MyHeritage -- Snaps Up Geni.com

I should appolgize.. certian things Jason Scott Wills and louis get the better of people.. greed ripping others off and anger come to mind right now and some of us control things better then others

We understand how you feel and we greatly value your opinion and trust in us. If it weren't for our users, we would not be able to achieve our goal of building the definitive family tree of the world. As you know, Geni was recently acquired by MyHeritage. MyHeritage has been extremely supportive of our goal to build the World Family Tree and the collaborative community we have cultivated. Unfortunately, MyHeritage does not support lifetime subscriptions and therefore, we will no longer be able to honor lifetime subscriptions.

As policy, we will not discuss individual subscriptions in public. We are more than happy to discuss the matter with you privately, so please send us an email at subscriptions@geni.com . Most of the users that have contacted us are more than satisfied with the choices that we have offered.

We admire your passion for Geni and we understand that by signing up for lifetime, you were showing us your lifelong commitment to Geni. We are just as passionate about Geni ourselves and we're really excited for the new opportunities yet to come. We hope that you continue to stick by us and give us a chance to show you that being part of the MyHeritage family is the start of many great things. We have come so far together and there is still so much more that we can do.

You do not have to agree with us and you have every right to express your opinions. However, if you have a question or concern about your subscription, please discuss it directly with us by contacting us at
subscriptions@geni.com. This is not the appropriate forum to discuss punitive actions against Geni. Any such posts will be removed at our discretion

Hi Diane

You original message said you wanted the money you paid for your subscription, so i added you to the list of people that should get a refund. If you don't want the refund you will need to let me know so I can take you off of the list. However, that means your subscription will expire in 5 years.

Best Regards

Charles

Hello? Am I missing something? My subscription will expire is 5 year ANYWAY!

I had to give this one some thought before replying back on what my true feelings are about the change in lifetime subscription. To me I look at this personally and think that if I'm going to belong to any site, it sure won't be one that changes the contract without even first asking me what my opinions are. For that reason I would never ever do business with MyHeritage again. In addition, I did some research on companies that do offer lifetime subscriptions which also includes storing data on their servers and they are out there so the lifetime subscription is not a foreign concept that MyHeritage was forced to deal with. Overall I will keep my Pro membership for the next 5years but after that time's up I'm out of here. With that said unless I see something big happening this will most likely be my final post on the topic.

Diane

If we issue you a refund your pro subscription will be changed to a basic subscription. You do not get a refund and get to keep the 5 year subscription.

Private User he means that if you take the refund you're subscription is done then and there, vs. waiting 5 years for it to expire.

@Charles Michael Edmonds, not that you have offered to yet, but please don't bother putting me on a refund list. I want what I bought, which is NOT a 5-year subscription, but a LIFETIME.

@Jeremiah B ONeal, good thoughts. Like you, I would certainly never give another cent to Geni if this is not remedied, and by that I mean lifetime subscriptions being honored. If this isn't fixed, then I'll walk away also at the end of the five years (if they don't shorten that before 5 years is up--who's to stop them now?). Unscrupulous.

Jeremaih... You will NOT be able to move your tree in 5 years. I tried to move mine last year and it didn't work. I even got a pro to help me and no other software would take my tree. I lost all of my images no matter what other software I used. Some software would not accept a tree as big as mine. The data was all screwed up in another software....birth dates because death dates....god knows where some of the transferred info came from, but it was a BIG MESS!
I had no choice but to stay with Geni.
You don't know if next week MyHeritage is going to ask for more money or if they will ask for MORE, MORE, MORE every year.
Today I regret ever starting with Geni. I think of the thousands and thousands of hours I've put into this.. I am distraught over this and may decide that my best recourse is to delete my entire 36,000 profiles and call it quits.

CHARLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Today @ 4:59pm.... "As policy, we will not discuss individual subscriptions in public!!" and here you are addressing ME INDIVIDUALLY in public about my subscription!!!!!!!!!!!
SHAME ON YOU!

Private User I think the whole trust thing is lacking at this point. As soon as you reneg on what was promised, it is pretty hard to keep the faith.

Until last week I was a huge fan of Geni, but not anymore.

Further, telling us to contact subscriptions, but giving subscriptions no authority to actually address the concern seems like an exercise in futility don't you think? A refund does not satisfy our concerns. So what else can you offer? Nothing apparently. But that simply puts Geni in breach of contract, and really that isn't a great place to be.

I love the fact that Geni is a place where people can express their ideas and disagree and debate.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, some people repeat the same stuff over and over, and instead of it being an example of democracy and free speech, it seems more like whining and trolling, that is enjoying a lot of noise because you have nothing better to do.

You'd do your cause more good if you did not repeat yourself over and over (those of you who do) and if you kept your remarks civil and adult.

I am still trying to figure out what Charles is saying. He talks about 5 year subscriptions but does not let me know which one he is talking about... the 5 year Geni or the 5 year MyHeritage. I have asked him to explain himself.
I have not given him the go ahead to send me a check but I find that I have already been locked out of Geni..........

Enrique Treat Gleason (Gleeson), Esq. Please do not send me any more crazy emails. Thanks.

Private User -- very well stated!

Enrique Treat Gleason (Gleeson), Esq. The problem is that you have self-appointed yourself as the voice of the cause. I'd respectfully say that if given the choice, I'd hire a more thoughtful and less "prone-to-outburst" attorney. Sometimes more is indeed less.

I appreciate your help in this matter, Enrique Treat Gleason (Gleeson), Esq., and I know that many others here do as well.

@Andrew de Naray: I know you and others do but, unfortunately some think that I have self-appointed myself as everyone's attorney which, as you know, is simply not true!

I have seen comments that folks on automatic renewal continued to renew at their original price -- so for example, one person mentioned his annual renewal within past year was still only $59. Is Geni going to continue to do this? And if so, why is our 5-year renewal at the highest rate it has so far been in Geni's history? Wouldn't it be possible for them to set it at a lower rate?

Not sure, but if I was offered a 5-Year Geni-Membership with automatic renewal at $5, I might be willing to pay the $5 every 5-years to cover the added expense Geni was incurring by complying with MH's policy of no Lifetime Memberships.

Or are the folks whose renewals have been at their previous very low levels also in for a surprise when renewal rolls around? And in that case, can we even assume our renewal rate will not be higher than $417?

Enn Olavi Paadimeister -- I am with you all the way and i do it in honor of all my Swedish ancestors from my paternal great grandparents on back!

This response from Geni CS is now already published in many discussion topics - they will give your money back:
"Thank you for being part of the Geni community. Unfortunately Geni no longer supports lifetime subscriptions. If you are not interested in receiving a 5 year Geni Pro subscription and a 5 year MyHeritage data subscription, which you will be able to use on Geni, we will be happy to refund the full amount you paid for your Geni lifetime subscription.
Please let us know how you would like to proceed. We'd like to work with you on resolving this to your satisfaction. "

Enn Olavi Paadimeister - read this about GEDCOM limit: http://help.geni.com/entries/22555371-december-6-updated-privacy-pa...

P.S. Explanation/reason in Estonian can be found here:
http://www.geni.com/discussions/63190?msg=837613

Michael - in my view it is you, not Enrique, who has been being toxic.

This is a thread for folks who are upset at the change to their Lifetime Subscription. If you find it upsetting to read postings full of pain, then stop reading this discussion.

Moreover - Expressing pain is a perfectly acceptable thing for folks to do in the Public Discussions; please stop trying to have discussions stopped and/or deleted simply because you see that happening in them.

Well said, Lois. I would take action on personal attacks in public discussions. I don't see that here.

Why all of a sudden has all the profiles we made public withing our private tree made non-public against our wishes

Due to MH's stricter privacy policy all "living" profiles are forced to be private, - the only exception are Master Profiles where the curators get a special tool to make a private profile into a Master Profile.

@David Kalieta 12/12/12 7:33 AM post. Now I know why I am feeling more gypped. I got my lifetime membership ( January 29,2010) during the time when geni.com was offering discounts. Was geni.com not serious when they made that offer way back then. To think that it is only 12/13/12 now. Not even 3 years. If they miscalculated when they did that offer it is their fault. They have to standby with what they offered then.

The answers given by geni's PR staff are very shallow. They too seem not to know what the real score is.

Geni has to standby to what it offered to people who took and paid for that offer in good faith by including a grandfather clause when they made a deal with My Heritage. It is that plain and simple.

The offer of 5 year membership with My Heritage in exchange for the lifetime membership I paid for is out of the question. The quality time I put in in making my family tree with the thought that it will be a lifetime relationship with geni does not amount to that 5 years.

Heritage didn't ever port over the geni tree. Their research tool is not very good....Lifetime membership is a Lifetime membership...

Addendum:

It is not a matter of that I paid 299 for the lifetime membership compared to "The good news is that we are giving you a valuable gift – a 5-year MyHeritage data subscription (a $600 value) – at no additional cost to you. With this subscription you can take full advantage of MyHeritage’s SuperSearch search engine for historical records". (to which I am not interested in)

Geni made an offer

Choose Membership:
* 1 year for $59.40 (only $4.95/month)
* 2 years for $95.04 Save 20% (only $3.96/month)
* 5 years for $148.50 Save 50% (only $2.48/month)
* $299 lifetime Save 80%

And I accepted the offer in January, 2010.

Yes, and are folks who chose the 5-year option then at $148.50 with automatic renewal still going to keep on paying only $148.50 each time their 5-year Membership renews, while all of us that chose lifetime are being charged $417?

[Not that I believe I should be charged anything, so perhaps I should not be making that argument, but it definitely adds to the offensiveness!]

Well, the world keeps turning (and changing), if we like it or not. The changes affect different people differently. Those that took Geni Life because it appeared to be a bargain probably should take the money back offer. Others may indeed prefer the MyHeritage 5-year deal. A third group of Geni Lifers has little interest in MyHeritage. Perhaps a fair offer to this group would be the money back offer, coupled with a written agreement to automatically renew their PRO subscription at $25 per year for up to 20 years. This amounts to $500 in preset dollars, and can be cancelled (not renewed) by a subscriber along the way.

For the third group of subscribers, would this additional option be acceptable to MyHeritage?

Vello Suigussaar I like your line of thinking for a third option, although since I'm in my 30s, an extra 20 years still isn't equivalent to life. Something that recognises the fact that Geni entered into a lifetime agreement with subscribers is needed, not a simple stonewall saying we can't do that anymore.

What other creative options can people think of?