Misleading search results for non-members entice you to sign up and subscribe
Genealogy is big business. But it’s hard to find some types of records, especially military service records. So imagine my delight when forces-war-records.co.uk came up on a couple of Google searches I was doing for my genealogical research. This site tantalises you with a seemingly relevant search result and then refuses to show you any information which might verify whether it’s actually relevant until you’ve paid for a subscription.
Just to make it clear what the site shows you: whatever you search for, you get something that looks like it’s a scan of a real paper record with most of the content replaced with “Full Access Member Only”. What you won’t realise unless you perform a few searches is that it’s a strikingly similar image that’s shown regardless of the search, and it’s not a scan of a real record at all. Any details that might help you discern whether it’s a genuine match for your search subject are conveniently not there. That is, they’re not there until you sign up and subscribe.
So… I paid the £7.49 they were asking for a month’s access and, surprise surprise, the records they were alluding to were nothing to do with my research targets. I tried a few searches for some minor divisions of the army during WW2, which yielded nothing at all. I complained immediately and asked for a refund, but just received blocking tactics in reply. So… best advice is, don’t bother with forces-war-records.co.uk. Instead apply to the Ministry of Defence (MOD) at https://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/AboutDefence/WhatWeDo/Personnel/ServiceRecords/.
Just to make it clear, I completely get the point about “once you’ve given someone information, you can’t take it back”. It’s just that when you design search results in such a way as to convince someone you’ve actually got a real record, along with lots of convincing sales spiel intimating that whatever you want you’ll find it here… well, that’s going to make customers feel pretty sore when they find that the search results don’t lead to what they expected.
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04 July 2012 16:02:43 by jon
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I didn’’t need 4.5 million records, I needed one or two which you don’’t have, but I couldn’’t find this out until I’’d paid you money. Your payment processor will have to refund me. Thanks for being thieving self-serving swindling cheats.
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04 July 2012 15:43:47 by Support
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Can you let us know where we didn”t supply any service to you?
We gave you 4.5 million records access for the subscribed period: we have supplied the service you paid for.
Regards,
Forces Reunited Support
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Did your customer service agent answer your query in a polite and friendly manner? If not please let us know by sending an email to [email protected].
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04 July 2012 15:43:10 by Support
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Can you let us know where we didn”t supply any service to you?
We gave you 4.5 million records access for the subscribed period: we have supplied the service you paid for.
Regards,
Forces Reunited Support
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Did your customer service agent answer your query in a polite and friendly manner? If not please let us know by sending an email to [email protected].
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04 July 2012 15:20:29 by jon
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Before subscribing I searched for “****** Silver”. Your site showed the merest stub of a record, but I had to subscribe to find out that it was nothing to do with my Father who was in the Army in WW2. In addition you apparently have nothing for, for example, the Army Kinematograph Service.It’’s OK, I’’ll just complain to my bank & your payment processing company if you can’’t help me.
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04 July 2012 15:16:16 by Support
———————————————-Hello, I”m sorry you”ve experienced any problems using our site.
I understand you have asked for a refund: in order for us to consider a refund please state exactly where on our pages we have stated we can provide the information that you have now found we do not have.We do need to know the exact wording and the page where this is stated, as we can”t consider assumptions.
We”ll then investigate promptly and you”ll receive an apology a refund and we”ll ensure that the error doesn”t happen again.
It is worth noting the following however:
a) Our searches are Free, you are never asked to make any form of payment unless you attempt to open a link to one of the results from your search and view the documents that we have provided in our service to you.
b) You may contact us or ask a question in our forums or read helpful tutorials without being asked for payment.
c) What we do offer for payment is the opportunity to look further into records already searched for, the moment you pay, we give you every record we have on that date (in excess of 4 million as of March 2012) and without any limit as to how many records you can view or how far you can see into each record.
Other sites offer differing levels and credits systems for in depth research often at the same time.
However your membership with us is very simple: we give you everything we have for everyone we have instantly.d) We make it clear on our advertising and on our front page we have ”x” million records, we make no guarantees to have every record or even specific records, this is why the free basic search is there: it allows you to ascertain for yourself – and then, if you are still unclear our free helpdesk etc will assist.
e) Under the ecommerce (UK Distance Selling) Regulations 2000, the purchase of immediately available online services, there is no ”cooling off” period, as services are provided in full upon payment.
We do not offer a ”find guarantee” or ”a free refund if unsuccessful” type of service, and to be fair, no other similar company does so either.
Regards,
Forces Reunited SupportRegards,
Forces Reunited Support
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Did your customer service agent answer your query in a polite and friendly manner? If not please let us know by sending an email to [email protected].
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04 July 2012 13:51:46 by jon
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Having been shown absolutely nothing to verify that search results were relevant to my enquiries before subscribing, after subscribing I found that you have nothing of any interest to my research in your records. I therefore request a refund in full and you may entirely cancel my membership. I think you should stop trying to con people.
4th July 2012 at 3:29 pm
Cripes! did you use the site first to check if they were likely to have this record or do much searching about? I had a similar experience with Ancestry who wouldn’t refund me and used similar tactics also which has tended to make me steer clear of anyone who charges a fee.
I suppose it’s pretty difficult to pledge they’ll refund dissatisfied customers as anyone could claim that?
4th July 2012 at 4:01 pm
Yes that’s my point… the site appeared to have what I was looking for, but would only show me a matching name until I’d first signed up and then paid my subscription. Then of course it had nothing to do with my search at all, and was a complete mismatch, and very few details were there even if it had been a match. Complete waste of money, and designed to catch people out for a quick financial win – otherwise known as a scam.
12th September 2014 at 9:35 am
I tried three times to connect to the [email protected] the page could not be brought up. I also sent emails direct to stop the payments, but they continued. Eventually rang my bank and they cancelled the next payment. A very unrewarding and expensive experience. Beware
7th July 2012 at 12:35 pm
Just had the same experiece and reponse
9th July 2012 at 2:25 pm
Just wondering, I just went on there, and yep your right, they do charge you to view the results.
So I went on Findmypast, they do the same and also did ancestry, I read the terms on forces records and they allowed me to access 4.5 Million records if I pay. Ancestry want to charge me £8.95 for 6 credits or something and my daughter just told me that they can charge up to 3 credits per record i view.
This would cost me a bomb with the surname williamson….thank god my name isn’t smith or jones!
And to top it off, I am so glad my daughter told me to read the terms for Findmypast before i signed up for a “FREE TRIAL” Read this for a cheek:
Free Trial: You can sign up for a Free Trial which lets you view a selection of the records for a fixed period so you can try before you buy: this requires a credit card. We only allow one Free Trial per household and will stop you taking a Free Trial if we think you’ve already had one, sorry! No payment is taken from your card until your Free Trial comes to an end: you can cancel your Free Trial at any time from the ‘my account’ area on the website, again with no hassle. When you get to the end of your Free Trial, if you have not cancelled by the day before the expiry date, you will automatically become a subscriber to the package your Free Trial was based on, and we will then take your first subscription payment.
So unless i contacted them before the end of my Free trial it wouldn’t be free! You got off lightly Jon, If i had used findmypast and viewed 20+ records they could have hit me with upto £20.00 and No Refund!
£8, for 4 mill-odd of records is bloody cheap.
9th July 2012 at 2:26 pm
I subscribed for one month in february . Now we are in july and am still being deducted from my bank .Plus the rate has been increased.THIS IS FRAUD.The bank have contacted you but you fail to respond.this must STOP.
10th July 2012 at 12:27 pm
Back again, What has forces reunited got to do with Genealogy Jon? I have seen that its good for Soldiers Sailors and Air Force folks and Veterans, but they don’t offer military records or anything.
Dave
11th July 2012 at 10:12 pm
J Brad: have you actually contacted them?
I did speak with their support desk and they answered me very quickly indeed: I can see they have an address too: so I don’t think theres really any need to pay month after month if you can contact them is there?
Clearly from what people are saying none of the genealogy services people offer what people truly want:’one payment for a guaranteed successful find’.
But paying ‘devils advocate’ would you run such a business? after all it’s just waiting for the unscrupulous ‘customer’ to claim they are unhappy and get a refund surely? it’s not as if a ‘services’ company can get anything back after supplying it is there?
19th July 2012 at 3:03 pm
@ j bradford
Have you actually contacted them and and asked them to stop your payments? or do as i did, go to your profile page on the website and change your settings. Its very easy (After it was explained).
4 steps,
1. log in
2. Click on the YOUR PROFILE link.
3. Scroll down until you see Automatic Renewals and the word Edit, click on the word edit.
4. Select NO Click on Save Changes.
19th July 2012 at 10:37 pm
don’t even get me started on ancestry.co.uk with their free trials you have to give a credit card number to get then they charge you anyway!
27th August 2012 at 9:15 pm
Forces-war-records.co.uk keeps sending me unwanted e-mails
I have e-mailed the sender, Julia, but I get a notice that her address is no good.
Any sugestions on how to stop the unwanted e-mails
Bill
1st September 2012 at 7:58 am
The main disadvantage of the site is that it doesn’t show the original sources of its information.
I am also pretty unhappy about their T&C’s – only in the small print does it say that the default is to automatically renew your subscription (unlike other sites which will send you a reminder). Its also very hard to cancel the account : I had logged on via facebook, but the account profile sends you to a different website and you have to request an additional password to enter – I never did find the “Automatic Renewal” option, and instead deleted both the accounts – hope that will work
3rd September 2012 at 12:37 pm
Re: “Forces War Records”
From an information perspective – the main disadvantage of the site is that it doesn’t state the original sources of its information (let alone give access to scanned images etc.)
i.e. if you find a match, you are also reliant on one of their sources transcribing correctly.
However, my main concern is their terms & conditions:
– only in the small print does it say that the default is to automatically renew your subscription (unlike other sites which will send you a reminder). What’s worse the second payment was higher (£8.95 up from £7.95)
– unlike more reputable sites (eg findmypast) there is no warning e-mail that they plan to bill your card again. Even ancestry gives an option to cancel a subscription and get money back if not happy with the service
– Its also very hard to cancel the account : I had logged on via facebook, but the account profile sends you to a different website (Forces Reunited) and you have to request an additional password to enter ! I had to raise a support request to gain access to the Profile.
In summary – I would also recommend that you avoid this site. I’ve contacted my credit card company to block any more attempted bills from them just to be safe !
26th September 2012 at 3:34 pm
What do you expect? do you want them to just show you the records for free and then once you have seen all the data, hope that you pay for a membership!
You wouldn’t have paid, because you would have had all you wanted, I have used them and it is not hard to cancel, their support tab is very easy to see so you could always ask them…..
As for the main post, they are in the right, you can’t just get your money back after seeing all the records just because yours wasn’t there, as I said before, that is their only option as they can’t let you see the data without going bust…
28th September 2012 at 10:11 am
I rather think you’ve missed the point there, Ricky. What they show you before you subscribe is just enough to hook you & reel you in, but not enough to show you whether their record match is actually relevant to your research. As such, it’s a sharp practice, and should be stopped. On the other hand, if you actually agree with sharp practices, then that’s fine, you go ahead and get fleeced without complaining.
8th October 2012 at 6:05 am
I felt I was misled. All the front page stuff leads you to think that they have it all. However I searched for several relatives who served in the WW2, in army, air force and navy and I search for others, eg home guard, in most cases I also used their service number, but none were found. I did ask for a refund and got the run-around. I have checked the small print and fourtunately found the bit about recurring subscriptions so cancelled that and also sent a message asking them to remove me from their subscription database and not take anymore money, so they had better not!
I can not be positive about any part of the service they offered.
9th October 2012 at 6:34 am
can’t see that argument: they claim 4 million odd records: since they span what? 1300 onwards then 4 million is hardly going to be ALL is it?
8 million served from 1914-18 so as any site I guess they aren’t going to have it all are they? does anyone ever claim they have it all: I’d sincerely like to know.
I think you were misled mind: by yourself, assuming and all that.
Why not search for free: no argument then?
Try ancestry and find my past if they haven’t got what your after either I think you probably owe FWR an apology.
9th October 2012 at 6:15 pm
Ancestry was OK but quite expensive – Find My Past was always hyping up what they had but rarely had anything of use to me.
Terry, Why do I need to apologise? I have just reported how I found the site.
Others can decide if the website is going to be of use to them, but they will be better informed if they read this website first.
10th October 2012 at 9:49 am
Sorry Fraser, meant that a s a tongie-in cheek remark really, although it’s pretty unfair IMHO to say or infer they misled you when they clearly didnt really.
All the front page stuff didn’t make me thing they had it all in the slightest, it just interested me further and I did a number of free searches and asked their support staff a few pertinent questions 1st of all, seemed to work ok for me.
Too many people nowadays always look to blame ‘the other person’ particularly when the other is a company or group, rather than try to see things from both sides of the ‘argument’ per se.
You made a mistake clearly and anumber of presumptions and the site didn’t warn you about making massive guesses before you paid: I’m not so sure any site could write a noticeable caveat that covers all eventualities on their front page after all?
24th October 2012 at 12:16 pm
Well guys I was a member of Forces War Records for two months and found them to be very useful. !!!
The £8.95 payment wasn’t that expensive to have access to that many records from history and you can do a free search to see if they have the record you want, but ‘Yes’ you have to pay to view. So I don’t see why you are complaining when this is clear to see this????. If you cant find the record with the seach, then why go and pay for the service!!! Makes no sence Terry and as joe said you can click YOUR PROFILE link and turn of the Auto Renewals, is not that hard.!
Many companies now do Auto re-newal on memberships so it’s up to you to check your profile and the small print.
Well I made good use of all their records by searching my family, my wife’s and a close friends. Quite impressed with what I found out and the service was good when I had an issue not finding a WWI record and a WWII record. They explained (by email as no phone service) that many WWI files were destroyed in the Blitz and that many WWII records are not releasable to the General Public by the MoD and only the MoD will hold these records and gave me contact details, though they quote they are adding around 29,000 extra names a month to their database.
Had good information on the unit history and medals of my search. I also noticed they have free POW records which cost £70(ish) to get from the Red Cross.
In all i was happy and would recommend.
9th March 2014 at 7:02 pm
Comments such as this one from Forces War Records personnel which seek to incriminate this blog would be viewed as perjury by any judge in any court of law. So when you next get your solicitors to send me threatening letters citing comments you’ve posted yourself, from IP addresses you’ve used to send emails threatening our ISP, make damn sure you’re not standing on quite such rocky ground.
24th October 2012 at 3:28 pm
I had exactly the same experience. One relative was on the site but the records were sparse and I already knew. I complained about 2 relative records not on the site and I got the same “we give no guarantee” reply.
Also be careful that although I only signed up for 1 month the automatic renewal box was ticked on My Profile. So anyone signing up should untick this right away. This is not on and is to catch people out.
25th October 2012 at 7:45 am
Yeah, also not very happy as they auto renewd my account after on e month as well.
It looks like all the ancestry sitews do this, but it doesnt make it ethically right does it?
9th March 2014 at 7:02 pm
Comments such as this one from Forces War Records personnel which seek to incriminate this blog would be viewed as perjury by any judge in any court of law. So when you next get your solicitors to send me threatening letters citing comments you’ve posted yourself, from IP addresses you’ve used to send emails threatening our ISP, make damn sure you’re not standing on quite such rocky ground.
4th November 2012 at 9:59 am
I fully agree. It is a complete con. much the same conversation that I had with the so called customer services. All the info on the site was what I already had. The blurred text underlay was a simple ruse. Dont bother; share this page as much as possible and starve the buggers out..
6th November 2012 at 6:48 am
Yeah complte con set up by some unscrupulous people completely designed just to rip people off.
I could only find two of four records I wanted after paying, they make it sound like they have every record but they dont.
9th March 2014 at 7:02 pm
Comments such as this one from Forces War Records personnel which seek to incriminate this blog would be viewed as perjury by any judge in any court of law. So when you next get your solicitors to send me threatening letters citing comments you’ve posted yourself, from IP addresses you’ve used to send emails threatening our ISP, make damn sure you’re not standing on quite such rocky ground.
6th November 2012 at 10:27 am
All genes and history sites are conners I reckon: even the British government sites charge you for their info an all.
scum scammers and rip off merchants: I dare them to take this site down after all our comments on here!
we arnt thick ya know: YOU ARE ALL THIEVES AND YOU INTEND ON TAKING OUR MONEY YOU AINT NO BUSINESSES AT ALL JUST SCAMMERS AND I SHOULD KNOW!
9th March 2014 at 7:02 pm
Comments such as this one from Forces War Records personnel which seek to incriminate this blog would be viewed as perjury by any judge in any court of law. So when you next get your solicitors to send me threatening letters citing comments you’ve posted yourself, from IP addresses you’ve used to send emails threatening our ISP, make damn sure you’re not standing on quite such rocky ground.
6th November 2012 at 10:32 am
Others may wish to know that even if you do find a record that is of interest, you cannot print it, nor save it to your computer. This site is a complete con
10th November 2012 at 11:24 pm
This thread is interesting. I too entered my grandfathers name and got a blurred’record’ with a request to subscribe. As his name was fairly common i was not sure that this was the right record. Rather than part with money I submitted the name of an uncle with a less common name, who received a DFM while flying as a rear gunner with Lancaster Bombers’ in WW2. As he was one of very few survivors doing this I expected his name to be found in a search. The search for his name did not produce a result.
I am now going back to the site to see if Field Marshall Montgomery’s record appears! I won’t be parting with my money though.
14th November 2012 at 7:55 pm
Hello,
I just signed up to Forces War Records to try and see if I could find any more information on 3 of my ancestors whom have been in WW1 – East Yorkshire Regiment, WW2 Navy and also WW2 Princes Own Regiment and was also a prisoner of war in Germany. The only trouble is that no records of any of them came up… Not one record on any of them came up and I doubted my own knowledge… Especially as the record on Ancestry which had information on the Prisoner of War and now doesn’t tell me anything other than the camp name… All the information is missing and I’m just stuck as to what is going on?
15th November 2012 at 3:26 pm
Like the above I am of the view that this site cons people.
I paid for what was a one off payment for a 28 day search facility £8.95 and then found out today that they had taken a further payment from my credit card.
At no point when making initial inquiry was I asked to tick or untick a box…this is a very upsetting as I am a forces pensioner and monies tight.
When I previously checked records for relatives who I know served during WW2 no record forthcoming.
This site has similarities to those from America that purport to have Genealogy records but are again scams…..can’t believe that this link connected to Forces Reunited which I believed to be a genuine site.
I sahll be making a formal complaint to Trading Standards and speaking to my local MP…hopefully get this site closed down.
16th November 2012 at 12:26 am
Same thing has happened to me they lure you in … just ripped off my elderly mother. It doesn’t look as though you get much information anyway even if it is the correct person.
20th November 2012 at 9:42 am
@Rob
Yes: I have had exactly the same experience as yourself and what the original blogger Jon writes is both accurate & concise.
I did a number of searches before joining and it makes it look as if they have a accurate, in depth and exacting record for you, they have ‘NOTHING’ it appears except mass photo stats of basic join up papers, entries in ledgers.
Any one reading this steer clear.
28th November 2012 at 9:00 am
Oh how I wish I had looked at this forum before I got embroiled in the site! I paid for the ‘one month’ and, fool that I was, for a scroll. I have been trying to cancel the repeat subscription since August, by e-mail and letter. I can’t ‘change my profile’ as the site insists that I am not a paid member. Is any one actually doing anything about this rip-off? I’m desperate!
2nd December 2012 at 8:42 pm
The claim to have millions of records seems to mean that they have millions of names but, in my experience, not much more than names. They claim I signed up to a subscription. I am sure I did not do that.
Their website is hopeless and the email they give for contact away from the website is inactive.
I’ve cancelled my credit card so that these people could not get access to my money. Somewhat inconvenient but necessary.
It would be good if someone living in Britain could draw this mob to the attention of whatever government organisation monitors scams. And British veterans organisations who deserve better with their records.
8th January 2013 at 2:14 pm
I’ve had exactly the same with this site – no results whatsoever, even though I had managed to find some on Ancestry – Forces War Records could not even find the same info.
I emailed them only to receive the same fobbing off.
To make matters worse, I had paid £8.95 which I was annoyed enough about. I then went into hospital for an emergency operation. I have just checked my credit card statement and they have charged me for the next two months also, once in November and again in December (I’d already paid October) even though I’d only “signed up” for 1 month. Their excuse is that I didn’t uncheck the box “Auto Renew Membership” so it was renewewd monthly. BEWARE!!
14th January 2013 at 4:04 pm
I see from blogs you are having trouble with F W R . If so Simple contact your trading standers office, A good Solicitor, The police fruad deparment , or one of the national news papers.
11th February 2013 at 10:41 pm
Got to agree with above comments
Be very wary of this site .
Every record of my uncle could be found on free sites,
I feel I was sucked into paying for extra information when there was none!!!, when I complained I was told to prove where they had misled me!!
my mistake was to give this site my money,
Buyer Beware
19th February 2013 at 11:50 am
It looks like a massive con to me.
They contacted me after my initial search for information about my uncle (WW1 pilot shot down and survived ).
They stated that they had records of 3 McConnell-Wood’s. As there are 5 ex service of that ilk I reckoned there’s a good chance that 3 of us would be there.
So I paid my discounted £5 (3 days only)
When I searched there was only one -so I complained -4 days after they took the £5 and never replied. So I’m going through Trading Standards. Look up similar blogs for the other ancestry sites especially the dating one -But they cover their b/s with the fine print in t’s &c’s -Makes you proud to be ex service!
23rd February 2013 at 4:18 pm
Many thanks SHakey Dave for your information. I found that payments were being taken from my account on a monthly basis when it was not made clear that having tried out this service I had to take the initiative to stop an automatic payment. It is very poor practice, and likewise I found the information not very helpful – it only repeated records kept elsewhere which were for free. I’m afraid my experience is very much like others recorded here. A website to be avoided.
11th March 2013 at 12:07 pm
I rang to cancel my subscription to no avail. I, too, discovered from this morning’s credit card statement that a further deductions have been taken from my account I have emailed them but have have also taken the precaution of cancelling my card.
A truly legitimate organisation would not have to resort to their tactic ie, uncheck Auto Renew Membership. AVOID
18th March 2013 at 3:12 pm
Hello Bill, I have just read your letter on the Forces war records,i too was duped last night i paid £8.95 and got absolutly nothing every time i clicked on veiw the records it took me back to the page to subscribe again i have now contacted the police.i too sent a message to Julia after recieving an email from her after i had sent a letter to the support team but have had no answer, i had a letter from a man called Phil who told me to clickon the above link when i tried to do so it did not allow me he also told me not to answer the email as it would not be answered so you could be sending messages for ever and a day.the site i logged into was http://www.vetrans-uk.info was this the same as the one you logged into.lets hope we can put a stop to this scam.Please reply to me.
18th March 2013 at 3:29 pm
Hello Jon,i am not sure whether you will still be looking a comments made about this site, i was mislead by their site offering W W 2 records.i knew that records were available from the M O D office in Glasgow but as it was such a long wait i did noy bother but when i was given the www address for this site when i looked at it i thought that they had decided to make the records available on line instead of a wait of 12months, i then paid my subscription for 1 month then proceeded to put in my email address and created a password but then when i tried to access records it just kept jumping back to the subscribing page, whoever the people are that are running this scam want stopping
21st March 2013 at 5:05 pm
Wouldn’t touch them with the proverbial. I passed details on to Trading Standards -but I’m not holding my breath -They cover their buts pretty well. I think they are retired civil servants -couldn’t be ex service -too cunning by half..
Mac
25th March 2013 at 7:09 pm
Good information. Lucky me I found your blog by chance
(stumbleupon). I have book marked it for later!
4th April 2013 at 1:12 pm
I signed up for a month on this site last year. I used it briefly and have not been back onto it as it is very basic, is not complete and is inaccurate (checked my own record as an example). What I did not realize is that they have been billing me on a recurrent basis. Apparently there is a box that needs to be unticked on signing up otherwise their terms and conditions allow them to make automatic monthly billings until requested to stop or the tick box is cleared. To clear the tick box, you have to sign in, which effectively means you are using the service. In short, the information they provide is available elsewhere for free, the sign-up process does not make it clear that the subscription will be automatically renewed (by month or year), the information is not complete – even where records do exist, they are partial precisely because they are not official transcripts of official records. What is provided is basically a database of partial information taken from other free resources. If this information was available at sign up, how many people would actually get involved? The site is rubbish and verges on being scamology!
13th June 2013 at 1:58 pm
Yes i came across and fell for this site. I was dubious and should have leant from the experience I had with Ancestry. Though Ancestry is a better site with abundance of docs. they put the responsibility on the user to cancel their membership-i thought i had trial and ended up in a year’s contract. Had to get out of but did eventually. So I now go and fall fo this scam! Although signed up for one month if you look at the small print the monthly charge will continue unless you opt out-though you think you only have a month’s contract. I couldn’t find any information of worth either. Scam, dishonest. Profiteering on the graves of the dead, in my opinion.
13th June 2013 at 2:03 pm
The problem is you believe you have signed up for one month but in your ‘account’ page they have an auto renewal box that YOU have to untick. If you don’t do this they will continue to charge.@terry addison
25th June 2013 at 8:47 am
In Feb I asked for what I thought was 1months subscription to get further in finding more information. I thought it was only one payment but I have now had three months payment taken out my account.I cannot find away of stopping and getting a refund. I also had the initial £10 taken out twice on the same day. In the end I paid for a researcher to go further but he did not have much information more than I already knew. In total I have paid £116.80. I hope you can sort this out, by stop taking money out of my account and giving me a refund.
28th June 2013 at 11:41 am
I have just tried to unsubscribe but can’t find submit button.
Should have learnt my lesson after Ancestry experience!
28th June 2013 at 11:00 pm
I wish I had seen this page before I decided to try the one month trial for £5 in which there was no mention of having to cancel or you get billed again at the higher rate of £8.95! I complained and they promised to refund my payment of £8.95, I had not used the site after the first few days because there was nothing available that I could not get from the War Graves Commission Site. They then billed me for another month at £8.95 and at the same time refunded my initial £8.95. When I complained once more they just ignored my messages. I agree this is just a scam and should be avoided.
29th June 2013 at 12:49 pm
I wish I’d seen this blog before parting with my money. They are basically thieving b*st*rds and the information on the site was totally useless.
I have informed BBC Watchdog who hopefully will publicise the dubious actions of this site. If more people contact Watchdog then they will probably be more likely to take action. You can contact them at https://ssl.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74/contact
Let’s put these people out of business
2nd July 2013 at 9:30 pm
I checked my bank statement online today and found three more entries from Forces war Records. But this time they were PUTTING MONEY BACK in my account. This might have been due to Watchdog but I suspect it was because my snottagram threatened them with legal action via Moneyclaim Online. This a government run system for guys like you and me to easily sue dodgy companies through the county court. I don’t rate many government outfits as god but this one really is. You go online to https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/, write a short description of your claim, pay a fee of £25 and wait for things to happen. I have found that just the threat of it has worked twice and on one occasion I had to pursue it all the way which meant going to the judge’s room (not a full blown court) and sitting with the judge and the other guy and each explaining our side. The judge sided with me, and so the garage owner who wouldn’t honour a used car’s warranty ended up having to pay me the money I claimed plus my travel expenses and time and the £25 fee I’d paid. Sucess!
I suggest everybody who has been duped by these people contacts them and politely asks for their money back (apart from the initial payment) and states that if this is not received immediately then court action will follow via Moneyclaim online.
Good luck.
3rd July 2013 at 11:06 am
What goes on . I ask for info about a wartime friend ,get it, pay my £8.95 and am happy.– My happy time has disappeared, I have been charged a further 2 months at £8.95 for something I was not aware of or asked for. To reject this I go to their Webpage but find the “Contact us” link is missing and I am unable to make contact. So where is their accounts department, please let me know so that I may be a happy man again
22nd July 2013 at 11:56 am
Please be very careful using Forces War Records. Please e-mail the chief executive directly at [email protected] if you have problems.
I’m sure he’ll be very pleased to hear from you all and more than happy to field your enquiries.
Anyone who requires genuine service records from approx 1920 should contact the mod at the link below
https://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/AboutDefence/WhatWeDo/Personnel/ServiceRecords/.
Any older records can be obtained directly from the national archives.
22nd July 2013 at 7:22 pm
I payed them an initial payment of £5.00.but didn’t notice they had taken two further payments of £8.95.without my permission,talking to my credit card company tomorrow with a view to a refund.
25th July 2013 at 6:50 pm
Total scam, they should be closed down and prosecuted for daylight robbery. I paid £5, could not get any information although I already had some war records and London gazette entries. Charged another 2 months at £8.95, no way of contacting them as access blocked AVOID
31st July 2013 at 2:11 pm
I too paid for one months membership to search for both my fathers’ and grandfathers’ records. I was fortunate to have both their service numbers. Having entered this on both occasions the search brought up other records so I was never sure if I had the right record. I too was expecting to see a copy of the correct service record to confirm that I was not looking at the wrong record. Very disappointing. I would not recommend this site to anyone.
6th August 2013 at 8:54 pm
You have been taking money monthly from my account without any service to me.
I will see my bank manager this week and have this stopped. I only paid for one month how dare you run such a dishonest business.
7th August 2013 at 8:15 am
You have taken money from my account yet I only signed up for a month and I have not hhad any information.
Please discontinue taking my money this is a very dishonest business you run
I will see my bank manager today to stop payments
11th August 2013 at 11:23 pm
I just spent 2 hours going through every possible search on that site, to find out some more details of my late father’s service during WW2 & I found out far less than I already knew, another example of the internet being used as a licence to print money! I will request a refund.
30th August 2013 at 11:59 am
I wish I had seen this blog before I signed up for a month. I am researching WW1 casualties and this sounded really promising, but there is more information on individuals for free on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site. I agree with the comment that it verges on being a scam as it seems to offer no information that isn’t available elsewhere and some records are neither complete or wholly accurate. I assume they are hoping to cash in on the current interest in researching WW1 soldiers with the centenary looming. I have hopefully set up my account so that they don’t automatically take more money but I am a bit worried about this having read other comments. I don’t expect a refund for my first month subscription, as having read some of their terms and conditions where it went on about no refunds if information was inadequate or unavailable I should have been more suspicious. I will stick to the more well-known sites in future – or use the local library to access them for free!
So very much a case of Buyer Beware. I will remember the advice on how to stop them charging me again should the worst happen.
14th September 2013 at 10:04 pm
Agree with everyone, I found a few people I was looking for although very sparse information. I saved my searches, for which I paid my money, so technically in my world I should be able to view them in the future. Alas no way, I now have to pay another shed load of money again to view the same information thats already in my saved box. Wont be using the site again as its a rip off and you can get better military info on ancestry.
17th September 2013 at 8:30 am
re http://www.forces-war-records.co.uk – Having same problem as many others it appears. Hope this business doesn’t destroy what is otherwise a good reputation for UK family tree research sites.
18th September 2013 at 3:11 pm
I wish I had found this website before 18th August. Just had a 2nd £8.95 taken from my bank account this week. The “Live Chat” doesn’t work; I’ve submitted a complaint online; I’ve demanded that they remove my account and delete all my details and I’ve unticked the renewal box on the profile but as others have said this should be explicit when you first consider paying any money. I hope others find this site before they can exploited too!
21st September 2013 at 1:00 pm
Same problems here !!!!!
It’s about time these people were investigated by those eager beaver ladies on
“Rip Off Britain”
12th October 2013 at 9:09 pm
@Philip Workman
I completley agree,Forces popped up on my site whilst checking for records.Said it had information and looked interesting but was blurred.To see it i had to pay for month subscription which i did.Was complete let down,i got more information on free website.I have now found out that they are taking money out of my account without my permission which is theft.
20th October 2013 at 4:35 pm
Just parted with £8 for nothing.
They did not even have a record for a known Uncle with paper documentation I have who was in the Navy from the 2nd World War until 1965.
Will try and get my credit card company to deal with this.
31st October 2013 at 12:57 am
As someone with a qualification in law, then the Acid Test is this. Suppose you wanted to search say Donny Roman Osman (made up, and a deliberately unlikely name) and the site returned a match and you paid and got access to other records that weren’t Donny Roman Osman, then they have breached a contract. However, if it was a common name, say Jim Wilkinson, and they gave you access to several records of different Jim Wilkinsons, then they’ve done nothing wrong UNLESS you had entered something specific to your Jim Wilkinson like a Sqdr number or a service number, when it would be a PROBABLE case of taking money under false pretences. I found this page as I got an email saying someone had viewed my oprofile on forcesreunited.org.uk which I hadn’t set up. I emailed and told then, but got a reply saying to go to my account and set emails to no! They gave me the account password which led to a blank info-less profile page with my name on it. I suspect this is if I had been ex forces I’d pay for premium membership. This is Identity theft. Has anyone else experienced similar?
1st November 2013 at 9:54 am
typical,sent £8.98 for 2 wks.research, They took same sum monthly but i emailed them and they said they would stop. HOPE THEY HAVE DONE. Last sum was 6 oct.13
1st November 2013 at 9:59 am
WHATS FORCES-WAR RECORDS POSTAL ADD. AND PHONE NUMBER?????????????
6th November 2013 at 9:49 am
Hi there,
I fell for this as well. Waste of money.
13th November 2013 at 2:34 pm
Thanks for the warning before I paid them any money. I’m looking for “William Brown” in London, and obviously there are a lot of them. They seem like they might have a couple of records I’d be interested in viewing, but with such a common name I am wary about giving them money without more evidence that those are the records I am actually looking for.
18th November 2013 at 6:32 am
Exactly as printed above (Jill Adams) Information they had on my father was on Google – they record he had an MBE but there is no extra information and two other relations I searched for returned no records at all. Disappointing and expensive swiz I reckon
27th November 2013 at 1:55 am
site was working perfectly then i signed up and it wont work, convenient.
10th December 2013 at 9:46 pm
I signed up for one month to find information about a relative. I now find that money has been taken out of my VISA account on a monthly basis for 5 months. Yes, I know i should have looked every month, but have been sick.I have had no communication from the site and the information I did receive was not my relative after all. I am visiting my bank to-day. I agree, that is THEFT.
12th December 2013 at 2:10 pm
I was conned too! This is proving to be a nasty and defensive company. To everybody affected I suggest that you contact your credit card company and dispute the payments. The auto renew (opt-in) of the payment and the requirement to trawl through the small print/T&Cs is not the practice of an honest firm. The records that they hold (outside of the CWGC borrowed records) are negligible in number and their advertising is downright misleading.
Good luck all!
15th December 2013 at 4:11 pm
Well, I have had the same problem with auto-renewal. With all other businesses with this feature, they have had the courtesy to tell me first that this facility is about to be invoked. They have agreed to stop taking payments but not agree a refund. they say that ‘most customers find this more convenient’ but if I wanted several months’ subscription I would have asked for it in the first place, at lower cost.
But not forces reunited. And I was shocked at the poor quality of the data on it. As others have said, it is better to go to the MoD or National Archives.
Overall, very disappointed.
18th December 2013 at 10:47 am
Entirely agree with your blog.
I’ve just been conned after joining this useless forces reunited website and then they AUTO renewed my £8.95 joining fee without me knowing . A small print scam for auto renewal in my opinion.
AVOID THIS company at all costs as they have ripped me off. They also refused to refund in full and when I asked for a postal address they gave a PO box number.
Cannot trust this company
21st December 2013 at 5:42 pm
Forces War Records is a complete scam, you agree to pay them £8.95 for more information, you do not get it unless you agree to pay them a further £59.95, and then you discover they take a further £8.95 at monthly intervals without your consent. DO NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THEM – THEY ARE THEIVES !
28th December 2013 at 3:47 pm
Having read the comments regarding this particulare site I felt it necessary to add further fuel to the flames….On signing up for a one month option to review records…I found that this particular site started taking regular monthly payments from my account…..On cancelling this arrangement I was, on several occasions threatened with legal action….I ignored these threats and would warn anyone who decides to enter this particular site to BEWARE!!!!
1st January 2014 at 12:53 pm
I looked through my bank statements to find a continuous debit of the ‘One Month ‘subscription rate of £8.95, the recommended rate by the website. It is the most expensive rate and you are led to believe you are paying for access for just one month, ie just one payment of £8.95 and that is it. NOT SO – there is nothing to state you must go into your profile and untick the box to discontinue further payments. This really is a scam, if you wanted the service for a longer period you would select the payment for 3, 6 or 12 months which would work out to a cheaper monthly rate, and even so, you should be informed that you must discontinue further payments if you do not want a continuous service. It should be against Advertising Standards and I will post them my comments.
3rd January 2014 at 6:16 am
I too have had the exact same problem as others. I paid the initial £5 which to be fair, I was happy to risk to test the quality of information. They could not provide any of the basic info I already have about my relatives war records.Their hidden policy of charging £8.95 per month ongoing is dishonest and deceitful. I will make it my goal to expose this website in its various guises. Michael Binns.
8th January 2014 at 4:07 pm
I can’t believe I have been taken in by this website, FORCES WAR RECORDS. Dreadful!
Like many before me I subscribed for a month at a special offer price of £5 but found nothing I hadn’t found before. Today I found that £8.95 has been taken from our joint account since April 2013 without my knowledge. My OH always looks after our joint account so I only discovered the debits when activating a new card.
Can anyone advise me whether the Distance Selling Regulations deal with this fraudulent method of subscription payments?
Needless to say, I’M IN THE DOGHOUSE!
13th January 2014 at 10:39 am
I’ve been offered a hit on a grandfather from WW1 using the free search. I think it’s ‘just’ a medal card which I have already seen and won’t be signing up thanks to what I’ve read here.
14th January 2014 at 3:31 pm
I am really disappointed with this site. I like many people I signed up for 1 month subscription, only not to find the record I was looking for, on top of that I now find out they are taking money out of my account every month which is theft. Trying to cancel this is impossible, you just get blocked a note saying sorry site carrying out maintenance. I get this every time I try + sent email or to try and speak to someone, this has been going on for days, all I can say is it is a very long non existent maintenance procedure. I have now reported them to my Bank and will be following this up with a trip to the police station. so if anyone from “Forces war records” wishes to reply to this please feel free I would love to hear what you have to say, but some how I don’t think they will bother.
17th January 2014 at 7:30 am
I searched for several family members from WW1 & WW2 and I only got the details I put in to the search. I then put my own details in including service number, but I don’t exist, according to this site.
I did tell them what I thought of the site, but I did not ask for my money back, I will do this through my card supplier.
20th January 2014 at 3:14 pm
I have not subscribed – they are a shower of cowboys. I really don’t know what records they do keep, but I know hundreds that they don’t. I served almost 25 years and I obviously know my name, rank, number, and Regiment but despite this – I don’t exist on their database.
25th February 2014 at 1:29 pm
I too fell for this scam yesterday. Luckily for me my security company, Kaspersky, refused to allow me to transfer money from my card to the site, then I read your blogs! However I did telephone my card company and got them to put a block on any payments demanded, just in case they managed to get through. I also cancelled my card to make doubly sure, so thanks to you all out there for alerting me and hopefully others to this scam. You can’t be too careful.
26th February 2014 at 1:23 am
Absolute rip off. Please take note in the smallest of small print that your subscription will automatically renew unless you untick the relevant box. I searched one record and it simply listed the honours my father had received, even that wasn’t complete, no other details were given regarding where and when he served. Do your own research, this is RUBBISH!!!
28th February 2014 at 5:04 pm
Forces war records site appears to be set up to confuse any potential users. Its claims are very misleading. I wish I’d read your blog before I signed up for a months access to their site. It was useless. On the web page they claim you are a full member as soon as you pay money. When I returned to site after first hopeless encounter, they asked for another payment promising Full Membership (which I believed I already had) and the information if I paid – again! I didn’t pay again, but was unable to see the results of my query, as they covered most of the page with an ad for a further subscription I returned from a holiday a few weeks later to find they had taken another £8.95 from my account. Apparently there is a little conveniently ticked box somewhere on the site when you subscribe. It certainly was not on the page I was on!. I have complained to them – no personal reply as yet. I have complained to my bank.
9th March 2014 at 9:04 am
I am amazed that Forces war records are still conning us -I searched for 3 generations -5 members of the McConnell-Wood clan-and got 1 possible connection. Can’t be that many of us around.
When I realized what was going on, I found the tick box and cancelled-after a lot of butt saving excuses.
9th March 2014 at 12:27 pm
Update: I complained to the advertising standards authority who said they had already been investigated and they were satisfied that the site was adhering to their standards now. Unbelievable attitude from those supposed to protect the paying public. I also wrote to Graham Stringer my local MP who brought it to the relevant ministers attention. I think they are more interested in the Driving licence application scam sites than this one which is a scam but a legal one.
The law needs to be strengthened in cases like this one. In the meantime we have to police them ourselves and let as many people as possible know about the sting in the tail of Forces war records scam merchants.
Auto renewing without authorisation needs to be outlawed.
9th March 2014 at 12:34 pm
addition. The reason they had been investigated by the Advertising Standards authority was due to the way they use their crafty method to entice you to pay by showing lots of dimmed out writing which is supposed to be relevant to your search. When you pay there is usually no such extensive information at all. Merely a medal record in most cases.
10th March 2014 at 12:41 pm
Jon
Which comment are you referring to?
Not mine I hope as I have a genuine grievance against this company and have written replies from The Advertising Standards Authority AND Graham Stringer which I can forward to you if you like?
I am based in Manchester by the way.
29th March 2014 at 4:55 pm
Nooooo Mark, those weren’t replies to your comments… but you can see what happened with a few early commenters from what I said in my reply! Yes, the company itself was placing comments on my blog, and complaining to my ISP from the same IP addresses. Then they got their solicitors to write me a threatening letter citing the very comments the company had planted! Bullies never impress me… I dealt with far too many at school to ever be bothered by them again. Silly buggers. 🙂
In the meantime I’ve switched on threaded comments which clears up the context of my replies nicely.
10th March 2014 at 12:44 pm
https://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2013/2/Forces-Reunited-Ltd/SHP_ADJ_211686.aspx
16th March 2014 at 7:20 am
I have jut read this blog with interest as I am about to subscribe.
For all of those of you disappointed at not finding your on records, I’m summing they informed you when you contacted them service records post 1922 are still restricted and ONLY held by the MOD, and you will need to contact them to get them.
From their collections I do note they have other records post 1922 but not service records, neither will anyone else.
20th May 2014 at 11:54 am
I wish I’d come across this blog 2 days ago before I coughed up my cash.
I’m old enough, and should be wise enough, not to be taken in by these kind of sites;luckily I only signed for 1 month.
Other sites that charge, such as Ancestry, Findmypast etc, give a decent amount of images for you to see for yourself whether their the transcription is acceptable. Others like IGI don’t charge fees but still have some images you can access. FreeBMD’s transcriptions can be 100% checked against their images and they don’t even ask for membership let alone money! Yet this Forces crew want you to hand over your cash and trust their version of the records.
I’ve learned something new today – as you do.
8th June 2014 at 9:12 am
Please see this link on moneysavingexpert site
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4332219
It would be good to add your comments to that
8th July 2014 at 4:11 pm
Just came across this site.
I recently did subscribe to Forces War Records as they had a 70% off offer (related to 70 years since D-Day). This was thus £25 for one year, which seemed OK-ish, especially compared their regular £9 approx. a month! Anyway, having been able to log into the system, I’ve found like so many others above, that the data is either not there, or, if there is some data, there appears to be no way to validate that it is the person is the correct one. In fact, in order to do so, you would need to know the items of information that you trying to find out!! All in all a great disappointment – especially compared to Ancestry, which I’ve found very useful. I’ve now made sure that the “Autorenew” setting is Off, so won’t waste more money next year.
8th December 2014 at 12:36 pm
I can’t believe there’s not been any other complaints about this company since Chris’s on July 8 this year. Really???????????????
2nd October 2014 at 8:23 pm
I’m helping someone out re a red dog tag from WW1. I couldn’t get further than the date the soldier died. I know his name rank and serial number and regiment, all I need to know is possibly the place where he died and his age and any next of kin. I’m not into paying £8.95 just for that one-off information. All those sites are a rip-off even Family search puts you on to Ancestry who are the worst for asking for money. I’ve also tried Commonwealth War Graves Commission who used to be free but not now. Spitting mad really. How can they say their site is free, then they ask you for money. I backed out of Mocavo too because of that. It’s too expensive to do a family search nowadays.
31st October 2014 at 8:04 pm
I requested in August this year to take advantage at the price of £5 to have access to records of my grandfathers army service . Since checking my September and October bank statements I have found two unauthorised deductions of £8-95 by Forces War Records. I will endeavour to have this situation put right with a complete reimbursement of money’s. I will also add that I gained no new knowledge about my grandfathers service. I will no longer avail myself to any other such appalling service.
15th November 2014 at 11:52 am
This outfit is a joke, I’ve tried contacting them after my 1 month subscription seemed to continue rolling over to another payment… I’ve tried contacting them via email several times … No response … I can’t find a telephone number to call them on so that I can complain direct… Oh and when I log in I apparently don’t have an account… How very convenient!!! Rip off website, stay clear!!!
23rd March 2015 at 7:34 pm
Subscribed for what I thought was one month after seeing tantalising information regarding my fathers service in RAF, paid for one month, received the information which transpired my father had given them (Freely I’m sure) on a previous occasion, oh well that’s life. Oh no, they kept taking unauthorised payments, sent an e-mail, no response, cancelled, no that didn’t seem to work either, now instigated full refund with bank and sent another e-mail which I’m sure will go unanswered again (too late anyway). I wonder how many people simply don’t know or can’t get the payments stopped, good game on their part and surely unethical.
25th April 2015 at 12:35 am
I was researching an uncle killed in World War 1. When I checked this site there was his name and HIs Infantry Company so I signed up.
I paid for one month with option to cancel.
When I got on the site It would give me no information
and no option to cancel as they said I could.
I have called the bank and will dispute the charge and
they have stopped any future payments.
Definitely a scam and a company to stay away from.
Barbara Watson
5th May 2015 at 3:17 pm
Tried to cancel monthly subscrition ended up paying yearly subscription. Mystery to me. Tried to contact them but website kept coming up “Not Responding” Scam do you thimk?
27th July 2015 at 4:07 pm
Was seriously thinking of subscribing as get E mails from them every couple of days.However after reading the dozens of comments from unhappy subscribers I have decided against it.
Thanks for all your comments & I hope you manage to get refunds. Good Luck.