ArchivesReviews 157

We are sending in complaints to the FBI, the Utah State AG, the CA State AG, the BBB, as this is a shell front for identity thieves.

They operate by sending your request for data to a legitimate site, returning those records, then you sign up, and as they have nothing else nothing to offer, they request you enter your Card again, for the SIlver Gold or Platinum service, and if you do, there's always nothing, and another sign up "come-on".

We have all their email responses, and our email promises to take them to court. We have been told they are a front for very clever IDENTITY THIEVES. Remember this fraudulent service is one people think is legit, and enter sensitive family information...

If you have given them your credit card, contact your financial institution, have it cancelled IMMEDIATELY. And watch for unusal charges.

I went to sign up for this site but part way through realised it was US only and they wanted my card details. I didn't finish the set up and would have cancelled straight away if I had. I have never logged in nor made even 1 search - until I noticed they were billing me anyway each month! Then I logged in and saw indeed I had never used it and it was no use to me, I know they are part of Ancestry.com who do have my card details. I tried customer services but the rep called Heather was unhelpful and bordering on totally rude - the answer being along the lines of "tough we have your money, haha!"

Archives.com signs up for 7 day "free" trial. Their information collections are weak at best and they know. They try and charge you a full month, NON_REFUNDABLE fee on the last day of the 7 day "free" trial. When you call in they give you a schtick about memberships being non-refundable. When you push for a supervisor intervention they put you on hold, refund the money and then leave you on hold as some sort of juvenile punishment. They know you won't be back for a second month so they bottom feed off the first ill gotten first month's fee. If you don't mind being ripped off by all means sign up with Archives.com, better yet buy a car from Larry H. Miller!

Trying to obtain a Death Certificate for a relative for genealogy and family medical history purposes. The state where she died said go to the county where the death occurred and contact them OR click on this site. I clicked on the site, filled in the info (credit card included) and ZAM! Charged almost $80! I thought, "Wait a minute! This must be cheaper from the county" so I went to the county, found out it was 1/4 that amount, and within 5 min called the 1-800# to cancel. "No problem!" was the response. Imagine my surprise when I got an email a week later from archives.com (did not know this was even the company before) saying they would refund me all but $15 because "we charge a $15 search fee if the order is cancelled before it is submitted for processing." What?! That means they take your $15 for doing nothing and before they even have a chance to do nothing! I contacted their "Customer Service" and got a wooden response. He couldn't adequately explain how they can legally do this, nor would he even consider crediting me. I had to contact my bank who are accepting it as a disputed charge and will kick it back. Awfully close to fraud...

I did the free "test" search on my ggrandfather's name which indicated document were available within the Archives database. Once I paid for a membership and did the same search, NO documents were in their database for the same name. False advertising! Then I did a search on my ggrandmother, birth entered as 1840 +/- 2yrs. Archives search engine returned 101 hits! 100 of the 101 were from the "LIVE persons" database (the other one was on the surname itself). This would make my grandmother 175 years old. NOTHING about her should be located here. This site is a major waste of money and a scam. I GAVE THIS SITE ONE STAR BECAUSE IT WOULD NOT ACCEPT ZERO STARS.

I signed up for a free trial. I gave them my debit card, to ensure that I was 18. Lol
I called to cancel within the month. The recording told me to go to the website. The website told me to call the phone number. After waiting on the phone for several minutes the call dropped.
I called my bank to stop the payment. I had to cancel my debit card. Now I have to wait 10 business days for a new debit card. At least I won't be charged $9.95 on Thursday.

I signed up for this for 1 month. I then cancelled. Yet... 6 months later they are still taking money out of my paypal account, even though my account says "No payment Methods are Available". If there are no payment methods on the account how can they still be taking money from me! Then I contact them and they claim they can't find my account even when I send them copies of the account, copies of their email receipt for payment (with transaction #) and copy of the page that says "no payment methods...". 4 months and I still can't get my money back. I finally had to cancel my paypal account to get these people to stop taking money from me. STAY AWAY FROM THIS SITE. The info on it is available on other sites. It is such a scam and impossible to cancel.

Took me less than an hour to realize this site couldn't even produce the most common information that's available on free searches. Anything I looked up, they wanted additonal money from my credit card to do. I canceled minutes after joining. Beware of this scam site. They are only after your money and give you nothing in return!

It was a horrifying experience. Tried the 7 day "free trial". Cancelled it after 5 days since you couldn't even get the basic info, including info on myself, I was experimenting, which came up empty, go figure *eye roll*. They charged me $9.99 2 days later, they tried to charge me $40 for the newspaper crap but thankfully there wasn't enough money for that, I submitted a support ticket and even they acknowledged that it had been cancelled and it was in the billing process when it was cancelled. They said it should correct itself. Well it never did but I was just going to cut my losses in hopes it actually was cancelled, but a month later they charged me again, same price for my cancelled subscription. They did not answer my emails, they did not answer their phone. I had to contact PayPal and got my refund and instantly won my other dispute and even had to fill out a form to stop all further unauthorized transactions from them, I repeat, do not do it!

What a scam, they supposedly send a so called runner but they still do not find anything at a specific court. They didn't even take 24 hours to get back to you to tell you that nothing was found, rip off!

I went to the court myself and found the records, public records for. 50 cents a page.

This site is a joke and a scam, and will not refund you your money for anything! I will never do business with such a joke as this site, and these people ever again! They claim to be legit, but I don't buy it, after they failed to properly and professionally do a search for me, and they claimed they were unable to find the info I had requested within the time frame their site had stated (It wasn't even 24 - 48 hours). They also took money out of my account without my permission, and I did not give them permission to renew my membership after my free trial, especially after they still have not refunded my money back for that "search" I had requested! This site is a scam!

THEY PROVIDE NOTHING! Don't do it!
Free trial is bull$#*! they bill you immediately and give NO REFUNDS when you realize they are worthless and cannot provide what they advertise. They merely give you links to REAL providers that charge by the document. THIS IS A SCAM!
WORST WEBSITE! FALSE ADVERTISING! NO CUSTOMER SERVICE!
DON'T BE FOOLED LIKE I WAS!

BEWARE CONSUMERS! Archives.com is a company owned by Ancestry.com. Yes it has records you can review when doing genealogy research but you are limited to the amount of records available to you. Once you have reviewed the few records they offer on Archives.com they refer you to Ancestry.com for the thousands of records available. The catch is you have to pay for Ancestry.com as well. So instead of purchasing Archives.com on a monthly basis why not make the purchase to Ancestry.com for basically the same amount of money AND you get access to ALL the records. The owner of Ancestry.com and Archives.com, being the same person, is scamming you to get you to join both. Why? To add to his pocketbook. Consumers please don't fall for this scam.

I subscribed to Ancestry.com for a 6-month period for $49.95. I have a few months left and low and behold I was charged $39.95 for Archives.com... something I never signed up. I never checked out their services or their website, yet out of the blue, they hit my paypal account for the charges. Obviously Ancestry.com is linked into Archives.com and shares personal payment information. I will be opting out early from Ancestry and will not renew. Too bad really, they could be on the up-and-up and still make a fortune from people wanting to do research. And yes, I did check the box so that archives.com will get a copy of this review.

Such a scam! They falsely advertise that you can search for birth records, death records, etc, when all they have access to is census data. Then they make it nearly impossible to cancel your membership. As a matter of fact they have a section for canceling a subscription, which is easily found under account settings and is worded to make you think you've canceled your membership. Then they bill you and refuse to refund the money.

STAY AWAY!

Signed up for a free 7 day trial on 5/16. Had to enter credit card info so I gave them my PayPal business debit card. Canceled on 5/23, they confirmed via email that my membership privileges were canceled as of 5/23. WITHIN THE SEVEN DAYS. On 5/24 they attempted to take $7.95 out of my PayPal account AND to take $49.95 out. No money in account (debit card) so that failed. They tried again five more times in the next month. During that month long period I repeatedly:

1) called their 800 number only to be told by a live person that their computers were down and they couldn't access my records.
2) went on-line and canceled (receiving an on-screen confirmation that I would not be billed anymore and that I had no payment record on file)
3) sent them an email requesting they stop billing me

As of yesterday, June 27th, they were still trying to bill my PayPal Debit card for $49.95. I have deliberately swept all of my money out of my PayPal account while this is going on because I am not going to let these crooks steal $49.95 of my money.

Today, June 28th, I finally reported my PayPal debit card stolen and asked for a replacement.

These people are either incompetent, or crooks, or both. Whatever - don't make the mistake of giving them your financial information, you WILL regret it.