General Chat

I've been a Member since 2006. I too only use this site to help others and to chat. In March 2012 my Standard 12 month Subscription was £7.96 but then in March 2013 it increased to £15.96. I'm sure at the time I queried this and was told everyone was going to be brought in line and charged the same. Evidently, this is not the case. :-|

I renewed last year at the old price of 9.95p, but expect that GR will want more than double this year.
I mainly use this site to read posts(& occasionally respond) & to do look ups for other members at my own expense because I have paid for membership of other sites. Don´t object to this as I´m not compelled to send my money on other people if I don´t choose to.
If the membership of GR rises very much, I shall let my membership lapse & stick to the sites I have paid for & the free one which I won´t name, but which I use daily.
If other sites for chat & look ups can exist without membership charges, can see no reason for Genes to charge so much for a similar membership level.
Perhaps they really want to do away with it & persuade everyone to take out platinum membership.

I have the same info Jax but as I have had FMP for many years I have never had the need to purchase credits from GR.

I didn't know you could see what you had paid in the past on this site...I know you can on FMP

I clicked on something that had something to do with credits and it told me I had 20 left (which is correct) and I had used 2130 :-S :-S I don't think so, as I have never bought any only had the ones given to me which has probably amounted to 150ish and probably 100 of those lapsed as I didn't want them anyway

I hope they sort it chris otherwise they are going to lose a lot of members i think.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.
Florence
in the hebrides

That is in the view I received a year ago.

If you are one of the long established members whose subs have been increased, that may be of more interest.

I noticed that in 2008 they were £6! Towards the end of 2012 one could see on 'your account' what you had paid in previous years and then this info disappeared on me as I received the increase.

I've been a member since 2003 and still think it is good value for money but it annoys me that I pay more than double than some people who have not been a member as long as I have. I have a yearly annual subscription

After their first reply I answered stating that the decrease on the Platinum membership was very good but of no benefit to me and would they please answer my question re inconsistancey in price.

the second email from them was their reply!

Below are their two replies


1st reply
On 12 Dec 2013, at 09:13, "Genes Reunited Support Team" ... wrote:
>
> Dear Wendy,
>
> Thanks for your email.
>
> I am sorry to hear you are unhappy with the price changes. Whilst we have increased the cost of our Standard subscription, there has been a significant decrease in the cost of our 6 month Platinum subscription by £15.00. You can also buy an annual subscription now. So, a standard subcription for one year costs just £19.95 or in your case £15.96 which is our special discount offer.
>
> We do feel that our standard subscription still offers very good value for money.
>
> I will pass your comments on to the Genes team though.
>
>
> Kind Regards,
>
>
> Alex Brett
> Genes Reunited Support Team
>

2nd reply
Dear Wendy

Thank you for your reply.

Genes Reunited, just as many businesses, makes a range of offers and prices available to different customers from time to time, as we believe in treating customers as individuals

We are sorry that you feel this way however we will always try to ensure that we are offering the best value available - depending on type and length of access of the subscription - to all our customers.


Kind Regards,


Alison
Genes Reunited Support Team

No Florence it was never settled and I chased it for quite a bit.

I subscribe to FMP and have done for years.

As Jax said it is not the cost of membershipwhich is the issue BUT the method of 'pulling a name' out of a bucket.

Just hoping others will give details and then perhaps on Monday I will have some info to back me up when I start once again.

Oh I see Jax. Yes it isnt fair if some people are paying more than others and it should be a flat rate for everyone.

Thinking back i now remember this conversation last year...just thought they would have sorted it out by now. But then again......

Florence
in the hebrides

Florence

The problem is that GR said a year ago that everyone will be paying the same so no big discount for members who joined before 2007...now some have had their subs doubled and others have stayed the same.

I don't use the records on here but did have 6 months gold when I first became a paying member in 2010.....I couldn't get on with them back then so went elsewhere.

I paid full price of my standard sub this year so I am not that bothered about the cost it is just the way they are doing it.

They should not have said to Chris (who has been a member since 2003) that her subs were going to be doubled if they are not putting the price up for everyone.

When they said slowly moving people over to the new rates are they pulling names out of a hat? because there doesn't seem to be any logical explaination of how they are choosing who should pay what

I am a platinum member and have been for ages since I upgraded from gold. Std 6 months for this £49.95 but they are offering me 20% discount so my renewal due on the 7th jan will be £39.95.

Now I do loads of lookups all the time because i have 5 family trees in progress plus am doing 2 friends fam tree as well. For me i get my moneys worth as i have unlimited lookups. I dont keep anytrees on here so never been a problem for me with the size of screen etc.

If I was only paying £15.00 per year, dont think i would be complaining as that's only less than £2.00 per month!!

Think you have to decide what it is you come on here for. is it only to chat or research or both? But then again £2.00 per month or less to chat unlimited to friends is a bargain and cheaper than using a phone!

Maybe it's just me but i really dont see what the problem is with the cost? I do agree though that each member should pay the same unless your discount is worked out by the length of time you have been a member. me been here about 5 years.

Florence
in the hebrides :-S

I was on a continuous renewal via card, but as I had changed my card number I found I had to re-subscribe from scratch - though they have my records straight, I have 5 credits somewhere! It was like Chris £15.96 for a year

edit - this time last year it was £19.95 - I've been a member since January 2005

Yes you are happy but what about the ones who have had their prices increased.

According to Rachel some of us that are on a 6 monthly sub should be paying £14.95 (less 20% discount bringing it down to £12) over the year that is £24...there is no option to take up the annual sub less discount

A new member can join for £19.95......is that fair?

Rollo - if the cheap rates apply to members from way back - what has happened to me - joined December 2003 - there are others like me.

slowly, very slowly I am happy to say !

The subs. model will never ever fund the site or even come somewhere close so why charge for the basic membership ? It just irritates people and ensures that the churn rate is very high.

This is something I posted on Chris's previous post 24/12/2012....so over a year ago

jax Report Edit Delete 24 Dec 2012 15:06

Here is another reply

as Rachel has already said in her email, we are slowly moving everyone over to the same renewal price. For those of you on a standard subscription, this is £14.95 for 6 months and £19.95 for 12 months. If you renew before the renewal date then there is a 20% discount on the cost of your renewal. Elizabeth - this is why your is £15.96, as that's the annual price less a 20% discount.

As normally happens, we will email you before your renewal date to confirm the cost of it.

If you do have any further questions then please contact our customer support team.



How SLOWLY are they doing this ??

As I said I was asked for £7.96 for 6 months then a week later they wanted £12....when I complained they said " Sorry you are unhappy with the increase"

As everything they do is generated by a computer yes sure I was unhappy..

Why should ChrisofWessex have her annual sub increased to £15.96 when others who have been members just as long or even not as long....are still paying £7.96 or less for the year?

Well yes it is inconsistent eg I pay £ 15 p.a. in 2 instalments others the same for a year. I think that the very cheap rates apply to people who were members a long time back - I dropped it for a while and noticed I big rise when I restarted.

Making a rough calculation on the basis of Genes web traffic ( the stats are in the public domain if you know where to look ) and the way advertising traffic revenue is calculated Genes RU would probably do a whole lot better to cancel the basic sub and make it free inc. posting and access to shared trees.

Records have never been handled well and were not part of the original product. It would make sense to drop the platinum membership altogether and move those members to FMP.

That would give D C Thompson two complementary products rather than overlapping and most likely more revenue and lower costs. Quite what they will do of course is anybody's guess. The status quo is for sure not an option.

As Annelies Van Den Belt has made her name with social web sites something like the above must be on the cards.

I will pay £7.96 on 12th Jan for 6 months and I am quite happy with that.

Exactly Jax - inconsistency.