Our reviews monitored for authenticity
On SmartCustomer, businesses may not offer incentives or pay to remove reviews. Read more about our Review Guidelines and the process we have against fake reviews.
BillionGraves Reviews Summary
BillionGraves has 61 customer reviews and ranks 53rd in the Genealogy & Family History category.
Received several Emails for $4 a year subscription. I went online and chose $5 for the year. They charged me $56.99 so beware! The cheap charges don't exist, and they will secretly charge the higher price. Of course, the small print says no refunds even if it's their error. Contracts can be made but they must also follow the law.
Do not subscribe to this service if you don't want to be ripped off. They steal your money and treat their customers terribly. One star is too many but that was the lowest option
For a year I subscribed and I've never gotten one result. I thought I had canceled before my year was up but it didn't take. They took another year after i canceled yesterday when the payment was pending. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS SITE. They are a rip off and customer service is no better.
Having been a subscriber to this online service, and using it which is ok but nothing flash when you compare it to the free ones available.
A word of caution, they will take money from your credit card even when it has expired. In my case they advised me my card was expired and to update the details before they took another lot of money. They took it anyway.
There priority support is garbage as no matter how many times you contact them you get no reply
It's a case of buyer beware. Good luck if it all goes smoothly for you.
See reviews of sites as you browse!
Get the Chrome Extension.
Ancestry, Find a grave, Family Search have better info and are legit good sites.This company only wants ur credit card and wont refund.Hard to reach them once they have ur $...They dont stop renewels without a major headache even after years of people complaining about the card issue!...It's obvious when reading "Anna Y" response to complaints--she skirts the issues saying stuff not even related, just defending herself.There's a reason this "company" has less than a 2 rating people! Wish I could give it a negative 1...
Quite simply they suck at communication... even when youre a premium subscriber they dont reply. No reminders of annual auto renew means you get charge for a service you forgot you had subscribed to... their refund policy is bull$#*!. And again they wont reply to your contact attempts... aside from that i found the database lacking in Aus. Very underwhelming platform.
I enrolled; used the site for 2 hours - searched various ancestral names - it constantly gave me other names that were mostly not similar at all; their database ignored the location parameters. Not a friendly site; not a useful site. AND now i find, I am on the hook for the fee although I cancelled it within 3 hours of enrollment.
Shortly after my husband died last year (2021), I found a $24.99 charge on my Discover card for a Paypal payment to BillionGraves. It was difficult if not impossible to get through to BillionGraves, so I let it go. I took my late husband's name off the Discover card and figured that would be the end of it. NO! The charge has gone through again this year. Now, because BillionGraves is still impossible to contact, I will work with Discover and PayPal to reverse the charge.
I have been a member of Billion Graves Plus three years and find it useful but then I noticed they charged a credit card when the subscription wasn't due for 5 mos. Trying to get issue resolved impossible. Everytime you try to tey to their nonsense response they send an auto reply saying they closed the ticket and if you want to reopen it to ret to message. When you reply they just send you another form message stating the same thing. First of all, their response said it must have been because I used a different email. What does that have to do with anything, I only gave them one credit card to charge and all of their notices came to the correct email. Second, the renewal was supposed to be $17 when due not the $24 they charged. They hide behind their "no refund" policy to cover their mistakes. I have now canceled my subscription so they can't charge me again and they sent a notice admitting it wasn't due for renewal yet and I could still use it yet they won't refund the extra renewal they charged in error. Terrible company to deal with. Beware.
I have never subscribed but receive frequent emails. These are impossible to unsubscribe from. You click on unsubscribe and are required to log in and then the whole process starts again.
Everytime I put in my ancesters surname - Moyle, they provide details for Boyle, Noyle, Doyle, but never for Moyle. I have clicked on the exact match option, but to no avail. Their search engine is useless. Trying to stop them from renewing my subscription was a real battle.
Typed in very common ancestors that I knew all the info was accurate. Even when typing in the right location this site will take you somewhere else, another county, another state and supply data that is totally removed from your search.
Auto Renewal + policy of No Refunds - even on day of money taken from bank + not worth it!
Most cemetery info limited & few pictures - GPS not good.
I subscribed and found it to be zero help in my genealogical searches. I was waiting to the end of my subscription to cancel and noticed my credit card was charged for another year that day. I immediately went to their site to cancel and could not get any help on line or by phone and left a message. Four days later (after a weekend) they told me they do not do refunds and I have another year's subscription. I used PayPal and got no help from them. I tried the Better Business Bureau that had several complaints, but have heard nothing from them and I am out $21.99. For my part, this a firm I would stay away from! Further, after posting, I read other reviews and Anna always comes back and says they ALWAYS send out a reminding email on an upcoming renewal. Since she is so quick with saying complaints are "untrue," so I will say her claim for a reminder on my account is simply a lie. I went back through all of my emails, my spam, my trash and my deleted emails for more than a month and there are NO email from Billion Graves. I followed their instructions the day I saw the renewal on PayPal, and four days later I was told I did not follow their instructions and ti was too late for a refund. And we are all to blame for allowing them to do auto renewal. Anyway, if I was the executive with this company and had this many objecting, I would refund the lousy $22 and make people who feel they would never recommend them... people like me, go away. But my recommendation is stay away.
My mums grave with pics is on this site! No one asked our family to do this! She died on her 47th bday… 24 yes ago. We r still heartbroken. How dare some pathetic person called Tabitha take pics of her grave. U disgusting person!
The company typically answers the review of their scam on auto renewal by saying "simply not true"
The fact is no where on there site is there a check off box to stop auto renews.
As I now find out, When you sign up there is no way to stop auto renewal but by cancelling which you should immediately do or get out during any free trial period
The notice they send at the end of the year contains no wording to indicate one is being auto renewed
I ve been involved with genealogy for over 20 years and never found a genealogy site that auto renews like this
I am also filing with the Better Business Bureau... note many other reviewers have this problem and note the overall poor ratings for this site
He was cremated and his ashes are with his wife and daughter. Why lie about his grave sight? Thank you. Marrina Blanthorn aka his wife!
How do you contact this company, I want to rectify a mistake in an entry, wrong birth date, but not even an email address.?
To contact customer service for this issue click on "get help" at the top of the website. Type in the question: How do I fix a bad transcription. At the top of the article, you will notice the word "Submit a Ticket" Fill out all of the information about what needs to be done. This will be sent to a customer service agent who takes care of these issues for the site. We do not have a call center as this helps to keep costs for the subscribers very low. Unlike many other genealogy websites, our subscriptions sometimes are as low as $24.99 a year or lower depending on the promotion. Subscribers are helped first usually within 24 hours or less. If you do not desire a subscription, our agents will answer free customers within 48 -72 hours.
I cannot get help with the duplications of my efforts. I. e. I see the same gravestone and record mover and over. I have asked for help and got nothing. (Its nearly impossible to get anything but a library of answerers they have produced in the past) Why do I care? I do not want to waste time in doing things multiple times. I have done more than 30,000 records but am frustrated that I am wasting a good bit of my time. I volunteer so maybe someone thinks I have all the time in the world. WRONG
I also enjoy the benefit of seeing how I rnk in their other volunteers. I have been as high as number two but feel this duplicate effort is impeding my position.
I will find other worthwhile endeavors if this is not dealt with.
This is a sample record of what I am talking about.
https://billiongraves.com/transcribe/*******
When you see the same stone over and over, it typically means you need to clear your transcription queue filters. The cemetery you have chosen is the St. George Cemetery in St. George, Utah. This cemetery has most likely been completely filmed and transcribed other than a few hard-to-read stones. Make sure your transcription queue does not say St. George City Cemetery at the top. To do this: On the transcription page, at the top, click "Languages". Next click "Clear All". Finally, click "Done" This will clear your transcription queue so you are not getting the same stones over and over again. There are plenty of cemeteries worldwide that need transcription work completed.
I complained last year about BillionGraves continually renewing a subscription and was told I had to cancel the auto renewal, that when I subscribed, the subscription would be automatically renewed ( no option). So I followed their instructions and cancelled the auto renewal. I looked at my bank account today and see they have still taken money out for another year. Many people have complained about this.
I checked my emails to see if they sent a reminder and see they disguised it as a promotion, ON MY BIRTHDAY. This is the subject line: Happy BillionGraves Plus Anniversary! Needless to say, I didn't read it.
Do NOT subscribe to this company. Everything about them is icky. IMHO.
There are other free sites out there for graves and most photos on BillionGraves are given for free by volunteers. Truly disgusted with this company
This is simply not true. We do not house credit card information on our site. When you sign up for a subscription you in essence tell your credit card to pay us. This is similar to a house or car payment. Once you cancel the subscription, you break this payment to us from your credit card company. If you cancel AFTER it has renewed there are no refunds. You agree to this when you sign up for a subscription. However, you always still have the year of subscription that you paid for. People that do not want to renew, are encouraged to cancel immediately after signing up. They will still have their entire year of subscription in the account and do not have to worry about the fuss of an auto-renew. Subscriptions are for a higher level of customer service, no ads, and tools not found on the free site such as nearby graves and family plots. SEARCHING IS ALWAYS FREE! I used the site for nearly a decade for free before considering a subscription.
If you received the Happy BillionGraves Plus Anniversary on your birthday, this was sheer coincidence, as these are sent out 14 days before the anniversary of your renewal.
If he has a headstone in a cemetery volunteers simply take the photo not understanding the circumstances behind the burial. This is not lying a bout a gravesite, if there is a stone with his name on it in a cemetery. As you are his wife, if you would like this information added to the memorial, we are more than happy to add any information in that you would like. If you would like this removed completely, we are also here to help.