husband to have an account for over 10 years. Last January I apparently started an account for myself.( I was waiting for the DNA test kit to be sent to me and then had to go into the hospital for neck surgery. This put me stationery and not able to use my computer at all for months. All this while they have been charging me 24.99 every month( for 10 months!) I contacted them today ( which is not easy) to let them know they have been charging me for services I have never used. I've never even opened the account. They say it doesn't matter, there is no refund for monthly accounts.
We are seniors on a restricted budget. I can't possibly afford to have 2 accounts. Especially when they are not being used. When I called, it was clear that they did not care at all about this customer and don't even care if I discontinue my husbands account.
How does a company exist without customer satisfaction? I am so disappointed. This should have been a total refund since they have not given me any information all this time! Steer clear of this company -unless you have unlimited resources.

Date of experience: October 29, 2021
Minnesota
1 review
1 helpful vote
Follow Jane D.
Unfollow Jane D.
Share Review
Report Review

RUDE
October 28, 2021

Rude customer service agent. Do not recommend. Expensive for what you get. Not worth the money. Dissatisfied.

Date of experience: October 28, 2021
Oregon
1 review
7 helpful votes
Follow Charles W.
Unfollow Charles W.
Share Review
Report Review

Constant Site Problems
October 24, 2021

At this moment, I'm feeling frustrated and cheated! I pay a lot of money for Ancestry only to experience constant problems with the site. For instance, the Gallery upload feature is dysfunctional with increasing frequency. And NO, it's NOT my internet connection! The new Terms of Service make my experience even more bitter! The Ancestry site provides lousy performance, yet the corporation is claiming ownership of the content we post. Outrageous!

Date of experience: October 24, 2021
Washington
1 review
1 helpful vote
Follow Shana L.
Unfollow Shana L.
Share Review
Report Review

Awful
October 22, 2021

A waste of money. The dna test is like everyone else's but you get no services unless you pay $25 a month! It's the definition of awful money grab.

Date of experience: October 22, 2021
New York
1 review
3 helpful votes
Follow M V.
Unfollow M V.
Share Review
Report Review

I got this to see my ingenious background and to connect with my culture. After them losing my dna test once and then a year goes by waiting for the replacement - it finally came and I shipped it out. Waited more months and finally got my results back. It was completely nonsense. Nothing tht I already don't know! I then talked to the rep and she even admitted that they don't support ingenious background she said " we do not offer that currently at this time, please check back again later ". So meaning they do not support POC/ingenious/native people. They even fake the dna if you do have native blood. It's horrible and disgusting. Go to 23 and me

Date of experience: October 21, 2021
Minnesota
1 review
4 helpful votes
Follow Jesse C.
Unfollow Jesse C.
Share Review
Report Review

Don't waste your money
October 20, 2021

I'm so disappointed with this service. I was excited at the potential of connecting with family. I was underwhelmed by the capabilities of the service. I have found more information from Facebook and Google. This service is nowhere near worth the $50 a month charge. I asked for a refund, and was denied. Do not waste your time filling out the information, or allow them to take your money.

Date of experience: October 20, 2021
Illinois
1 review
2 helpful votes
Follow Jenna T.
Unfollow Jenna T.
Share Review
Report Review

As in being able to see your family tree and seeing where your parents, grandparents, and so on come from. Be careful not to choose the monthly subscription! When your internet is giving you a hard time to cancel and your card gets ran they will not refund you lol. But if you chose yearly! They definitely would refund you. What a joke.

Date of experience: October 5, 2021
Florida
1 review
0 helpful votes
Follow Ralph V.
Unfollow Ralph V.
Share Review
Report Review

Straight garbage
October 3, 2021

I've done this test 4 times and they continue to say there's a problem, I feel this place is a ripoff 4 times and I been waiting since June and it's always a problem. They either lost it or couldn't do the test this place is so unprofessional and should be ashamed of themselves.

Date of experience: October 2, 2021
New Jersey
1 review
1 helpful vote
Follow William V.
Unfollow William V.
Share Review
Report Review

I got nothing
September 30, 2021

My wife and I placed an order for two ancestry DNA kits in May of this past year. I filled out the instructions and submitted a DNA sample. I was notified in June that DNA could not be extracted from my sample and another one was required. They offered to send a replacement kit free of charge, however it never arrived.

Date of experience: September 30, 2021
Michigan
1 review
2 helpful votes
Follow C D.
Unfollow C D.
Share Review
Report Review

Hidden fees
September 23, 2021

They make you pay for a membership without telling you and then there's a large fee if you cancel. They have horrible customer service, if you're patient enough to get hold of them. I feel scammed, do not recommend them at all.

Date of experience: September 23, 2021
Colorado
1 review
3 helpful votes
Follow Diana P.
Unfollow Diana P.
Share Review
Report Review

Not worth the money
September 20, 2021

This site badly needs improvement. The hints they provide are only about 10% worth anything. Lots of hints that are not legible (unless you read ole English). Some hints you click on and there is no record. These bogus hints waste a lot of time. On top of all that you are working away and then you get a message that you have to wait for your result, because they do not have enough bandwidth.

Date of experience: September 20, 2021
California
1 review
6 helpful votes
Follow Dion C.
Unfollow Dion C.
Share Review
Report Review

Ancestry is a SCAM
September 19, 2021

I am half Black. My mom is South African and my dad is Indian. Tell me why DNA Ancestry is giving me less than 5% black? LMFAOOO what a joke! You telling my 4C hair having ah has less Black blood than mf Logic?! Halsey?! I called to see if they can check if there was a mix up but they just told me I'm probably adopted and need to have a chat with my parents. What a waste.

Date of experience: September 19, 2021
Louisiana
1 review
3 helpful votes
Follow Jessica w.
Unfollow Jessica w.
Share Review
Report Review

Garbage company
September 10, 2021

Just a word of warning about this company. A stranger posted extremely personal and hurtful things about my daughter who was killed, including the article detailing the accident that killed her. I have spent 10 years in therapy because of that article, and then bam I open it with no warning when I got a "hint" in my email. I was so upset I was physically ill. I reached out several times to ask that it be removed, that no one in the family posted it, and that it was hurtful, private, and showed my daughter in the wrong light. Not only did the reps I talked to seem like outsourced agents who could care less, they flat out ignored me when I escalated it. I have actually never been as disgusted with a company as I am this one. It's literally the worst customer service of any company I've ever dealt with. Be aware of this before you spend your money, I am sure they handle every complaint the same way. There are other companies doing the same thing that might actually have a heart. I hope no one else experiences what I did.

Date of experience: September 10, 2021
New York
1 review
12 helpful votes
Follow LaShawnna H.
Unfollow LaShawnna H.
Share Review
Report Review

Don't Subscribe
September 8, 2021

Although I was able to find and confirm some names and linkages it was a pricey subscription for what I received. When I canceled the subscription after 3 months I was charged a $25 cancelation fee. It totally gave me "trapped in a bad gym membership" vibes. Unfortunately, I don't see myself ever using a paid version of this site again.

Date of experience: September 8, 2021
California
1 review
7 helpful votes
Follow Dawn k.
Unfollow Dawn k.
Share Review
Report Review

Ancestry is a Ripoff.
September 5, 2021

After spending hundreds of dollars over the past 10yrs years, renewing and searching my ancestors. I stopped for a while due to health. While recouping decided to look up a ancestor I was given new information on in my tree. But Ancestry told me, I had to rejoin as a member to just see anything I had already saved in my tree! This is Totally Wrong. Even public views now demand Paid membership. Sure the lil they give as a freebee to get you started and hooked but watch out, what ever you find thru them make a copy to your hard drive or or thumb drive because you will never see it again unless you pay thru the nose

Date of experience: September 5, 2021
New Zealand
1 review
8 helpful votes
Follow david N.
Unfollow david N.
Share Review
Report Review

Lousy service
August 28, 2021

Had huge problems with my wife's Ancestry sample, received no updates on progress, given phone numbers which did not work, spent hours trying to resolve the problems, still waiting with no results. Take the money quickly but complete lack of back up service and little interest in ones problems. Conflicting information given

Date of experience: August 28, 2021