Archives Reviews 59

I received a free trial and immediately learned that the site failed to produce the record I needed. Since they charged my PayPal account it has been a nightmare dealing with receiving a “bonafide refund” of 77.00. Again I requested this the following day but still my Amex linked to my account has not been credited. I have called them multiple times and then was told I needed to contact USA archives or another entity to issue the refund. After speaking to them I was told that I again it landed with Archives. Please do not allow them to scam you. I am ready to write the parent company ancestry.com as certainly the customer service is horrible and someone should bring a class action suit for breach of contract to the company. I cannot imagine how many people have been erroneously charged spending egregious time and money trying to get some recourse. Please be careful. Best, SG

I tried the free trial but I did not find what I was looking for. Every time I tried to cancel my membership to avoid a charge I got a message saying my email was not recognised and I tried to update it and amend my details but the system just kept stating my email was incorrect. I then got charged. When I emailed Archives to let them know of this fault in their system they apologised for the inconvenience and confirmed my membership was cancelled but my charge is non refundable. I am disgusted and am wondering if this was a scam. A reputable company would refund money due to their faulty system. I would not recommend this company to anyone. There was no error with my email.

scam they are taking my money $14.99au each month
i cant log in the 1800 number is bogus and i cant stop being robbed any ideas

I signed up for a trial on Oct 18. My account information page said I had a 14-day trial of Newspapers.com along with my 14-day trial of Archives.com. The renewal date on my account information said November 2nd.

Shortly after signing up, I received an email from Newspapers.con stating that I signed up for a free trial and would be charged $49.95 on Oct 18(the same day I signed up for a free trial!). I quickly checked my bank and found I was not charged, and figured it was just a glitch in their email confirmation system or something.

I again checked my Archives.com account information which said I signed up Oct 18 and would be charged on Nov 2. It had a separate section detailing my newspaper.com membership, and it stated it was a 14-day free trial.

I received an email from Newspapers.com at 8:00 PM on October 25 stating they would be charging me on October 26 ($49.95 for a one year membership). This is an entire week earlier than my Archives account was showing.

So I went to newspaper.com to cancel my membership. The account info said I have to cancel through archives.com, so I quickly went to that website and cancelled my membership there. I have email notification saying it was cancelled as of October 25. (THERE WAS NO SEPARATE PLACE TO CANCEL NEWSPAPER MEMBERSHIP)

Thinking everything was good, I checked my bank account only to find I was ALREADY CHARGED $49.95 for the Newspapers.com membership! This was after being told I would be charged the NEXT day.

I wrote to them to point out the week early charge, and they replied “we’re happy to assist you with cancelling your membership” type of response. I sent a reply stating I had already cancelled my membership and that I wanted to know why I was charged early for a subscription that should’ve had a two week trial. There was no response to this email.

So I called, and was told “as a one time courtesy,” they’ll refund my payment.

Are you kidding me?!?? I canceled my subscription an entire week before my free trial was supposed to end, but it’s a courtesy to give back what they took from me?

DO NOT SUBSCRIBE.

They charged my account after I canceled the free trial. I sent several emails to them to reimburse my money. Each time they kept saying that the fee is non-refundable. I finally called the company and explained to them that I cancelled my membership prior to the expiration of my free trial and I should have never been charged. I did not approve the transaction. The woman went ahead and did the refund. It will take 3-5 business days, but finally I will get my refund. Will never use the site again!

Awful company running a scam where it is impossible to cancel a subscription - avoid like the plague. I have literally spent months trying to cancel now and despite promises every month from support I keep getting charged.

Would give no stars if I could, cancelled the free trial but they still took money from my account. The actual service is useless which is why I cancelled in the first place. Avoid like the plague, they apparently only exist to take money from people

Archives, have been taken money from my Bank account as late as 7/2/22. However, when I asked for a refund, they said they show that the last time they took money was 10/21. They started saying I had to have two accounts. Which I dont, but if I did where is my refund. Wrote a complaint email... got a response asking for the same info that was sent.

Joined Ancestry but NOT Archive.com. Was directed there via Ancestry during search. Since that date last year they have continually taken money from my Bank Account at £8.95 per month..Have no Account with them so it's theft. Keep Away.

I forgot to cancel a subscription and I got charged £8.95. and will be so for a month. I had only used it as a one-off research item. Most websites have a "forgotten password" procedure, these people don't . I have asked Visa to cancel it, see if I can.
They are based in Utah, if that's relevant in any way.

Signed up for the free week trail and never found the info I needed and canceled within the 24hrs of activating my account. A week later almost $50 was charged onto my card. So if you cancel within your free trial discontinue through your profile and call as well so your not charged like myself and others that didn't catch onto the charges right away.

These people continue to take money from my bank despite me cancelling months ago!! Rip off

I'm sad I even have to write this negative review if I'm honest.

Started my 7 day free trial and it was amazing! I found the website easy to manage and previous generations were so easily discovered!

I was thinking I love this, I'm going to pay for it and drop the others. My money went out of my account, it says on my account that I've paid and yet it's telling me to pay to restart my membership! I have and the only thing I can access is the search. It tells me to restart my membership when I click on a name to view. I sent them a message, I got an (obviously) automated email back a day later telling me to ring Utah! I'm not ringing Utah from the UK, I'd rather be cardless for a few days and cancel my card.

I've now told them to cancel my account and I've told them why. I have had an email confirming cancellation. I will be making sure all my money is away from that account near to the time it would be due to go out, if they try to take it I'll update this review and I'll cancel my card

They automatically extend your free-trial without saying that is their practice. They even have a web-page saying they are not scammers so there are obviously lots of people saying they are.

It is a poor service. I do not recommend it to anyone.

These people will steal your money I canceled 3 days after a free trial still getting billed nearly a year later had to contact my credit card to complain they were already very aware of Archives.com can't wait to see their reply!

STILL scamming people! Made a payment of £8.95 for a months membership to view and receive a deceased relatives death certificate, still wouldn't let me view it, emailed them and they want me to call a number in UTAH, from the UK, I think not, contacted bank to report them and stop any more payments, found that they had charged me another two lots of £8.95, card now cancelled, may or may not be able to get my money back through charge back for goods not received. SCAMMING BUGGERS!!

Very bad as others say avoid.

Only way is to stop your card

I started a membership with this company on sept 10th, I cancelled it the same day. Through archives.com, I also purchased a subscription to newspapers.com. I thought that when I cancelled Archives, I cancelled Newspapers as well. On sept 18th, I recieved an email saying I was charged for my newspapers subscription. The same day, I made a call to archives and the lady told me my archives account was actually not cancelled so she did it for me and cancelled my newspapers.com subscription too being that it was purchased through Archives.com and also refunded me the money I was charged. It took a few days to see the refund in my account but it went through and both of my subscriptions were cancelled. I think I also recieved a refund because I cancelled while the charge was pending. I probably would have not been eligible for a refund had the payment been processed. It’s unfortunate that many others had a horrible experience with this site but I was able to get through to them and have my account cancelled, both of them at that. The number I called for Archives was 888-896-4442. I called at 9 am on a Friday to cancel my subscription & again at the same time on Monday to make sure everything was cancelled. I also got two emails verifying the cancellation of my Archives and Newspapers subscription. I will say this, Call the company to cancel. Don’t cancel online. That’s what I did before my free trial was over and I was still charged. Apparently it is way more effective to cancel over the phone than on the website. Hope this was helpful.