General Chat

"Upgrade" does the same thing

Ah. Found under FAQ's

How do I change the card I pay with?
We don't actually store your card details online. If you want to use a different card for your auto-renewal payment, you can do so from two weeks before your renewal payment is due.
Here’s how you can change the card details.
• Select the option to renew your membership on your Genes Reunited homepage by clicking on 'subscribe'.
• Choose the membership package that you'd like.
....etc.....

Also:
How can I pay?
You can choose to subscribe to our site by clicking on the 'Subscribe' link at the top of your homepage. You can pay in several different ways which are outlined below:
Card payments:
You can subscribe online using a credit or debit card. We use Datacash as our online payment company and they use the latest encryption technology with their secure servers so you can rest assured your card details are safe. Once you have entered your card details and paid, we will send you an email receipt and the subscription will be instant.
Postal Payments:
If you would prefer to pay by post, we are happy to accept sterling cheques, postal orders or international money orders made payable to Genes Reunited Limited at our postal address. By clicking on the 'subscribe' link you'll see the different subscription options and you can choose which one suits you best.
Please note, we can only accept cheque payments for full subscriptions. We can't accept cheques for discounted amounts and promotional offers.
....etc...

My small caps.

Gifts Upgrade 50 Credits Account Help M R Standard Member Sign Out

They do store the card details ( inc the 3 digit security code ) which is why aut on/off matters. To change card details or type of sub. choose "Subscribe" from the top menu which is in small cap letters.

I could not find card details - so I presume they are not stored. So the fact that auto renewal is 'on' is, for me, irrelevant.

As a test I have just gone through the motions of upgrading to Platinum. And the process required me to enter card details.

Even if you have auto renewal set to OFF if you then use a different browser or another computer as soon as you log in to GR it sets auto renewal back to ON overriding any previous OFF setting. I have also seen OFF change to ON when a browser gets a significant upgrade. IMHO this is sneaky and is not consistent with UK OFCOM rules though it is not as yet illegal. Ancestry put up an in your face banner reminder if subs unpaid..

GR DO send an email about upcoming renewal. I have found that by having renewal set to OFF and toughing it out for a week I get offered a better deal :-)

In any case I don't really see why they charge for posting to a run of the mill message board. GR has always construed posting to the message boards as "usage" even with the more expensive subs. Given the way "Help" and phone nos are hidden away it is hardly any surprise that members post to this board and get stung. FMP have a similar way of extending their trial offers so I guess it is the house style.

caveat emptor

To get back to the OP ...........

it would be interesting t know what happened to Stephen, and if his complaint resulted in a positive result!

I do presume that the £71 referred to a Platinum membership, not to the much cheaper Standard membership that so many of us have.

Ken posted .....

"Sylvia, in the UK chicken refers to both sexes. Hen or cock is used if the sex of a chicken is to be defined."

not so when I was growing up,

My grandparents kept chickens and 1 cock, and were very specific. It was also very specifically stated if you were going to be buying or eating a roasting chicken or a broiled chicken or broiled cock

An old cock was even tougher than an old chicken :-D

and the same distinction applies here now.


......... the fact still remains that I don't like to be referred to as being like a headless chicken.

For all and any internet, charity and so on subs rather than using a real bank account I just use a money card which I charge up as needed. This avoids unexpected fees. As a plus if (when?) the company gets hacked losses are restricted to what is (was) on the money card.

A lot of people do the same.

It won't work with PayPal though as it demands actual bank ac details. As a fix I just set up a current account which is only used for PayPal.

https://goo.gl/KG1B7I

Sylvia, in the UK chicken refers to both sexes. Hen or cock is used if the sex of a chicken is to be defined.

If you no longer wish to be a member then just cancel your direct debit.

Have no doubt that the company will soon contact you when they are unable to get your money. ;-) ;-) ;-)

I've just updated my card details on FMP, let's see what happens next!

Vera .............

that seems to be my experience at the moment with FMP :-(

............... not too happy as this was my first year with a full sub on that site

You were lucky to get an email at all Sylvia. I didn't :-(. I just got the highlighted renew which I might not have noticed except that I keep a note on my calendar of when the sub is due.

Like Joan ............

I was one of the ones who found that Auto Renew automatically changed some years back, sometimes within an hour of me having checked and turned it off. I now prefer to keep my eye on it, even if people like IGP consider me a "headless chicken".

............. a description I do incidentally object to! It's pretty derogatory, and even sexist, as chickens are female :-|


I'm currently waiting for the 2-week warning notice that my sub for FMP to arrive

................. it's up on December 5th

no email yet

but I'm getting all the other bumpf they send, and my email address, which has not changed.

So far, all I've seen is the Subscribe that is suddenly highlighted ........................


just as the highlighted Renew was the first sign on GR about 4 weeks before my sub was up. The GR email arrived about a week before the due date, not 2 weeks!


Same management of course :-(

Any collection by D/D with a different/higher amount requires prior notice being sent to the customer.

A banking rule, I believe. Any infringement means a refund of the erroneous amount will be promptly made.

Every body I know who has asked for a refund

HAS BEEN GIVEN ONE :-D :-D

Perhaps the email address that GR have for Stephen is out of date.

I agree, Joan, £71.00 is an awful amount to be taken from your bank account without your knowledge.

In my case I pay such a paltry amount that it wouldn't really matter if they took the money without my permission but it has never happened.

Just no rhyme or reason to GR! Also the differing amounts that they charge for the same service.

But it would seem that for some it doesn't always go right!

The poster Stephen says he didn't get an email to inform / remind him that his membership was due for renewal etc! & he had also thought the renewal box was unticked! but GR have gone ahead & taken money from his account!
£71-00 is rather a lot to have taken IF you haven't accounted for that amount to be in your bank account to cover it!

Stephen isn't the first to have posted similar threads!
I would rather keep an eye on my account details regularly than have the same happen to me as has happened to Stephen!

Joan.